Have you been bitten by the escape room game bug so much that you want to make an escape room yourself? No wonder! This exciting, fun and tricky form of live adventure has created a rapidly growing global fan base in a very short space of time. And since there isn’t always an escape room nearby and corona is still restricting us, some have already come up with the idea: “We could just make our own escape room – with our own story, our own puzzles and our own rules, in our own home.”
Make your own escape room – first steps
First of all, you need to clarify which location or which rooms can be adapted for the game. Since you certainly don’t want your friends to rummage through all your cupboards, you need to clearly communicate at the start of the game which parts of your home are integrated into the game and which are not. You should mark drawers and cupboards that should not be opened with sticky notes.
In do-it-yourself escape room games, combination locks and locks with keys are almost always incorporated into the plot. All the other items required should not be missing in (almost) any household.
Already planning your own escape adventure? If you want inspiration for real escape rooms with more excitement, live acting and atmosphere, take a look at OPOLUM – digitally or on site in Hamburg.
Escape room DIY – the structure
In principle, there are two ways to build your game – the linear and the nested one. In the linear version, a solved puzzle leads to the next puzzle to be solved. In the nested variant, different puzzles have to be solved at the same time and only result in a solution when they are combined.
Do-it-yourself escape room – plot and scope
It’s best if you come up with an exciting story yourself – either you have to rescue a kidnap victim, prevent an assassination attempt, find an antidote, rob a bank yourself or similar exciting leitmotifs. You can give free rein to your creativity in the game plot.
You should plan the duration of the game for around 60 minutes and for a maximum of six participants. During these 60 minutes, you will also have to solve around six “master puzzles”, which should be relatively easy to find.
Three ideas for escape room DIY puzzles
The riddle of the three doors
If you have a room or corridor with three doors, then this puzzle is perfect for you. Number the doors with the numbers 1, 2 and 3 and give a clue for each door. If the players are now standing in front of the room or corridor, they will find a puzzle text on the wall that should lead them through the correct door.
If the players choose the right door, they will find useful clues that will help them on their way out of the DIY escape room. There are also puzzles behind the other two doors, but these only serve as a distraction and won’t get them any further.
The water level puzzle
This puzzle challenges your players to think creatively in an entertaining way – and the structure is quite simple. The aim of the puzzle is to fill an empty bottle with 400 ml of water. The tricky part is that the players do not have a measuring cup at their disposal, but only three other water bottles containing different amounts of water – namely an empty one with a 500 ml mark and two that are each filled up to a 300 ml mark. It is best to write the markings clearly visible on the bottles.
Players can solve the puzzle by skillfully and cleverly decanting the contents so that there are exactly 400 ml in the target bottle at the end. However, this can of course turn into a splash. So this puzzle is best for outside in summer or in the bathroom.
To guide your diligent puzzle solvers from this puzzle to the next, it is advisable to give various clues on the bottle at different levels. The right one will take them further – e.g. numbers that can be used to pick a combination lock, symbols that refer to a specific book or an important puzzle piece for the next puzzle question.
The mysterious text
A popular motif of puzzles is also a text that must first be decoded. For example, the text can be spread over several cards, which then have to be read word by word in the correct order, i.e. if the players read the first word on card 1, the second word on card 2, the third word on card 3 and then the fourth word starting again with card 1 and so on, this results in a text that reveals the correct solution or at least an important clue.
Another easy-to-produce but less easy-to-solve coding would be to come up with a new character for each letter in the alphabet and write a rather simple text in the key. Until the players have figured out which character stands for which letter in the alphabet, they will have to really work their gray matter.
You can find out what types of puzzles you can expect in a real escape room in our blog about escape room puzzles. Here you are sure to find inspiration and insights into how you can make the puzzles in your escape room yourself.
Escape room DIY – the simplest variant
Of course, you can also find a large number of games online with detailed instructions, including a ready-made story, so you can enjoy an exciting evening with your friends in your own home without having to rack your brains.
However, the most exciting and thrilling escape room adventures can certainly be offered by professional organizers with their ingenious stories, perfect settings and some even with the use of actors!
