Wikipedia says that 2006 is the earliest reference point for the development of real-world games where people are locked in a room and must make an effort to explore the environment around them, find clues to escape the room.
However, in order to understand how these escape rooms, known even today, were created, we have to look back to the world of computer games of the 90s. Because the inspiration came from these games, which took place in a virtual world and you had to move from room to room by clicking the mouse, find clues to get out, or solve a crime.
From there, I will begin to present the history of escape rooms from the starting date when the actual escape companies started doing business.
How did it become a successful industry, what stages of development did it have, and what new opportunities do release games have for the future?
The same year the iPhone was released - 2007 - Japan's SCRAP Entertainment started after its founder Takao Kato saw a classmate playing an online game that required him to click around the room to find clues and objects that would help him unlock the room. door. After that, Kato became curious about the possibility of translating the concept of the game into real life. He then began to develop the concept, which can be considered the predecessor of the escape rooms that are still known today.
At the same time, a very similar concept appeared in Silicon Valley in the United States, which, in addition to the game created in Japan, is often called the great-grandfather of escape rooms.
The difference was that while Kato was inspired by the computer games of the 90s, the American game was heavily influenced by Agatha Christie's crime novels.
In the Silicon Valley game, you typically had to commit some kind of murder or crime to escape.
The next big chapter can be set for the beginning of the 2010s. In Hungary, the first domestic escape room (ParaPark) started operating in Budapest in 2011. In the following years, various small and large escape rooms appeared like mushrooms in the capital, and it was from here that the escape room concept, which is still well known today, began to conquer the world. The Time Trap was also launched in this initial period, first with the Psychopath Killer track, and then, encouraged by the initial success, with the other tracks one after the other.
The essence of the concept is that the escape room has become a year-round business that operates several rooms. With this explosion, Budapest is considered the global capital of knockout games. In addition to sightseeing, foreigners like to visit ruin pubs and such authentic exit games.
In this way, liberation broke into the domestic tourism industry and has played a decisive role in tourism for years. One of the favorite pastimes of foreign and domestic youths is to lock themselves in teams of 5-6 people to an unknown place, where they can get out by solving logic and skill tasks, while playing as a team and having fun.
After that, rooms based on a similar concept began to appear in more and more countries in Europe and throughout the world. In addition to France, England, Switzerland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, a significant number of escape rooms have already been established in the countryside in Hungary, indicating that this is a sought-after form of entertainment.
In addition to the past, it is also worth talking about the future. The period of the pandemic has fueled the idea of renewing escape games. More and more online escape rooms are appearing in Hungary in response to the virus situation. In addition, there have been games where the teams have to go around the city solving tasks, looking for clues, and wrapping up a specific case. In this game mode, players use their phones to process/solve clues and puzzles. This should be imagined in an augmented reality, where we can explore the details of the game with the phone's camera. Very similar to the popular phone game Pokemon Go. However, this version is still in its infancy and it is not known whether it will eventually succeed in gaining great popularity, but it clearly defines that in the future IT technology and smart devices will perhaps be the ones that can develop the escape room of the future.