66 - Musings on the Escape Room Industry

Having finished her whirlwind tour of the Netherlands, Manpans rounds up her thoughts on the Up the Game conference she attended. And Errol went to visit his parents in Calgary and did seven rooms over the long weekend.

Listen in as they ruminate on narrative, puzzle difficulty, and Manda's drinking habits.

Posted on May 25, 2018 .

65 - Attending Up The Game

Manda Whitney was just in the Netherlands attending the escape room conference Up The Game! She got a chance to talk to a whole host of people, and for your reference, we've included a timeline for the very first time. We should be doing this for all of our podcasts.

0:00:25 - DAY 1
0:06:40 - Juliana, Ariel, and Mike of Escape Room in a Box
0:13:58 - James Cobalt and Salem
0:23:18 - DAY 2
0:26:51 - Bill Sunderland of Escape This Podcast
0:28:57 - Lisa Spira of Room Escape Artist
0:30:44 - Jake Walling of Escape Maze
0:34:16 - Watson by Sherlocked
0:39:41 - Time Quest Lab
0:41:44 - Lina of Exit Ventures
0:43:00 - Loco - Urban Escape Games Platform
0:44:17 - Lauren Scott of Evolo Room Escape
0:47:00 - Sebastian Bayer of Tabtracks
0:49:23 - Yolanda Chiu of Asia Escape Game
0:54:33 - DAY 3
0:58:50 - Benito Suppa of Durham Escape Rooms and Jake Wall of Escape Maze
1:02:10 - Ethan Rodriguez-Torrent of Escape Industries
1:04:28 - Dani Siller of Escape This Podcast
1:09:11 - Nicole soon to be owner
1:11:03 - Nick Moran of Time Run
1:13:51 - Bill and Dani of Escape This Podcast
1:16:13 - Ralph of Kosmos Games, producer of the Exit games
1:17:57 - Toon of De Kelder in Ghent, Belgium

So much fun!

So much fun!

Posted on May 11, 2018 .

63 - Are Escape Rooms Good for Team Building?

Are escape rooms good for team building? Surprisingly, not really. In this two hour special, Listen in as the Divas interview Dr. Linda Carson, a professor of Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo. She has a Ph.D. in Psychology (Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience) and teaches teamwork, creativity, design thinking, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Posted on April 13, 2018 .

61 - Cryptex Hunt Behind the Scenes

Huzzah! In our latest episode, David Spira of Room Escape Artist guest interviews the crew of the Cryptex Hunt, an epic puzzle hunt presented by Justin Nevins of the the Cryptex® Security Box.

David interviews six people in total: Justin Nevins, Errol Elumir, Darren Miller, Dan Egnor, David Lewis, and Manda Whitney.

There are going to be all sorts of spoilers in this podcast, so if you have not done the Cryptex Hunt, or you WANT to hear spoilers for the Cryptex Hunt, be forewarned.

And the parody song is from an old band Errol used to be part of called Debs & Errol. It seemed appropriate at this point. 

As a text game enthusiast, I love this picture. Hah!

As a text game enthusiast, I love this picture. Hah!

Posted on March 17, 2018 .

58 - The Cryptex Puzzle Hunt

The Divas interview Justin Nevins and Errol Elumir about their upcoming puzzle hunt, the Cryptex Hunt! It will start on Feb 24th, and features such prizes as a custom cryptex®!

In the interview, we talk about puzzle hunts and Justin speaks on what it's like working with Errol, which is as you expect. Justin also does his best not to give any spoilers.

CryptexicomLQ.png
Posted on February 2, 2018 .

57 - Immersive Escape Rooms with Strange Bird Immersive

The Divas join Haley and Cameron Cooper, professional actors who run Strange Bird Immersive, to discuss Immersive Theatre, Escape Rooms, and combining them to create a whole new experience. This is a topic dear to our heart, so we were very excited to do this interview! But because Errol has been busy developing the Cryptex Hunt, there is no song again. The interview is fantastic though!

Haley also has a wonderful blog called Immersology. There, she chronicles their journey developing their escape room, as well as articles on Immersive Theatre and Escape Rooms.

One day, we will be able to get to this Escape Room.

One day, we will be able to get to this Escape Room.

 

 

Posted on January 19, 2018 .

56 - 2017 Year in Review

Another escape year come and gone! In this episode, the Divas look back at the year, and hint at things to come.

And there's no song. Sorry. Errol is busy with so many things again.

Posted on January 5, 2018 .

55 - Mobile Room Escape with Jason Garvett

Manda and Errol have a great time talking to Jason Garvett, the owner and game creator for  Mobile Room Escape in Chicago!

Interested in the mobile world of escape rooms? This is the podcast for you!

(And apologies ahead of time for the parody. There was a last minute substitution which will be updated at a later date!)

We should have posed with one! We need to get better at this picture taking thing.

We should have posed with one! We need to get better at this picture taking thing.

"Jason Garvett is the Owner and Game Creator of Mobile Room Escape which is headquartered out of Chicago, IL with operations in Atlanta, GA. Mobile Room Escape is both an operator of escape rooms along with a creator of mobile escape rooms for other business. Whether it is building escape room trailers, consulting other business's in their operations, or designing high quality escape games Mobile Room Escape is dedicated to delivering quality products for their customers. The partners of Mobile Room Escape have over 30 years experience in automotive design, theatrical production, and DOT Regulations to help escape rooms hit the roads with success."

Posted on December 22, 2017 .

53 - Escape Room in a Box: The Werewolf Experiment

The first escape room board game on kickstarter was wildly successful, and we got to interview the creators Juliana Patel & Ariel Rubin

Not only that, their game was picked up by Mattel and is no available on Amazon to purchase, and will be available in stores early next year!

Tune in to hear all about how Juliana and Ariel brought Escape Room in a Box: The Werewolf Experiment, to the world!

If we were smart, we would have taken a picture of us posing with the box!

If we were smart, we would have taken a picture of us posing with the box!

The parody was written by Manda Whitney, and a huge thanks to our returning guest singer, Noelle Sorrell, who has been singing since she came out of the womb. She works as the Ops Manager at Hidden Trail in Windsor, Ontario.

Posted on November 24, 2017 .

52 - Cryptex Creator Justin Nevins

Allo, all you fans and soon-to-be fans of the cryptex! We were fortunate to get Justin Nevins on skype for an interview about the history and development of the cryptex, first conceived in Dan Brown's novel, "The Da Vinci Code".

Even better? Justin and his wife, Julie, wrote and performed the parody song today! Huzzah! Errol is so happy.

And Justin sent us one of these! Look how awesome it is!

And Justin sent us one of these! Look how awesome it is!

Posted on November 10, 2017 .

51 - Elan Lee and Game Design

Elan Lee, the co-creator of Exploding Kittens, is a game designer and an escape room enthusiast! In this episode, he talks about game design, crowdfunding, ARGs, and how awesome escape rooms are!

And because we're close to Halloween, Manda and Errol wrote an escape room parody from the Nightmare before Christmas!

Huzzah! We got games!

Huzzah! We got games!

Posted on October 27, 2017 .

50 - The Worst Escape Room Ever

The worst room anyone has ever played is closed, and so we can finally talk about it! They may decide on opening it again, so be aware that there will be spoilers.

Feel free to listen along and if you know of a room that is worse than this one, by all means, please tell us.

And finally, the song was written by Errol's sister. It pokes fun at people like us! Huzzah!

Edit: For those that are interested, here is Mike's official review of this game.

Posted on October 16, 2017 .

49 - Interview with Escape this Pocast!

We got the chance to be guests on Escape This Podcast! They take escape rooms to a pen and paper route, and then play them on a podcast and it's pretty awesome. The best part? You can download the game and have your friends go through the same one!

In this podcast, we interview the creators, Dani Siller and Bill Sunderland, about their podcast, how they got started, and the challenges of creating a new game to be produced on a bi-weekly basis!

 

Manpans notes as we played the game!

Manpans notes as we played the game!

Posted on September 27, 2017 .

47 - Escape Room Design: Intro to Story and Narrative

In our 47th episode, Manda gives us a talk on Story and Narrative within escape rooms! And the rest of the divas? Ruby is playing with a bunny. Errol is working on a LEGO Totoro. And we don't know what Mike was doing.

This week's parody song was written and performed by Sen-Foong Lim! He is one half of the versatile tabletop design team, the Bamboozle Brothers. Since 2011, they have created Euro-styled strategy game, party games, and are even sought after to develop other designers’ games. Sen also hosts the weekly design-centric webcasts, the Meeple Syrup Show and its offshoot, The Game Dojo. Errol thinks they should do a parody song for each of their episodes too!

Posted on September 8, 2017 .