#escape difficulty

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TotW #16 - Difficulty - Seven-Segment Displays

This is the 16th Tip of the Week on real-life escape gaming (and our rating rubric). For today I'll look at the various ways seven-segment displays work their way into escape rooms. If you don't know what seven-segment displays are, click here.

One fairly common puzzle that can often stump players is the seven-segment display. I've come across them several times already, in the upside-down fashion. The interesting thing about upside-down seven-segment displays are that they can easily form words. For example, h could represent a 4, E could represent 3, etc. Words like BELL could be 7738.

However, if the word BELL was written on a wall, it would not immediately occur to the player that the word needs to be flipped. In such cases a clue is usually provided hinting at the necessary procedure. Nonetheless, sometimes a string of letters written in a very angular form may give the answer away. Look also for the lowercase 'h' embedded in capital words because that is a big hint (it's not just badly written!).

Also, pay extra attention to words formed out of only the following letters: O, I, Z, E, h, S, q/g, L, B and b/G (in order from 0-9) and especially if Z/S are written in the seven-segment style.

Besides the upside-down puzzles, there are also the overlay puzzles where multiple different sets of the seven segments are overlaid on each other, usually adding up to a number. For these, there is usually an indication of how the sets of segments are to be mixed, whether by matching labels or other indicators like colour.

Such overlay puzzles are often also somewhat guessable since certain segments only allow certain numbers. For example, the bottom-left segment is only active in 2,6,8 and 0, and the middle segment is only inactive in 1,7 and 0. So, with one set of segments known some possibilities can already be ruled out.

Seven-segment display puzzles are usually not the most difficult of puzzles, but the upside-down ones may time quite some time to recognise. In such cases they may contribute to difficulty slighlty.

Stay tuned for more!

-xTheBHox

See a list of the past TotWs here.

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TotW #14 - T/D - Colour Puzzles

This is the 14th Tip of the Week on real-life escape gaming (and our rating rubric). This short one is about colours and colour puzzles.

One particular type of puzzle that seems to be popular with certain escape room providers is the colour mixing puzzle. In most cases, it involves mixing some primary colours with each other and with white/blank to obtain secondary colours or remain unchanged, thereby indicating a colour code as the clue.

More often than not, the colours come on transparent sheets, conveniently allowing you to mix colours by superimposing two sheets. As such, if you do find one transparent sheet with colours, expect another sheet, and look really hard for it. Even when they don't appear on transparent sheets, do check for pairs of matching colour sets if you only have one set, because chances are that you'll have to mix them.

The resulting set may give you numbers or letters corresponding to various colours. When this colour code is found, there are several possible things to try. Firstly, check the locks - some locks have coloured wheels, and some might have colours on them, but elsewhere. Also, you could try the first letters of the colours as the code on the lock. It's a long shot, but the number of letters in the colour words might also work.

It may also work the other way around: a four-colour code may be found first, and you may have many transparent colour sheets with other markings on them. As such, these can be superimposed according to the colour that you require, and more often than not, the other markings will add up to something meaningful.

That's it for today. Stay tuned for more, and do check out the Straits Times today (2 Jan) Life! section as there is a two page feature on escape games.

-xTheBHox

See a list of the past TotWs here.

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TotW #13 - E/D - Easily Overthought Puzzles

This is the 13th Tip of the Week on real-life escape gaming (and our rating rubric). This one is about the really simple puzzles that can easily be over-thought, leading teams to miss the most obvious answer just because they don't expect it to be so simple.

Sometimes, experience can be a disadvantage. Having gone through many escape rooms, certain solutions to a puzzle may be quickly overlooked as "too simply/rapidly solvable". However, when this turns out to be the answer, we may have already wasted a lot of time on other far more complicated methods.

As such, whenever there are unoccupied locks (locks with nobody attempting to open), someone should always be testing the obvious solutions. These "obvious" solutions may differ from person to person, so more than one person should try their hand at the lock. If nobody has any confident guesses, it's also good to just inform the guy on the lock to try whatever came to your mind.

When rating rooms, I tend to exclude over-thought puzzles because I think they make the puzzles feel more difficult than they actually are. As such, this is one of the reasons why even if time taken to escape is greater, it doesn't necessarily mean that the difficulty rating is higher. Engagement-wise, having puzzles are are so simple as to be over-thought tends to take away satisfaction from figuring out how to open them, reducing the engagement rating.

Nonetheless, to prevent your success from being denied by a deceptively complicated puzzle, it is important to just try. If you do come across the solution by accident, the game-masters are often nice enough to explain why you managed to open the lock that way, so don't be afraid to ask!

Stay tuned for more!

-xTheBHox

See a list of the past TotWs here.

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TotW #12 - Difficulty - Red Herrings

This is the (slightly late, sorry) 12th Tip of the Week on real-life escape gaming (and our rating rubric). This one is about red herrings, possibly the most irritating yet effective difficulty factor when it comes to escaping. Note from wikipedia: The idiom "red herring" is used to refer to something that misleads or distracts from the relevant or important issue (escaping).

Red herrings can be found in many rooms, and sometimes in large numbers. This is especially so in rooms that are decked out with removable decorations. With little idea of what is supposed to solve your puzzle, it becomes tough even to figure out the simplest of matching puzzles.

Red herrings have several different forms. Some are merely side-puzzles that don't help at all in the overall process. For example, a Rubik's Cube left as a prop probably isn't going to help you out (unless there are letters/numbers on it, which sounds like an idea, but I haven't encountered that yet). Other times, red herrings are used to prevent a you from figuring out the puzzle without the prior steps. For example, you might have an overload of numbers/letters from which you have to find four, which are indicated by another puzzle. Or a whole shelf of over a hundred keys from which you need one.

Decorations can become unintended red herrings as well. There have been countless times where I've thought the scrawling on paintings was something useful for us, wasting precious time deciphering them. I find this tends to happen when escape game providers renovate their premises and change their rooms, reusing clues as props and vice-versa.

In order to counter the threat of red herrings wasting too much of your time, never commit too many resources to one particular branch of thought. However, do not be afraid to follow through with a particular train of thought. Rather, to reduce the risk, split the team to work on different puzzles if they (players or puzzles) are available. Anyway, puzzles usually don't need more than two, or occasionally three people to complete.

Sometimes, it is important for multiple players to attempt a puzzle so multiple possible methods can be explored; what one person sees is often not the same as another. While it is important not to commit too many players on one puzzle if there are others available, simply sharing ideas also helps. As a side note, effective communication is one of the most important aspects of a successful escape especially in the harder rooms. Everyone thinks differently - what might seem like a missing link to you might not be so for someone else, while that someone might only see that link - and in this case sharing ideas will allow a quick solution.

Red herrings generally contribute to difficulty of a puzzle with diminishing return. The first few make it a lot harder and subsequently less and less harder.  Needless to say, the tastier herrings will contribute more. The harder the puzzles are, the higher the difficulty rating on rooms will be.

Stay tuned for more!

-xTheBHox

See a list of the past TotWs here.

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TotW #11 - E/D - Instructions on Data Processing

This is the 11th Tip of the Week on real-life escape gaming (and our rating rubric). This one is about instructions provided for raw data processing, which is crucial to the engagement provided by a room.

Some of the most dissatisfying puzzles suffer from a lack of instructions. In particular, puzzles that require the most arbitrary methods to solve really incite that 'ugh' feeling, even more so if a hint from the staff is (and most likely is) required. What might also make it worse are red herrings in close association with the raw data for the puzzle, or multiple puzzles possibly linked to the clues.

Although some effort is often put in to rectify such issues, these can often be too subtle. Instructions that are too subtle will fail to help, because then you will need even more instructions to tell you that it links to your puzzle in question, defeating its purpose in the first place.

Nonetheless, puzzles that have crystal clear instructions will be rather easy (though this says nothing about tedium, and so a long time may still be needed to finish it). Thus, balance is key. One or two levels of instructions sometimes works - the most direct instructions can be kept subtle, but the directions that tell players how to use these instructions must be more obvious or more easily deciphered. Otherwise, players will mostly only be able to figure it out by sheer fortune. There are also other ways to make puzzles harder besides making clue-puzzle links fuzzier.

Instructions don't always have to be explicitly written out. For example, in the case where there are many clues, puzzles, locks and red herrings, a similar logo on one clue and a corresponding puzzle would indicate to a player that they are related. (The level of subtlety depends on the size and location of the logo among other factors, of course.) However, keep in mind that unless this is related to the story or theme, methods of indication should be single-use only, especially in the same room. The second time it appears, it will be recognised in a flash. (This can also be exploited for red herrings.) 

Keep in mind also that nested instructions can both spoil and enhance (but mostly spoil) that Eureka! moment. Too many nested instructions will definitely force players to solve the puzzle in more steps than one and dilute that moment.

Since I began with the most dissatisfying, I'll end with the opposite. My most memorable puzzle solve has got to be in TEA's Da Vinci, which has now been replaced, so I suppose I get to reveal the puzzle. We were on the second puzzle (which IMO is the best position for the toughest puzzle). We needed the date of the robbery, but we couldn't seem to figure it out. There was a newspaper clipping regarding the abovementioned on which I searched multiple times for the date but to no avail. On what was the fourth or fifth time I looked at it (it is after all the typical place to find out a date) I realised that on the borders of the newspaper clipping were printed Christmas decorations - and I was right. It felt good.

-xTheBHox

See a list of the past TotWs here.

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TotW #10 - Difficulty - Letter Combination Locks

This is the 10th Tip of the Week on real-life escape gaming (and our rating rubric). This one is on letter combinations, mainly used to open letter combination locks.

Letter combinations locks seem to be fairly common in real escape rooms, especially those like the Master 1534D (the five letter custom wheel ones) or your typical four-wheel combo lock except with letters.

Due to the frequency that we come across these locks, it is possible to say that a good number of them will have a combination that actually forms a word. It's a simple way to determine if you got the right word from the previous puzzle (check out Monday's post as well). However, these locks sometimes make it rather simple to determine the right word without solving the puzzle.

Most letter combination locks only have about 10 or so letters on each wheel. With around 16 letters eliminated from each position, only so many words will remain. When players are required to pick a word from a list, good rooms will use wheels that permit most, if not all, possible answers (or use words that are permitted by the given wheels). Otherwise, it is simply a matter of elimination followed by brute force.

When options are not available, it is still possible to deduce the word answer. One important fact is that the answer is often thematically related to the room or the clue (this applies not only to locks, but to all word answers regardless of the answer input methods). If writing materials are available, listing the letters on each wheel and trying various permitted, thematically related words may result in the answer. If writing materials are not available, make a mental note of the vowels on the middle wheels and proceed from there, using the vowels as pivots.

Nonetheless, it is also possible that the right combination is not a word, so it's not wise to rely only on educated guessing. However, trying out some possible words may save you some time while the other 7 players on your team are crowding around the puzzle in question.

Thats it for today. Stay tuned for the Injustice review on Monday!

-xTheBHox

See a list of the past TotWs here.

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Difficulty - (Combination) Lock Combinations

This is part of our weekly series on different aspects of real-life escape gaming (and our rating rubric). This one is on combinations of combination locks, which mainly falls under difficulty.

So far, most of the locks I've opened in escape games don't reuse the combinations for a lock, with the exception of two (as far as I can recall offhand). Also, most locks don't require any brute force hacking methods to open, with the exception of two (similarly, as far as I recall). But it is important to keep an eye out for repeated combinations, because if you rule it out, it could waste a lot of time, or waste a hint completely.

As for brute force hacking methods, here are some values and ballpark timings to get you thinking:

Number of combinations for a 4-disc lock with 10 positions per disc: 10000 Number of combinations for a 4 disc lock with digits 0-9 per disc, combinations of distinct integers only: 5040 Probable time taken to enter 4 digits into the above combination lock: 0-15s Ways to permute 4 known distinct characters: 24 Time taken to permute 4 known characters on the above lock: 3-4min Ways to permute 3 known, distinct characters with one unknown character on the above lock: 240 (7-8min) Ways to permute three known, ordered characters with one unknown character: 40 (1-2min)

Number of combinations for a 3-disc lock with 10 positions per disc: 1000 Number of combinations for a 3-disc lock with 10 positions per disc, combinations of distinct integers only: 720  Probable time taken to enter 3 digits into the above combination lock: 0s-12s Ways to permute 3 known distinct characters: 6 Time taken to permute 3 known characters on the above lock: 30s-60s Ways to permute 2 known, distinct characters with one unknown character on the above lock: 60 (1-2min)

Number of combinations for a 5-disc lock with 10 positions per disc: 100000 Number of combinations for a 5-disc lock with 8 positions per disc: 32768 Number of combinations for a 5-disc lock with 6 positions per disc: 7776 Number of combinations for a 5-disc lock with 4 positions per disc: 1024

Number of combinations on a lock where four pieces out of 10 need to be depressed: 210 Probable time taken to depress, attempt to open and reset the above lock: 5-10s Time taken to attempt all possible combinations on the above lock: 15-20min Number of possible combinations when one digit is known: 84 (6-10min)

Number of apparent combinations on a 1500-series Master lock: 64000 Probable number of actual combinations on such a lock: ~2750 Number of actual combinations with one input value known, position unknown: ~590 Number of actual combinations with one input value and position known, ~200 Number of actual combinations with two input values known, positions unknown: ~90

Stay tuned for more!

-xTheBHox

Week 7 (A/E) - Hidden Rooms Week 6 (S) - Cryptic Clues Pt. 2 Week 5 (S) - Cryptic Clues Pt. 1 Week 4 (A) - Lighting Week 3 (D/E) - Searching Pt. 2 Week 2 (D/E) - Searching Pt. 1 Week 1 (T) - UV Light

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D/E - Searching for Clues (Pt. 2/2)

This is part of our weekly series on different aspects of real-life escape gaming (and our rating rubric). This one is on searching, which contributes to ‘difficulty’ and ‘engagement’. See Part 1

Camouflage: Sometimes, clues can be camouflaged with walls, doors, floors, mirrors, ceiling, windows etc. You'll want to look out for the strategically placed decorations/furniture/paintings/blood that is seemingly unnecessary or superfluous.

Sandwiched: You'll always want to move items/decorations, whether or not they look like there'll be anything behind them. More often than not, two items placed on top of/next to each other appear to have too little space between them to hide anything, so they get skipped over. But don't take the risk! Situations where I've noticed something but brushed it aside because it didn't look like it contained anything have come too often for comfort. Don't regret it when it's too late - shift everything you see! Even things with the yellow tape could contain stuff behind them or under them (the tape refers to the item itself, not moving it).

As for how much searching affects the ratings, this is it: Too much searching is usually no good (see Ghastly Melodies). Too little searching is okay, as long as there are other things to keep people occupied.

Better hiding places and more hidden stuff may contribute to difficultly slightly. If it takes up a reasonable amount of time (probably somewhere around a maximum of 25% of room time per player), engagement will be slightly positively affected.

When it is excessive, engagement will be somewhat negatively affected (because we can't find anything, and are bored) and difficultly much more positively affected (it will go up very quickly when it's hard to find anything or we can't find everything and we can't proceed without them).

That's it on searching, for now. Stay tuned for more!

-BHox

Week 2 (D/E) - Searching Pt. 1 Week 1 (T) - UV Light