Why 60 Minutes is the Perfect Time for an Escape Game
In the past, we’ve talked about the seemingly infinite themes for escape rooms (6 Common Misconceptions About Escape Rooms), and the many different types of puzzles that you can expect to find in escape rooms (Puzzle Types Commonly Found in Escape Rooms). Just as there are differences among escape game operators in these areas, there can also be differences in the length of their games, with some being as short as 45 minutes, and some as long as 70 minutes or more. Here’s why we think 60 minute games is the sweet spot.
60 Minutes Feels Natural
Human beings are creatures of habit, and we crave structure. Our societies are built upon structure. For instance, our lives are measured in one-hour intervals. It’s a measurement of time that feels natural and relatable. As a result, our internal clocks are programmed to measure time in hour-long intervals. For this reason, it’s logical to organise our game times into hour-long blocks as well. Doing so is just natural and intuitive. Playing an escape room for an hour allows you to easily rely on your internal clock to keep track of time, as well as letting you play for what feels like a natural amount of time.
Game times of less than an hour feel too short and often don’t allow you the time you need to explore the game the way you would like to. Longer times can be mentally exhausting, and can actually add additional confusion to an already intense situation…‘Ok, we started a 7:00, so we’ve got until 8:10 to escape right?…It’s 7:35 now, so we have how much time left?’. We keep is simple and natural…start at 7:00, end at 8:00. Easy-peasy.
It Allows Us To Give You A Great Experience
There’s a cadence to playing escape rooms. It usually takes 10-15 minutes or so just to explore the room and get a good sense of what the puzzles are that need to be solved—especially for those who are new to escape rooms. Most well-planned escape rooms will have at least one puzzle that is tricky enough to leave you stumped. This usually happens sometime midway through the game where everyone has to pull together and use their collective brain power to push through. This can sometimes take 10-15 minutes. Then there’s the final scramble to finish the final puzzle(s) before time runs out. In a game with a duration of less than an hour, that doesn’t leave much time for completing the rest of the puzzles, let alone taking the time to stop and take in the amazing set that the designers put so much thought and effort into in order to give you an amazing, immersive experience! The difference between, say a 45-minute game and a one-hour experience may not seem like much, but time flies when you’re in an escape room! And for those players that we commonly hear lament ‘if we only have 5 more minutes!’, it can be all the difference in the world!
More Time To Get Immersed
Players and escape room designers have a lot in common, not the least of which is our desire for you to have an immersive experience. Escape rooms have evolved a lot over the past few years, and as technology involves, and the availability of better quality props improves, the experience has shifted from simply being a room full of random puzzles to a deeper experience that stimulates all of the senses. Making our games an hour long gives opportunities to further the game immersion. Having an hour allows us to incorporate a more detailed narrative into the story, or add extra elements that we wouldn’t otherwise have time for. This means you get to enjoy a more immersive, involved game in which you can truly become part of the experience. In an hour, we can tell a complete story filled with twists and surprises that make the game more satisfying to play.
So, you can see that we have motives for giving you more time in our games. At Quest Reality Games, our vision is to be the best escape game operator on Vancouver Island, and we are focused on making sure you have the BEST possible experience. Having a full hour in each theme is one of the ways we work to realize that vision. We want to make sure that you have time to get lost in the story of the game and that your brain has time to wrap itself around the puzzles.
Ready to check out one of our 60-minutes escape games? BOOK NOW!