Do you want to play a game?

geekologymag
Dec 4, 2014
4 min read

By William Alcopra

...I was blindfolded and handcuffed in a pitch-black room. Our team had been sent deep behind enemy lines on a top-secret mission and we have had 50 minutes to accomplish it. Separated into two groups, we began our assignment...

...Using a vintage Morse key, my teammate Sandra and I sent the other team a message in Morse Code (instructions for them to escape from where they were). We didn’t know if they got the message, but we had to get out of the handcuffs...

...Scanning the room with our flashlight, we found a book on the floor and a canteen hanging on a hook. After several minutes, we managed to lasso the book with some rope. Inside the book were keys to unlock the handcuffs. The canteen had a key in it too. We tried the key on the padlock, but it didn’t work; the other door had a combination lock. We were stuck and didn’t know how to get out...

What you just read is the beginning account of the Geekology team’s experiences with the Liberty Squad scenario at BreakOut Team Adventures Inc. located at 705 Progress Ave.

BreakOut Adventures is one of at least seven companies offering Torontonians “real life room escape games.” A real life room escape game is an experience where you work with a team of people to solve various puzzles and escape a locked room (or series of rooms) in order to achieve an objective. In this case, to accomplish a top secret mission in Second World War. Or to escape from cannibals who plan to eat you, in others.

Steven Jie, 20, CEO of BreakOut Adventures, started the company after playing an escape game in China. “I just thought it was a really cool idea. So after playing it, (I felt) ‘wow, this is such an amazing experience,’” Jie said. “When I came back to Toronto, (I wanted) to play more of this, but unfortunately, there wasn’t any (at the time).”

Currently, there are about seven different companies in the GTA offering real life room escape games. The Geekology team was able to experience escape games at three of them: BreakOut Adventures, The Great Escape and Mystery Room.

When Jie arrived back from China, there was only one company offering room escape in the GTA, Adventure Rooms in Hamilton. “Then I thought, maybe we should open one up for those who didn’t want to drive the two hours or who doesn’t have a car or who’s too busy,” he said. “We just want to provide this service to Torontonians and the GTA. Not only do we want to bring it here, we want to improve upon the concept and make it better (to) keep pushing this industry forward.” the concept and make it better (to) keep pushing this industry forward.”

...Despair and loss. We didn’t know what to do next. Then I heard voices. Sandra did too. They belonged to Hassan and Paolo, our squadmates. They were on the other side of the door and we had each other’s keys...

According to Jie, the Liberty Squad scenario is vastly different from the game he experienced in China. The game in China was a very small one-room or two-room scenario.

“That was very exciting. You’re trying to get out. You’re feeling you’re stuck. It’s exciting,” he said. “So we thought, ‘Let’s just take it to the next level.’” BreakOut features a 1,000-square-foot, multi-room scenario, Liberty Squad, with special effects and gadgets designed and built by a team of designers with over 30 years of experience in the special effects industry.

Joe Burton also saw the popularity of the escape game in China when he visited. He thought to himself that he’d like to bring escape games to Toronto and North America. He thought it would be popular here. He founded Mystery Room, located at 422 Dundas St. W., in March. “I was so very pleased with the positive response.”

...I was really happy to see them after we got our keys to the appropriate locks. The solution to the combination lock was elusive. We knew we were running out of time...

Ryan Hu, 36, chief operations officer for BreakOut Adventures, noted the difficulties they faced in the beginning. “It’s pretty different (between) playing the game and now you’re creating a game for customers,” he said. “They’re two totally different feelings.”

He described the difference between eating a cake and making the same cake from scratch.

...We stormed the last room. There’s a safe, a desk, a bookshelf and a locked door. Without a word, we fanned out searching for the few clues between victory and defeat. Four minutes left...

To those that don’t make it, Hu “calls them all champions.”

...The safe is open. It has the last clue. Two minutes...

“The point of the game is that escaping is not the only point of the game,” Jie said. “I think we make it more – so that people enjoy working with each other and that they become better friends at the end.”

...We left the final room with heads bowed in defeat.