First
seen on: https://lockacademy.com/en/history-and-origin-of-escape-games/
The origin of Escape Games comes from video games called “Escape Room” or
“Escape Game”. The player has to solve riddles by interacting with his
surroundings in order to escape from a room and access the next level. The
first video game of Escape Rooms, Crimson Room, was out in 2004. Toshimitsu
Takagi was its maker. The term Takagim will appear to designate this type of
games.
It was the Japanese company SCARP, in 2007,
that chose to create the concept of Live Room Escape. Takao Kato, its founder,
wanted to stage the players in a themed room where they had to solve riddles in
order to escape from it in a defined period of time (usually one hour). The
history of escape games was then developed in the rest of Asia, before arriving
in Europe. In Chine, the “Beijing Takagism Club” was founded in 2012.
Budapest, in Hungary, was the first city in
Europe to create a Live Escape Game. Indeed, in 2011, the company Parapark was
born. Its founder, Attila Gyurkovics, had the idea to open a Live Escape Game
without the knowledge that they were already well developed in Asia. He was
working on a new Team Building activity. One year later, the origin of escape
games continued with the first franchise in Hungary: Hint Hunt. The same year,
SCRAP opened the first Escape Game in the United States, under the name “Real
Escape Game”. Hint Hunt was quickly brought to England, and then in France in
2013. 2013 is also the year when the history of escape games started in Canada.
Today we count 367 escape rooms in France,
with more than 64 Escape Games in Paris throughout 20 firms. Following Hint
Hunt’s example, many rooms were opened from April 2014 to 2015. In fact, almost
10 news firms opened each month between April and June 2015. And the history of
Escape Games is far from being finished because new rooms open each week in
France!
Lock Academy arrived in the historic of Escape
Games in Paris, on the 10th of October 2015!
WHAT ARE THE INSPIRATIONS OF
ESCAPE GAMES?
We can see differences between Asian and
European rooms. In Asia, the Escape Rooms are more focused on competition,
whereas in Europe the clients are keen on immersion.
A great source of inspiration for Live Escape
Games is live role play. Those games ask the players to personify a character.
The players will interact with the others while pretending to be his character
in order to solve their mission. In a Live Escape Game, the players are in a
scene where they sometimes have to personify characters in order to escape
their room.
Treasure hunts also inspired Escape Games
because the players need to look for clues in a specific room.
The different themes of the escape rooms are
often inspired by movies or books. Other firms like Lock Academy chose to
create their own universe. Indeed, at Lock Academy you personify detective
apprentices and play in the unique rooms of the school in order to solve
mysterious investigations!
Are you ready to become real heroes and live
up to the challenge? Discover our
investigations!
Will you be the best detective?
