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FIND THE DIFFERENCE - THANKSGIVING SNACKS

FIND THE DIFFERENCES

So much holiday food, we don’t know where to start. More importantly, we don’t know where to stop. So, we’ll just sit at this table and graze for a bit.

Can you find all the differences in these images of a tasty Thanksgiving Snack Table (there are five).

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HOW MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF PUZZLES ARE THERE IN AN ESCAPE ROOM?

We all know an escape room is a themed environment filled with puzzles, but how do we know what the puzzles are once inside the room? In our years of game and puzzle design, we have found there are many different types of puzzles, and knowing what some of these are can be of great help once inside the game. Here are the types of puzzles you might encounter in an ESCAPE! Alaska Theme-Park-Quality Escape Room™.

DISCOVERY

When you first enter an escape room, the best thing you can do is investigate and inspect everything in the play space. This can be made a bit more difficult because you are likely to find at least a puzzle or two that will attract your attention.

LOGIC/PATTERNS

Looking for - and finding - patterns is one of those things that makes you feel extra smart. Patterns and logic puzzles are often the most difficult parts of an escape room, so don’t feel like you have to solve them all on your own; get the rest of the team in there to help!

LIGHT

Light-based puzzles can include black light, red light, or even the plain light in the room casting shadows.

SOUND

Sound can not only help you determine where in the space you need to be, but the sound itself could be a clue. It could be a sound effect or a radio, but anything you hear in an escape room is probably important.

MATCHING

Matching shapes, colours, items… this is where finding patterns comes in handy. “Hey! All these items have colours on them! Maybe that’s a clue.”

NAVIGATION

Whether navigating a maze with your hands or trying to get through a series of infrared lights with your entire body, navigation puzzles will really test your dexterity.

PERSPECTIVE

Have you seen those sidewalk paintings that look 3D? That’s a great example of perspective because they only look right from one specific angle. This is where that whole Discovery Phase in an escape room can really help.

RIDDLE

Riddles are fun, but can be tricky. That’s sorta their point. Here’s one of our favourites:

“I am the beginning of everything, the end of everywhere, the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space. What am I?”

(Answer at the end of this article)

MEMORY

Simon Says is probably the most recognized type of memory game, but any puzzle that tests your ability to repeat a pattern fits this type.

CIPHER

What’s that weird message on the wall? How in the world do we translate THAT!? Well, the key is likely in the form of a cipher, a small piece of paper, wood, or other device that shows you how to turn those alien letters in the English alphabet.

TEAMWORK

There are some puzzles that require multiple players to solve. Think the two keys that must be turned simultaneously to launch a nuke. Except with a bit more fun outcome.

ASSEMBLY

Basic jigsaw puzzle or more obscure shapes may need to be properly assembled.

HIDDEN MESSAGE

Sometimes the answer is right there in black and white., hidden in plain sight. You just have to find a way to reveal the message. (Standing on your head almost never helps- we tried.)

There’s not gonna be a test and you certainly do not need to memorize this list in order to play an ESCAPE! Alaska escape room, but if reading through this once helps you figure out a single puzzle, we’ll call that a win.

The answer to the riddle is “the letter e.”

FIND THE DIFFERENCES - SVEN THE BARTENDER

FIND THE DIFFERENCES

Decorating our lobby for Halloween is something we look forward to all year, and one of our favourite “people” to work with is Sven, The Dead Bartender. See if you can find all seven differences in these two images of Sven. To check your work, just scroll down.

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FIND THE DIFFERENCES - PSL SEASON

FIND THE DIFFERENCES

It’s not quite cold yet, but Fall does officially begin on the 23rd of this month, and we want to be ready for all things pumpkin at the first sign of breath in the air.

Can you find all the differences in these pumpkin spice latte images (there are six). Bonus points if you’re drinking a PSL while playing.

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MORTY

No, we’re not talking about one of the characters on a popular cartoon, this is an app for escape room enthusiasts!

Morty will not only help you find the best escape rooms when you travel, it will connect you with other enthusiasts.

Keep track of the rooms you play and rate them!

It’s a fantastic resource whether you’re a casual player, or you’re the type who books your escape room adventure before booking your hotel when you’re on the go.

You can download Morty here.

HYGGE

It’s not used often, probably because it’s a ridiculous-sounding word to pronounce, but the Danish word Hygge (pronounced “HOO-guh”) represents a state that is most definitely not ridiculous.

Hygge: The state of being cozy and comfortable, spending time being quiet and soaking it in.

Of course, this spot-on describes our love of Fall, being inside with warm socks, roaring fire, hot cocoa, and frost on the golden orange leaves outside. It’s much easier to be “cozy” when it’s cold out.

Where do escape rooms fit into your hygge agenda? Well, our lobby is designed with just that aesthetic, and if you visit in September-November, even moreseo! Grab a latte on the way over and show up early, then just hang out and chat with friends and family before playing your game!

FIND THE DIFFERENCES - 4TH OF JULY COOKOUT

There’s loads of options when it comes to dressing a burger or hot dog for your 4th of July cookout!

Can you find all six differences in these images of our 4th of July picnic table?

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YOUR BIGGEST ENEMY IN ESCAPE ROOMS

TLDR: Don’t guess in an escape room. It’s an enormous waste of time (and really not very fun).

No, your biggest enemy in an escape room isn’t the clock. Your biggest enemy is “just trying something.”

“Giving something a shot.”

Predicting. Speculating. There’s a lot of ways to wrap the word 'GUESSING,’ but no matter how you spell it, it means trouble in the escape room.

Don’t get us wrong, we’ve done it, too, but the single worst strategy in an escape room is trying to guess or “happen across” the answer.

Why is guessing such a bad idea? It’s not against the rules, so how could it hurt to just… try something?

While it’s possible to open a lock or find a hidden passageway with this tactic, the probability you will be successful is about 1 in 10,000. In short, it would require more time than you have to cycle through even a reasonable amount of possibilities. Ultimately, after many unsuccessful attempts at guessing, you will have to settle in and solve the puzzle before you. This is more fun, infinitely more satisfying, and it will help you complete the room faster!

That, combined with the fact that professional escape room puzzles are designed specifically to prevent guessing, means you’re better off identifying puzzles and trying to work them out with your brain, rather than grabbing a prop and rubbing it on everything to see what it might do.

Here’s the 3 Step Process we would recommend you follow for your best chance at success in an ESCAPE! Alaska escape room.

IDENTIFY THE PUZZLE

Once you find something that needs to be solved, try to discover the process for solving it. A well-designed escape room will provide the answers to those who pay attention. For example, we have had players reach over an item they had not even looked at to ask for help, when the answer was on the item.

WORK ON SOLVING THE PUZZLE

Remember, you have to solve a puzzle in your brain before you can do it in the real world. If your’e trying to physically do something and you couldn’t quickly explain why, you’re guessing.

A player may discover what needs to be done, but be unable to complete the puzzle on their own. Bring in another team member and show them what you’ve learned so far. If you complete as much of a puzzle as appears to be possible and it’s still not giving you anything, move on! You may need to discover another element later in the game to complete that puzzle.

COMPLETE THE PUZZLE

Following through on the process for solving a puzzle should lead you to its answer. If you and your teammates still find a particular puzzle too challenging, this is where it would be good to ask for help. We all want to do as much as possible on our own, of course, but there is no shame in asking for a little nudge in the right direction. Fewer than 4% of teams complete THE TOMB with no hints, and that number is much smaller in our NOIR escape room.

We completely understand the compulsion to guess when playing an escape room, being guilty ourselves, but we’ve learned that the whole of the experience is much more satisfying and fun when we spend our time trying to solve the puzzles instead. Plus, it makes you look cooler.

FIND THE DIFFERENCES - DETECTIVE MILLER'S VIEW

FIND THE DIFFERENCES

In NOIR, you’ll be helping Detective Ed Miller solve a high profile Chicago murder. One perk of this job is that you’ll spend time in Ed’s 5th floor office digging up evidence, and Ed has quite the view. Okay, it’s not a great view, but it does have that gritty downtown Chicago feel.

Can you find all the differences in these images of the buildings you can see out Ed’s window?

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FIND THE DIFFERENCES - ANKHE-KHUNSU

FIND THE DIFFERENCES

ESCAPE! Alaska’s THE TOMB is the final resting place of ancient Egyptian High Priest Ankhe-Khunsu. Though, it doesn’t feel as if he’s gone entirely. He’s always messing with your mind.

Can you find all the differences in these images of the High Priest’s sarcophagus? As with the puzzles in his tomb, some are obvious while others are more difficult. There are six in total.

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BUILDING WITH AI

When designing a new escape room, we go through hundreds of hours of research, learning as much as we can about the space in which our new room will take place. There’s also loads of photos to review and, of course, we watch a lot of movies on the topic (some historical, some just for fun).

Now, with the accessibility of Artifical Intelligence (AI), you can easily create artwork, write code, and complete tedious homework. Or get inspiration for the look and feel of your next escape room.

The above image was one AI result when we asked for a picture of “interior Old West saloon.”

We enjoy the design process way too much to ever give it over completely to AI, but it is fun to see what sort of inspiration it can offer.

It’s a lot of fun to play around with! We use NightCafe. Click around and give it a try!

HOW TO BE A GREAT ESCAPE ROOM PLAYER

Everyone has their own process for working out puzzles, and in escape rooms we see them all! There are a few basic tips and practices, however, that can help anyone achieve a higher level of success in these games, and we’ve posted them for you here. Most of these are very short reads, so it’ll be no time before you’re the best escape room player you know! Your friends will be impressed.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU FIND A LOCK (HINT: DON’T TRY TO OPEN IT!)

AVOID BRINGING YOUR OWN RED HERRINGS

ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION WHEN YOU’RE STUCK

WHEN TO ASK FOR HELP IN AN ESCAPE ROOM

WHAT TO DO WHEN THE HELP DOESN’T HELP

COMMUNICATION

HOW NOT TO OVERTHINK

HOW SLOWING DOWN HELPS YOU GO FASTER

OUR COMMITMENT TO IMMERSION

Immersion is "deep mental involvement," and that's exactly our goal at ESCAPE! Alaska. Putting you not just in a game, but in another place, another time... putting you in an adventure and getting your brain to buy in as much as possible. Escape rooms lacking immersion is one of the reasons we became interested in the industry. Of all the places we had played, in big cities and small, there seemed to be a gap between what we hoped a room would be like (based on its online description) and the actual experience of it.

So, in 2016 when we set out to develop our first room, THE TOMB, it wasn't enough to simply put some hieroglyphs on an office wall, we wanted every bit of the room, every puzzle, and the hint delivery to all fit the story. To that end, we engaged in months of researching ancient Egyptian lore, gods, their culture, their language, and present-day archaeology. We wanted our version of a long-hidden tomb to be as historically accurate as possible, while first and foremost being a fun and engaging game. Once those requirements were satisfied, we then set about introducing a bit more Hollywood - what would be really cool in the room that would make it feel like you were in an adventure film? The end result: an escape room experience some players have called "the most immersive" they've seen anywhere.

Fast forward two years and we were jumping into development for our second room, NOIR, an escape game set in a 1935 Chicago detective's office. More research. What did the furniture of the time look like? Light switches? Office equipment? Which technologies were available during that era? We can't have a flat screen monitor in the room with your game timer, and you won't find an ipad to deliver your hints. Again, we are first committed to creating the best game we can, followed only slightly by an accurate environment.

This room, however, wouldn't feel like you're just in a building in the 30s... this escape room would immerse you in a detective noir murder mystery MOVIE from the post-depression years.

Which means it's entirely in black and white. Grayscale, to be precise.

Now, in addition to building a set and populating it with period appropriate props and furnishings, there also can't be a drop of color in anything. And most tech has to be disguised or completely hidden, because it didn't exist. It may sound daunting, but we live for this stuff! Since we don't ever get to play the games, the puzzles we get to solve are... designing the puzzles. Deciding how to build, furnish, and light the set, picking just the right music, and designing sound effects that all add to your immersion and the fun of the game, that's all part of the puzzle we get to put together.

Our first piece of set decoration for NOIR is a plant, and it looks amazing in varying shades of gray. We can’t wait to put it in the room, and we can’t wait to put you in there with it.

ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION WHEN YOU'RE STUCK

It happens to all of us - you’re in an escape room and you feel you’ve made a little progress, when suddenly: you’re stuck. You don’t know what to do next and you’re starting to think you need to ask for help.

Having watched thousands of games, we can say with certainty that this happens often when a group had been on the verge of figuring out a puzzle that would allow them to move forward. So, what happens that stops them? A couple of things.

1- There’s little to no communication in the group, so no one knows what has been tried and what hasn’t.

2- Basic discovery hasn’t been performed on the room and its props.

3- Team members often focus on what they want to solve, not what can be solved.

The result? The wheels come off the problem-solving ability of even the most capable groups, and they start down imaginary rabbit holes, wasting valuable time in the game. To avoid this pitfall, go back to the beginning and make sure you didn’t miss one critical detail. When you’re fairly certain no clues have eluded you, ask yourself this important question:

What has the room presented to me that I haven’t used?

You may have parts of puzzles that you are not ready to complete, but there’s likely also something you’ve overlooked. We’ve seen professional escape room players stop and inventory what all they have that clearly needs to be solved, then focus on those items. It makes for some very impressive runs where you would swear they had played the room before. It’s also important to distinguish between what the room has given you to work on and what you think might possibly be a puzzle - in an ESCAPE! Alaska game, it will be obvious.

WHAT TO DO WHEN THE HELP DOESN'T HELP

WHEN THE HELP DOESN’T HELP

About 97% of all groups need some help when playing an escape room at ESCAPE! Alaska. There’s no shame in asking for a hint or two!

The reasons a group could require a helpful nudge are numerous, and only occasionally is it due to the actual difficulty of the game before them; more often than not, it’s simply players getting in their own way.

Nowhere is this more clear than when a group reaches out for help, receives a hint, then ignores the message entirely, choosing instead to work on something else. In somne cases, groups will even declare the help was not at all helpful (because it wasn’t what they wanted). Keep in mind the hints are coming from someone who knows everything there is to know about the room and all its hidden secrets, including which puzzle is most important to you at that moment. If the Game Director offers a hint, it’s best to consider that the most important thing you could be working on in the room at that time.

Time allowing, we like for groups to get to see the solution to all puzzles in each of our games, but it’s way more fun to figure them out on your own.

And that is more likely if you pay close attention to any help sent your way.

Want more Escape Room Tips? Try these helpful hints from our HOW TO BE A BETTER ESCAPE ROOM PLAYER series.

DISCOVERY - Do this in the first 60 seconds you’re inside an escape room.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU FIND A LOCK (HINT: DON’T TRY TO OPEN IT!)

AVOID BRINGING YOUR OWN RED HERRINGS

WHEN TO ASK FOR HELP IN AN ESCAPE ROOM

WHAT TO DO WHEN THE HELP DOESN’T HELP

COMMUNICATION

HOW NOT TO OVERTHINK

HOW SLOWING DOWN HELPS YOU GO FASTER

WHAT'S IN THE JAR!?

One of the reasons we chose to do an ancient Egyptian tomb for our first escape room is that the history, the culture, and the lore of that civilization 3,000 years ago is wildly fascinating. One of many examples is the mummification process.

During the ritual of embalming, the ancient Egyptians would remove the internal organs of the deceased, and place them in one of four canopic jars. These jars typically had a different god’s head for each organ, representing different strengths in the afterlife.

The priests would place the stomach, intestines, lungs, and liver in the jars representing Anubis, Ra, Thoth, and Osiris, respectively. The heart was usually left in the body, as it was viewed as the center of a person’s being. The brain? Nobody needs that, so they would slip a hooked instrument up through the nose, stir the brain around, and pull it out through the nostrils.

It’s probably for the best, though. If they had kept the brain and used a fifth jar, it would have really messed with one of our puzzles.

BOB'S BURGERS MOVIE REVIEW

As fans of the FOX cartoon about a family scraping by in their pop and mom burger joint, we were both excited and trepidatious when the BOB’S BURGERS movie was announced. What could they possibly do with the lovable middle class family living above their tiny restaurant that would warrant a full length film?

As it turns out, the writers found a premise that works nicely in a 102 minute runtime, but the biggest surprise was the animation. No, it’s not over the top nor is it distracting, but the animation style is clearly more movie quality than the usual weekly television version.

Everything you love about BOB’S is in the movie, from the changing names of the neighboring business and pest-removal van out front, to the custom burger on the chalkboard inside, but the coolest surprise was how they made the movie… a musical.

BOB’S BURGERS has always had a little ditty at the end of the episodes, based on that show’s plot, but the movie really lets them stretch their songwriting legs and the songs are… well done.

Possibly one of the most compelling points in the movie is learning the history of Louise’s pink bunny hat; in true BOB’S fashion it’s as heartwarming as it is revelatory. As to whether or not it comes off at some point… you’ll have to watch to find out.

The only place the show felt lacking was Gene’s part - the quirky little showman seemed a bit underused, but he was still there to provide his usual unexpected conversational twists.

There’s nothing really more outrageous in this show than you might find in the shorter weeklies, but it does what you want a BOB‘S BURGER movie to do - it gets our hero family through trying times and spits them out on the other side, still scraping by but doing it as a family and being thankful for the life they share.

THE BOB’S BURGERS MOVIE is now streaming on HBO Max and Hulu.

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