If you’ve ever wanted to be locked in a room while a ticking clock signals your impending doom, well, now’s your chance.
Escape Manor is a new interactive facility on Queen Street with a concept that’s either exciting or terrifying, depending on how you look at it.
Up to six people are trapped in a small, dimly-lit room and given 45 minutes to escape. During that time, participants’ wits, spatial reasoning and problem solving abilities are all tested as they try to piece together scattered clues that help to unlock the exit door.
“I’ve watched movies or television dramas and you see someone open up a book, and in that book there’s a cut-out,” said Billy Rogers, one of Escape Manor’s four founders. “In that cut out there’s a special box or hidden key, and I’ve always thought that’s really cool. That never happens in real life.
“So for me, that’s what’s really exciting. It’s a mystery within a mystery, and everything is in play in the room.”
Escape Manor is the brainchild of Rogers and three of his buddies — Chris Bisson, Steve Wilson and Neil Schwartz — all from the Ottawa area.
“A brother-in-law of a friend of ours did it in Bangkok, Thailand, and said it was just one of the coolest things,” said Rogers, who spent a year puzzling out the project’s logistics before starting it. “He thought it’d be great for Ottawa.”
The 2,100-square-foot facility has four themed rooms. Two of them, Prison Break and Wine Cellar Escape, are completed; the others are expected around mid-January. Each space can fit between two and six people, and one hint per session is allowed if participants find themselves particularly stuck.
It’s not easy to escape. Rogers said he plans to have the rooms’ success rates vary from 40 to 10 per cent.
He said he’s confident Ottawans will love it.
“Ottawa is a city that has a reputation for being sleepy, so we’re hoping to breathe a little bit of life back into it,” said Rogers, a Hunt Club native. “Being born and raised here, everyone sort of gets tired of doing the same old, same old — movies, bowling or hitting the bars.
“The reaction has been really good. We’re getting a lot of requests from corporate, birthday parties and random gamers.”
Admission is $21 including taxes, which Rogers said is a fair price for Ottawa’s entertainment scene.
“We did a lot of comparison analysis in the city,” said Rogers. “For instance, laser tag, going to see a movie, or going bowling. We figure it’s a pretty competitive price seeing as it’s a new and fresh experience.”
As for spoilers, is Rogers concerned that solutions to unlocking the rooms might get leaked online?
“We’re not too worried,” he said. “For the most part, I think the challenge itself will lead people not to give away any clues. I know if I didn’t get out, I certainly wouldn’t help my friend who’s doing it after me because I wouldn’t want him to get out and brag that he’s smarter than me.”
The place has its soft launch Thursday with a few groups for beta tests on the fourth floor of 201 Queen St.
The official launch is next Thursday. Booking is available online at www.escapemanor.com.
@alisonmah
