Make your own outdoor escape game: How to create an outdoor escape game at OPOLUM

We at OPOLUM have been using our outdoor escape game “The Conspiracy” since mid-2021. With a tablet and puzzle bag, the aim is to uncover lost knowledge in the Speicherstadt. In this outdoor escape game, we have focused on imparting knowledge about Hamburg’s Speicherstadt warehouse district, creating an exciting alternative to a classic city tour with a tour guide.

The year is now 2023 and it’s time for a successor. The OPOLUM stands for premium quality and that’s why we want to go one better with our second outdoor escape game, even if it won’t be easy. In this blog post, we take you on a little creative journey from a loose idea to an exciting new game and give you a little guide if you want to make your own little outdoor game at home.

Make your own outdoor escape game: Finding a theme for an outdoor escape game

At the beginning of a new escape game, the question arises: Which story and which theme? The easiest themes are those that have already appeared in many stories, films and books. It’s important to have lots of creative ideas and associations in your head when finding a theme.

The theme of our new outdoor escape game was actually “Illuminati”. But thanks to the Dan Brown films and the myth that is still told today through the Illuminati, the theme is extremely exciting and also very appropriate for the OPOLUM. But why predetermined? We need to expand on this a little.

We work with the Hamburg-based outdoor app developer CityVenture on the technical implementation and creation of the outdoor escape games. Because one thing is of paramount importance for an outdoor escape game: a tablet app must be stable and intuitive to use. We already have a tablet app in use as a gimmick for an indoor puzzle, but we leave a complete outdoor app to the professionals. CityVenture is a professional in the areas of programming, design, puzzle mechanics and gamification.

Our tip: If you’re thinking about building a tablet app yourself – let the professionals do it for you!

Back to the topic: CityVenture’s first own outdoor escape game “Code of the Illuminati” was a few years ago and was actually only supposed to be refreshed by us. That was the plan and of course everything turned out quite differently!

Too many ideas and the forest for the trees

Once you start the creative process, you’ll gather lots of different ideas that might not even fit together very well. You might not be able to see the wood for the trees and ultimately not really know how to reconcile everything.

In our case, we had the finished outdoor escape game from CityVenture. So we made an appointment with CityVenture to introduce us to the outdoor escape game with the Illuminati theme. It was important for us to develop a rough story beforehand without any preconceptions as to how we imagined the Illuminati theme. And it turned out as it had to: CityVenture’s game and our ideas were 100% different. We linked the Illuminati with Dan Brown’s modern films: a ritual murder in the present that leads to the ancient secret society of the Illuminati. CityVenture’s game, on the other hand, is set in a more historical context and involves a kidnapped monk who helps the players to crack the Illuminati codex and thus gain access to the knowledge of the secret society.

Both stories have very exciting elements, but do not fit together thematically. So now a decision has to be made. If ideas don’t fit together, you have to let go of some ideas or change them. We compared the two ideas together. The decision was then made very narrowly in favor of our modern story, because we were better able to combine the digital and analog worlds here. And yet, of course, we incorporated the best elements from the finished outdoor escape game into the game.Because that’s already really good.

The Illuminati storyline is now in its sixth iteration loop. The result is two different game variants. Because a look at the target groups shows that one game for all is not so good. We are not yet revealing which game modes there will be. Just a little spoiler: In one variant, you need a lot of players, a lot of players.

Puzzles, sightseeing and the goal of the outdoor escape game

What is the added value of your outdoor escape game? Do you want to send a message, convey fun, is it just about puzzles or maybe even sightseeing? Who are you doing the Outdoor Escape Game for?

An outdoor escape game has many possibilities that an indoor escape room doesn’t offer. For us in the Speicherstadt, the location is perfect for sightseeing.In our first outdoor escape game, knowledge about the Speicherstadt was a central element of the game.

But with new target groups, it’s not exciting for every team. Companies are looking for team building, stag and hen parties for fun and people from Hamburg just want to solve tricky puzzles. So we put the Illuminati story in the foreground and invented a digital historian who occasionally asks the players if they would like information about the location and Hamburg’s history. So the sightseeing aspect is optional in our new game.

Puzzles are of course the central element. For a do-it-yourself outdoor escape game, you can’t have an app programmed, of course, but have to create it completely analogously – although “have to” is the wrong word here. There are many great and entertaining analog game elements. During development, make sure that the analog puzzles fit in well with your story. For example, a pirate treasure hunt is perfect. A tablet would even be disruptive here.

Both analog and digital puzzles are perfect for the Illuminati. We have therefore looked at where analog puzzles and tasks within the story are useful and exciting. With CityVenture’s technical know-how, we have once again created unique elements that will surprise you. A tablet has unique functions that cannot be reproduced in analog form. These include digital puzzles, but also augmented reality or the display of exciting videos.

So the challenge for us was to link the digital and analog worlds in such a way that the two could not do without each other. In addition, the use of digital elements in the story should always make sense. That took a lot of brainpower, but the result is really quite enchanting. Depending on the story, themes and puzzles can contain digital, analog or both elements.

The thing with the actors in the Outdoor Escape Game

Since we offered our outdoor escape game “The Conspiracy” with live acting in the dark in winter and the feedback was outstanding, it was clear to us that we wanted to offer special events again for the summer and for the light season.

Of course, it is an advantage for us if we can already see in the development process where the drama can be inserted in a meaningful and exciting way. However, the crux of the matter is that an outdoor escape game has to work just as well without drama.

We were able to integrate the first idea perfectly. We even try to integrate it somehow into the standard show without acting. It won’t always work, but we’ll think of something. That would be a milestone! However, we had to abandon the second idea of having the characters from the game appear live. The reason is simple: an actor would have to be present at every event to embody the role. That is too restrictive. We are therefore expanding the story to include new characters who put stumbling blocks in the way of the players or surprise them in other ways. The outdoor events for the Illuminati are planned for July 2023.

Make your own outdoor escape game – our conclusion

The right theme is the starting point for a great outdoor escape game. This should be chosen depending on the equipment available. A pirate game can do very well without a tablet, a game about cybercrime should include a tablet. With the Illuminati, it even made sense to combine both worlds (digital and analog).

We hope we were able to give you some exciting insights into the development of our second Outdoor Escape Game. We already have the first rough ideas for outdoor escape game number 3, so now you know how we’re approaching it 😉.