Go somewhere, pay money and then escape.
On paper it sounds pointless, but in reality escape rooms are a growing trend for people looking for a fun way to spend an hour or so.
Casper’s Aaron Bruder hopes to get in on the escape action with escape307, his new escape room located at 4010 S Poplar in the Sunrise Shopping Center.
“It’s kind of a newer fad but they’re popping up all over the place,” said Bruder, who discovered his first escape room while on vacation with his brother Casey a couple of years ago.
After the trip, Casey decided to convert a failing business space in Rock Springs into an escape room. After its continued success, Aaron had decided to bring the concept to Casper.
The concept of an escape room is simple. A group of friends are put into a room filled with props and are given a premise. They must then find and use clues to put together a mental puzzle, ultimately resulting in finding a key or combination that allows escape.
“We’ll have two rooms, currently we’re looking at a six-month cycle before one gets replaced,” said Bruder. One room is currently ready while Bruder finishes work on the second, larger room. “One will be a more family-friendly, easier one while the other will be more challenging.”
The first room now open has a celestial theme with stars, moons and planets. The second room will contain a western theme.
Bruder put his degree in science education to use in designing the celestial room. “I kind of wanted to do a more science-related theme,” said Bruder. “The astrological signs on the ceiling are accurate. I don’t necessarily want to make them educational, but it’s something I wanted to do because it’s something I studied.”
The rising popularity of escape rooms means that complete kits are available for purchase.
“We thought that would take the fun out of it,” said Bruder about the prefab kits. “Everything here is original. We build everything, and we design all the puzzles ourselves.”
“From conception to completion it changes a lot,” says Bruder about designing the challenges. Sometimes you have ideas that sound good but don’t actually work, or some of them don’t makes sense to anyone but you.”
Another challenge in designing the puzzles is a difficulty level.
“It is that balance of making it challenging but not frustrating,” said Bruder. “We did have to change one puzzle in here because we thought it would take people longer, but every test group we had figured it out in like two-minutes.”
If a group gets stuck along the way, they get three “free” hints during the challenge with a time limit of one hour.
“I have a lot of ideas for rooms and a lot of puzzle ideas,” said Bruder, who says he’s compiled stacks of notes with ideas.
“We already have plans for what we’ll do for Halloween, and one for Christmas,” said Bruder.
escape307 is currently open by appointment. Cost is $25 per person with a minimum of two people and maximum of six people. Military and students are $20, and $15 for ages 10-18. They can be reached on their Facebook page or by calling (307) 277-6353.
