Behind the scenes of an escape room: how it’s made, from story to test run

An escape room is designed backwards: first you decide on the goal the team has to reach, then you map out which pieces of information lead to that goal, and only at the very end do you choose the props and the decor. You can prepare your own game, at home or out in the city, in six steps:

• Goal and story: one sentence that tells players what they’re looking for and why.
• Flow map: working out which puzzle gives the information needed for the next one.
• Puzzles and props: chosen to fit the world of the story and the players.
• Linear or parallel: deciding how many people should have something to do at the same time.
• A test run with someone who doesn’t know the solution: the most important test of any game.
• Hints, reset and safety: so the game can be run and played again.

Below we walk through this process with an example. It’s an explanation of how to think about puzzles, not an account of building a specific commercial room or instructions for putting in technical installations.

Start with a goal people can understand

Let’s take a simple story: a card describing an important exhibit has gone missing from a museum archive. The team has to find a copy before the exhibition opens. A goal like this tells players what to look for and why it matters to the story.

Now you can choose the props: a catalogue, photographs and envelopes. Each one should fit the world of the archive. If there’s a padlock, you should know why its code is hidden in those particular materials. Consistency helps players understand what a task is asking of them.

Map the flow before you build anything

Before you print your first clue, write down each puzzle on paper in three points:

• what it needs: which objects or information players must already have;
• what you have to do: one action, for example matching letters to the order of the exhibits;
• what it gives: a code, a key or information that opens the next stage.

In our archive it looks like this: the photographs and the catalogue (what it needs) let you spell out a word (the action), which opens an envelope with a map of the storeroom (what it gives). Writing it down like this immediately shows two common mistakes. The first is a puzzle that needs something players couldn’t have found yet. The second is an object that doesn’t open anything and only distracts.

A clue has to lead to action

Let’s say three photographs are marked with letters, and the catalogue describes the order in which the exhibits are arranged. Combining the two sources gives you the word that opens the next envelope. The designer knows the connection, but players need a real chance to spot it.

If solving it needs knowledge that isn’t in the materials, you have to decide whether you really want to require it. In a home game it’s often better to build the information into the story. Guessing what the author had in mind isn’t the same as reasoning from the clues.

One path or several tasks at once?

In a linear version, each envelope leads to the next. In a branching one, different people can work on the photos and the descriptions separately and then put their results together. This choice affects how many players have something to do at any given moment. With two or three players, one path is enough; with a bigger group, it’s worth adding a second, parallel one.

You can mix searching for items, spotting patterns, word puzzles and putting pieces together. You don’t need every type in one game. What matters more is that they come from the goal and are clear to the people you’re designing for.

A test run with someone who doesn’t know the solution

Give the finished set to someone who hasn’t seen it and ask them to play it without any extra explanation from you. Watch where they look for clues, what assumptions they make and at what point they don’t know what to do next. Those moments may need clearer instructions rather than a lower difficulty.

Also prepare hints of different strength: first point attention to the material, then point out the connection, and only after that help with the solution. After the test, check that every object can be put back so the next group gets exactly the same information.

The same process on the streets of Krakow

A city game is designed on the same principles, but the space takes over the role of the props. Instead of photographs in an envelope, players look for information on monuments, plaques and facades. The Planty, the park that rings the Old Town, make a good training ground. According to the City Greenery Authority (in Polish), they’re about 4 km long and made up of eight gardens (including the Barbakan, Florianka, Uniwersytet and Wawel gardens), and among the greenery stand many monuments, for example to Nicolaus Copernicus and Artur Grottger.

How to move our archive example to the Planty:

• Goal: find the “missing card” describing the route, which someone has split into several parts.
• Points: each part is waiting at a different monument or in a different garden. The task requires reading something that’s really there, for example a name or a date on a plinth.
• Flow: the answer from one point tells you where to go next, or gives a letter for the password at the finish.
• Test run: walk the route with someone who doesn’t know it, at the time of day it will be played. Check that the inscriptions are readable and the points are accessible.

On the street there are rules you don’t have in a room. Choose points where nobody has to stand in the road or go onto private property, don’t leave clues stuck to historic monuments, and don’t make players run. Tasks based on inscriptions and monuments last longer than hidden envelopes, which someone might take before your game.

If you want to see how these principles work in a finished game before you design your own, the Krakow Legends app is a city game in which tasks unlock as you reach new points in the centre of Krakow.

A game is also about organising the space

In a home game, never lock players in or block the exit. Clearly mark objects that aren’t part of the game, agree how to get in touch, and don’t involve electrical installations or other parts of the flat in improvised tasks.

A professional room needs much broader technical and organisational preparation. A creative story doesn’t replace that. It’s best to start with a small, tested scenario on paper, where every step makes sense to someone seeing it for the first time.