About the escape room
This escape room was created for a subject in the Game Design Master. It was designed to be completed in 30 minutes and by 2 to 3 players where they are tasked with escaping a sci-fi themed time loop or risking to get stuck in it forever, guided by a cryptid audio message from the future where they met their initial doom.
Escape Room Structure
The game area was divided into 4 rooms, each locked by an email whose password players must figure out. In order to do this they need to go through a sequence of physical and digital puzzles utilizing UV lights, codes, and hints, find the combination for locks, and decode/navigate maps.
Room 1
- Players reach the mission folder, find the UV flashlight, and decode the first computer login information
Room 2
- Players find blueprints that indicate codes on the chairs and the "stars in the ceiling" puzzle which will give the login information for the second computer.
- Find headphones necessary for the next room
Room 3
- Players find a puzzle contained in a celestial map which will guide them to the login information for the third computer
- Access to the "binary code" puzzle and the "clock puzzle" necessary to unlock the headphones to find the login information for the fourth computer
Room 4
- The players find the missing part of the password for the Main Station
Ending Point
- The players should realize hints that were present in all rooms (colored letter from each email) to crack the last password and escape the time loop
Puzzles
During the creation of this escape room, my contribution mainly was the creation of the physical puzzles and designing 3 of the puzzles. Bellow can be found a puzzle dependency chart explaining the general flow of the room and the things that players have access at each point.
Puzzle Dependency Chart
Mission Folder Puzzle
The Mission Folder is an object that the players have access to right at the beginning of the escape room, this folder contains a post-it with a cryptic message, a blackout cipher, a short story, a braille and a binary cipher, and written with a UV pen the login information for the first computer. This turned out to be a bit too much information for the player right at the beginning of the room, non the less this puzzle still managed to achieve the desired results.
With the first interaction with the Mission Folder players would find a short story about an astronaut that with the blackout cipher would direct them to the next puzzle (Blueprint and Stars in the Ceiling puzzle) and they need to find a flashlight near the first computer.
Upon finding the flashlights and batteries, players will be able to shine the light on the post-it and get the login information for the first computer. After unlocking this computer
Information available in the Mission Folder
Login information for Computer 1
Blueprint and Stars in the Ceiling Puzzle
After unlocking the first computer the players get access to a blueprint of the room locating the various workstations and where to find the following bit of puzzle that will allow them to move in the room, four pieces of paper under chairs. This can be deciphered with the braille cipher found in the Mission Folder.
After deciphering the clue the players are going to be directed to look at the stars, in this case, stars glued to the ceiling from where computer 1 is located all the way through computer 2. These stars contain the login information for the second computer, on some of the stars it will be necessary to shine the UV light to reveal the information.
Room Blueprint
Braille Puzzle
Binary Puzzle
This is the puzzle that unlocks the fourth computer, the major flaw of this puzzle is that it can't render the information received on the third computer useless if the players decide to explore the room and look under tables.
For this puzzle, players will need the binary cipher that can be found in the Mission Folder. The players will then be tasked with deciphering the binary text which will give them the login information for the fourth computer.
Binary Puzzle
