Get a clue

New escape room experience comes to Honesdale

ISABEL BRAVERMAN
Posted 4/5/17

Imagine, you are locked in a room and the clock is ticking. You race against time as you try to find clues and solve puzzles to break out of the room. This scenario becomes real, and played for fun, …

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Get a clue

New escape room experience comes to Honesdale

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Imagine, you are locked in a room and the clock is ticking. You race against time as you try to find clues and solve puzzles to break out of the room. This scenario becomes real, and played for fun, at the popular new concept “escape rooms.”

“Escape room” is defined as “a physical adventure game in which players are locked in a room and have to use elements of the room to solve a series of puzzles and escape within a set time limit, or having completed a mission.” The game has grown in popularity over recent years, and now it is coming to Honesdale.

Owner Alan Cunningham is opening an escape room called Logix on Main at 627 Main St. (next to Papa’s Primo Pizza). His escape-room experience will have two rooms with the themes “Ebola” and “Armageddon.” Players can choose which room they want and they will have one hour to get out.

This is how it works: clues and puzzles are placed around the room. Working as a team, players must find and solve the clues. Cunningham showed me some of the puzzles. While I can’t tell you what they are, I can assure you they are really challenging to solve, and it’s really fun to try to figure them out.

There is a video camera in the room, so at all times someone will be able to guide the players (and make sure they aren’t breaking anything). Also, if anxiety comes to mind, don’t worry; the room isn’t actually locked and you can leave at any time, simply say you want to go and they will hear you.

Cunningham explained that these games are great for team-building exercises, and many office employees will participate. He also said the most popular audience is those ages 25 to 40 years old, and he is sure to get some of the high school students and camp counselors in the summer. He wanted to open this business because he saw how popular escape rooms had become and knew it would be a viable business venture.

The earliest escape room was created in 2006, and they became popular in the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Canada, Israel and mainland China in the 2010s. One of the first rooms, Real Escape Game (REG) in Kyoto, Japan, was developed by 35-year-old Takao Kato of the Kyoto publishing company, SCRAP Co., in 2007. In 2015, the first escape games opened in South America in Porto Alegre and Sao Paolo. At this time there were over 2,800 escape room venues worldwide. By 2017, U.S. cities such as Pittsburgh have seen significant increase in the demand for escape room games.

Cunningham lives in Tafton, PA and has owned eyeglass stores for 30 years, which he said was “no fun, all business,” so this seemed like an entertaining way to switch careers. “I’m 51 now,” he said, “reaching the final chapter, and I want it to be a fun one.” He has three kids of his own, ages 16, 18 and 21. The idea for an escape room business came when the family visited his daughter, the oldest child, in college in Indiana, PA. It was a snowy day with not much to do. His daughter suggested that they go to an escape room in town. It was there that he got the idea to bring it to Honesdale.

Logix on Main will open on April 8. Four people minimum are needed to play. The cost is $25 for one room, which is an average cost of similar operations. Cunningham said, “Don’t bat an eyelash at the price, because it’s so much fun.” Teams who escape in the shortest amount of time will be displayed on the wall, and the team with the shortest time will win a prize. The rooms switch themes and puzzles every six months so you can keep coming back.

For more information and to book an appointment, visit www.logixroom.com. Call 570/780-0657 and find them on Facebook at “Logix Honesdale.”

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