The Power of Illumination 

As escape games continue to evolve and become more immersive, designers are experimenting more and more with involving all of the senses in the player experience, including the use of lighting. At Quest Reality Games, we use lighting strategically in a few ways in our second-generation escape games to enhance our guest’s experience. Want to know how? Read on to find out more! 

A Guiding Light 

The nature of escape rooms is that they are meant to be challenging. They should also be fair. At Quest Reality Games, we believe nothing should be hidden that requires players to go searching around in the dark.  

Our second-generation escape games are designed to test your problem-solving abilities in many ways—including your powers of observation. That means we want you to be aware of your surroundings and ask yourself ‘does anything seem different or out of place’? What it doesn’t mean is that we hide puzzles and clues out of sight in some obscure corner, or in a dark nook or cranny. Everything you need to find will be easily seen either under the ambient lights, or with the light source you are provided. After all, it’s an escape room not an Easter Egg hunt!  

Sometimes, we use lighting to send a specific message to players. For instance, some puzzles will trigger a light to signal to the players that they have solved the puzzle correctly. Other times, we use lighting to draw attention to an object within the room that warrants investigation.  

Many Hands Make ‘light’ Work 

Players in all of our themes receive some source of light, such as a lantern or flashlight. Note that we said ‘players in all of our themes’, and not ‘all of the players in our themes’. This is an important distinction. We often hear players comment on the fact that not all players receive their own light source. Some even complain that ‘we all had to huddle around the light’. Let’s take a step back and reconsider the purpose of an escape room; that is, for a team of players to work together to solve a series of  puzzles  and  riddle s using clues, hints, and strategy in order to free themselves—or ‘escape’ within a set timeframe. So, why do we not provide all players with their own light source? The answer is because we use lighting to encourage you to work together! Imagine having 10 Adventurers all trying to elude the evil sorcerer, Zibeydor, each having their own lantern, and every one of them running in their own direction, finding clues and forgetting to share information with each other. It would be CHAOS, and your chances of success greatly diminished.  

Having said that, we know there are times when more lights makes sense. For instance, we often see guests who have chosen to play an escape room in order to challenge a specific fear, such as dark spaces, or small spaces—or both! Sometimes, children can feel anxious about their experience. At times we’ve had 3 (or more) generations in our themes, and the older players have trouble seeing in the dark. Other times, after many hours of exploring the Great Pyramid, the batteries in our lanterns start to run out of juice. Luckily for you, unlike being trapped in an actual pyramid, we can save the day and swap those suckers in a hurry! 

Whatever, the reason, our main objective is always for our guests to enjoy themselves, so if you prefer more lighting, just ask! Our Game Masters will be happy to accommodate in order to ensure you have an outstanding experience playing our games. 

See the Light 

One of the most obvious uses of lighting is for ambiance. Darkness make sense at the right time. For instance, if you’re escaping from a giant cave, or maybe a well. Other times it doesn’t (why exactly is this bedroom we’re trapped in pitch dark??). At Quest Reality Games, we use ambient lighting to add to the immersion of our themes. There’s nothing particularly spooky about a haunted house in broad daylight, so expect some darkness (don’t worry, give it a minute and those rods and cones will adjust!), but you will find glowing torches in the Great Pyramid and Sorcerer’s Lair. As for the Zombie Apocalypse…wait, we can’t give everything away! ? 

Ready to see how we use lighting to illuminate your experience? Book now!