The “True” Origin of Escape Rooms

1,000s of Escape Rooms in dozens of countries appear all over the world now, but what are they, and where did they come from?

An escape room, at its core, is basically an interactive Mystery Puzzle Game with the room itself as the primary game interface and that has a time limit. This differentiates escape rooms from at-home Mystery Puzzle games where the interface is physical props, books, and often online elements you access through a web browser or app and that generally can be done at your own pace. They are also different from computer and app puzzle games and escape rooms where the computer, phone, or game console is the primary game interface. Escape Rooms are one of the most recent branches on the Mystery Puzzle Game tree.

But first, an extremely abbreviated look at what led to the earliest escape rooms...Dungeons & Dragons.

Dungeons & Dragons, created in 1974 the pen-and-paper role-playing game where friends get together, roll up characters and with one friend being the “Dungeon Master” who controls the game, imagine themselves going on epic quests and dungeon delves, inspired many of the early computer games.

Around that same time, in the 1980s, Mystery Puzzle Games moved from magazines, newspapers, and books heavily into the computer game market, with Infocom text adventures and similar games that also drew their inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons.

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True Dungeon allows a group of adventurers (players) walk through a simulated Dungeon (rather like a haunted house), where they will fight monsters (using a shuffleboard combat mechanic), solve puzzles, and interact with props while they seek treasures. It is a 2-hour experience that uses a Dungeon Master (person in the room helping control the game) and became one of the most popular experiences at GenCon (one of the largest gaming conventions each year) and is now being played at multiple conventions each year! True Dungeon was created from the idea of Dungeon Master Jeff Martin, with help from Dungeon Forge owner Stefan Porkorny, and a collaboration with Peter Adkinson of Wizards of the Coast.(1) A class 41 trademark for TRUE DUNGEON was submitted March 20, 2003 by Jeff Martin and was first used on 24 Jul 2003. (4)

Then, on July 24th of 2003 at GenCon in Indianapolis, True Dungeon, the first live escape-room type game premiered...however it wasn’t marketed as an “Escape Room,” and didn’t have its origins directly from the computer escape rooms...it was more about being able to play Dungeons and Dragons live!

True Dungeon allows a group of adventurers (players) walk through a simulated Dungeon (rather like a haunted house), where they will fight monsters (using a shuffleboard combat mechanic), solve puzzles, and interact with props while they seek treasures. It is a 2-hour experience that uses a Dungeon Master (person in the room heping control the game) and became one of the most popular experiences at GenCon (one of the largest gaming conventions each year) and is now being played at multiple conventions each year! True Dungeon was created from the idea of Dungeon Master Jeff Martin, with help from Dungeon Forge owner Stefan Porkorny, and a collaboration with Peter Adkinson of Wizards of the Coast.(1) A class 41 trademark for TRUE DUNGEON was submitted March 20, 2003 by Jeff Martin and was first used on 24 Jul 2003. (4)

The first True Dungeon adventure at Gencon 2003 was TD1: “The Five Aspects.” True Dungeon was held on the 2nd floor of the Hyatt Regency Ballroom and ran from Thursday through Sunday.(5) The Dungeon had eight rooms. 300 slots were opened, with a cost of 7 generic tickets per slot.(5) Although around 500 played in this first ever escape room according to the official website.(1) It was a last minute event and was not in the convention book nor was available for pre-registration(5). However, it was listed on the website as of at least February 2003 (5), and was referred to as

“New to Gen Con Indy this year, True Dungeon is a d20 variant that allows players to experience their D&D adventure within a life-size, dungeon environment. Not a LARP, True Dungeon focuses on problem solving, teamwork and tactics while providing exciting sets and interactive props.

Players may find themselves creeping down a dark passageway and entering a long-forgotten crypt. After dispatching a lurking guardian, the players may have to solve a cryptic puzzle or find a secret door in order to gain a wondrous treasure chest -- a chest that might hold a shocking surprise if opened without care.”(5)

From this description one can easily see the Escape Room aspects, however it is still steeped in Dungeons & Dragons where characters can die, players can gain treasure for future adventures, and each player has a character sheet describing their character and abilities.

In 2004 True Dungeon returned, bigger and better than before! In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast (owners of D&D) sponsored and teamed up with True Dungeon to make an adventure firmly set in the D&D world of Greyhawk, in the classic module The Village of Hommlet!(7). True Heroes also debuted in partnership with Upper Deck, using some of the rules of their Marvel Superhero Trading Card Game.(6) In this game players were official Marvel characters and went against Marvel villains, while also solving puzzles and problems. (6) True Heroes could arguably be considered the 2nd escape room.

To get a feel as to the “Escape Room” feel of True Dungeon, here are a couple of the rooms from the 2004 event:

Room Three – The Imp Entrance

This room was really a creative problem solving exercise that was sort of disguised as a physical challenge. Some players said that there were less puzzles this year…when in reality many failed to see that this was actually a puzzle!

You were supposed to land a gem inside the pentagram…which is possible with a lucky throw. The “sleaze” or trick in this room was to use the two 10 ft. poles in the room to make a gutter-like device to slowly roll the gems onto the platform.

Several groups came up with other clever ways to get this done – including putting a gem inside a boot and tossing that onto the circle!

Room Four – The Octagon Room

This was a tough puzzle that had a simple solution – if you thought of it. Your basic choice was one of three archways, but two of the pictures above the archways could be spelled with the cubes (avian and shell). The trick was to drop the cubes in the pool of water…and allowing the letters A-V-I-A-N to always float to the surface. The cubes were especially rigged to do so.(8)

True Dungeon was influenced primarily through the idea of bringing Dungeons and Dragons to life with a mix of puzzles and combat and has been a huge success!

Four years after the premier of True Dungeon, and half-way around the world, in 2007, Takao Kato from Kyoto, Japan was trying to come up with a new event to host, and the girl sitting next to him said she was hooked on online escape room games. His response: “[S]o I just tried to make one.”(9) Real Escape Game came out of this thought process where large groups of players had to solve elaborate puzzles to escape a room that was set up in various locations as an event. Later Real Escape Game would make permanent escape rooms.

It does seem that Real Escape Game was independently created from the same zeitgeist as True Dungeon...the desire to make an event out of a game and turn it into a physical reality. One was from pen and paper games, and one from online puzzle games...one became a very successful niche product, while the other has become a worldwide phenomenon, but one that could learn from the other…however, both paths had their origins back in Dungeons & Dragons.

2004 also saw the opening of another experience that is not quite an escape room, but also feels similar and even closer then True Dungeon: 5 Wits. 5 Wits focuses more on the experience of the game but does contain some puzzles. It does not consider itself an escape room per se and seems to follow more along the lines of True Dungeon then the Escape Room phenomenon that would explode in the following years across Asia and then Europe, with the first opening in London and Hungary in 2012 (see future articles).

This leads to the first escape rooms in America.

The first full escape room in America was brought over by SCRAP where they put on the first “Real Escape Game” in San Francisco in 2012 on March 23rd for $20-$25.(12) “The Escape From the Werewolf Village” was the premier escape and was held in the Superfrog gallery in Japantown(12) at New People, at what is known as the J-Pop Center, which promotes Japanese popular culture. The Japanese escape rooms were adapted for America by Kazuya Iwata.(14)

In July of 2012, Real Escape Game SF presented, “Vol 2. The Crazy Last Will of Dr. Mad.” at the conference center of Building A in Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.(13) It was advertised as follows: “The game involves solving puzzles in order to get out of a locked room.”(13)

On December 14 of 2012, the first permanent escape room in America opened, it was REG’s Volume 1: Escape From the Mysterious Room. According to REG, no one escaped that day...

Opening in September of 2013, “Escape From Studio D” by Puzzle Break in Seattle, is America’s first escape room company. While it wasn’t the first escape room event, or even the first permanent escape room, it was the first owned and operated by an American company. Founder Nate Martin saw the success of escape rooms in Asia and Europe and decided to bring them to America.(10) The rooms became popular and they quickly expanded, and by September of 2014 gross revenue was about $30,000/month.(10)

In October 2013, the explosion had begun. Escape the Room “The Office” opened in New York City, soon to be followed by many, many more.

Escape the Room is a fun, interactive game taking place in New York City. While it looks like any other ordinary room, it’s actually a mystery puzzle. Find the hidden objects, figure out the clues and solve the puzzles to earn your freedom and “Escape the Room.” You have 60 minutes, so be quick! Come with your friends, family and coworkers and have a great time.(11)

One of the earliest (or possibly the first) newspaper articles on escape rooms was from The Fresno Bee, published on Jun 7, 2014. Written by Chris Suellentrop of the New York Times News Service, it discusses how escape rooms mix video games and the theater into a new type of entertainment.(14) The author claims the direct influence on escape rooms were the web browser games such as “Crimson Room” and iPhone apps like “Doors” and “Rooms.” He brought in quotes from Timothy Haskell of Trapped NYC and Kazuya Iwata of Real Escape Game.”(14) Iwata compares themselves to video game creators by saying, “‘We are coming from the puzzle side…[T]hey are coming from the theater.’” but that the goal is where the two cross.(14)

Escape rooms are an amazing blend of puzzles and immersive theatre. They pull their roots from their immediate predecessors of the escape room video games, which owe some of their heritage to 1980s and 1990s graphic puzzle adventures and the text adventures before them. Some of those games owe their heritage to Dungeons & Dragons and then to the desire to be able to play D&D on a computer. With the computer age and puzzle age blending, it would seem that the idea to immerse people into a live-action, interactive simulation/game/experience popped up with True Dungeon, 5 Wits, and then the first self-described escape rooms in Japan with SCRAP. From there they quickly spread throughout parts of Asia and Europe and landed fully in America by 2012.

Timeline

2003 Jul 24: True Dungeon event premiers at Gencon (still going in 2021)

2004: 5 Wits live-action interactive experiences debut in New York.

2004 Jul: True Heroes even premiers at Gencon (would last 2 Gen Cons)

2007: SCRAP created “Real Escape Game” in Japan

2012 Mar: The first Real Escape Game in San Francisco

2012 Jun: Early (1st) newspaper article discussing escape rooms in the Fresno Bee.

2013 Sep: Puzzle Break Room #1 “Escape From Studio D” opened in San Francisco

2013 Oct: Escape The Room #1 “The Office” opened in New York City

2014 May: Puzzle Break Room #2 “The Grimm Escape” opened in Seattle and San Francisco

The Reference List

1. https://truedungeon.com/how-to-play/item/30-td-history

2. The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana) · 13 Jun 2003, Fri · Page 60. Downloaded on Aug 28, 2021

3. The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana) · 20 Jul 2003, Sun · Page 120. Downloaded on Aug 28, 2021

4. Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademarks 2004-04-13: Volume 1281, Issue 2. Page ™ 459.

5. https://web.archive.org/web/20030628045130/http://www.gencon.com/display.aspx?file=indy-true-dungeon. Accessed on 29 Aug, 2021.

6. https://web.archive.org/web/20040815080628/http://www.gencon.com/displayindy.aspx?file=indy-true-heroes. Accessed on 29 Aug, 2021

7. https://web.archive.org/web/20041022150151/http://truedungeon.com/1/articles.php?articleId=1. Accessed on 29 Aug, 2021.

8. True Dungeon forums from the source: The Riddle Reveal videos. https://truedungeon.com/forum?view=topic&defaultmenu=141&catid=590&id=193775&start=0

9. https://realescapegame.com/thoughts-reg/. Accessed 09/01/2021

10. “Thoughts and lessons 1 year after co-founding Puzzle Break, a live-action escape-the-room game in Seattle and San Francisco.” Nate Martin. https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/2ioof7/thoughts_and_lessons_1_year_after_cofounding/ Accessed on 09/01/2021

11. Website. Escapetheroomnyc.com. July 2014 archive. Accessed 13 Sep 2021 from the Internet archive.

12. “The Real Escape Game” The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. 18 Mar 2012, Sun • Page B5

13. “Puzzle Game” The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. 08 Jul 2012, Sun • Page A2

14. “Physical games imitate digital realm.” The Fresno Bee. Fresno, California. 07 Jun 2014, Sat • Page C2

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