Escape games
Yesterday several of us went to the University Library to play a real-life room escape game. No spoilers because they might run it again but we had great fun and were the fastest finishers. The game was organised as part of science week and referenced the UL's Lines of Thought exhibition, an online version of which is available here: https://exhibitions.lib.cam.ac.uk/linesofthought/ . Instead of being "locked" in the room as with previous games I've played, we were free to look round the exhibition and several of the clues involved cracking codes with the help of the books on display. The aim of the game was to find the will of one of the early benefactors of the library and there were lots of nice library touches in the room and game design - files full of UL photos and a mini paper chase! Technically the game also had some really nice touches, including colour-coding to match up clues with locks, and a couple of sneaky puzzles I won't spoil. Our team name was The Cardboard Brains, taken from this lovely anatomical model in the exhibition: https://exhibitions.lib.cam.ac.uk/linesofthought/artifacts/brain-model/
I've been lucky enough to play several real-life room escape games before, including one in the gem room at the University's Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, which had the luxury of a room full of exciting stones to base clues around (we were the only finishers of that game), and another at a convention which did an excellent job of converting a random hotel office into a lab full of clues and ended with a box on whose lid you had to knock a pattern (I think we overran by about 5 minutes!).
There's a new place opened up in Cambridge recently with permanent room-escape installations which I'd love to have a go at sometime - I've seen some really ingenious stuff in temporary setups and there must be so much more you can do with a permanent room. (I imagine it's like the spy missons place in Bar Hill but with less running around, if you've been to that.) Anyway, in case anyone else is interested: http://cambridgeescaperooms.co.uk/
(Need to sort myself out a games icon really.)
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I've been lucky enough to play several real-life room escape games before, including one in the gem room at the University's Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, which had the luxury of a room full of exciting stones to base clues around (we were the only finishers of that game), and another at a convention which did an excellent job of converting a random hotel office into a lab full of clues and ended with a box on whose lid you had to knock a pattern (I think we overran by about 5 minutes!).
There's a new place opened up in Cambridge recently with permanent room-escape installations which I'd love to have a go at sometime - I've seen some really ingenious stuff in temporary setups and there must be so much more you can do with a permanent room. (I imagine it's like the spy missons place in Bar Hill but with less running around, if you've been to that.) Anyway, in case anyone else is interested: http://cambridgeescaperooms.co.uk/
(Need to sort myself out a games icon really.)
comments at Dreamwidth