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It’s always a little daunting when you start something new.  During our design process, we had some doubts if our escape room was going to make the cut.  Were our puzzles too easy? Were they too hard? Were people going to escape? Where would we hide the people who didn’t?  These are the sort of questions we asked ourselves and thankfully during our testing phase, no one was injured or harmed or had to be locked in our basement for taking too long to escape!! Ha. Kidding. Sort of.

Our friends hold the record for the longest time to escape at 68mins! They would not leave the room until they solved everything themselves! Congratulations to our record holders!!!

Sydney has a plethora of amazing escape room outfits and we wanted to be in the same league as them.  During our research and development stage (read: having fun trying out other escape rooms) we saw how creative other escape room owners designed and decorated their room.  The benchmark was set and we knew we had a lot of work to do to get the right look and feel for the theme.  Unfortunately, Ikea doesn’t make the cut when trying to fit out an abandoned Insane Asylum so we trekked all over Sydney to find the perfect vintage and antique pieces to suit our theme.

During our opening week, teams came from all over Sydney with different experience levels, and I’m super proud to say that every single team had the best time.  A few teams escaped whilst others were only a puzzle or two away but each one came out smiling and laughing which is our company’s ultimate mission.

Above all else, the best part for me would have to be listening to the conversations the teams talk about whilst in the rooms.  I sit at reception, headphones on, and can hear every little thing the teams say and I have to cover my mouth from stopping myself from laughing too much!! Here are some of my favourite quotes:

“Stop wearing the shirt! You just want to keep it!” – Grace

“That sounds like a playstation 1 cheat” – Vince

“This reminds me of my grandmas furniture” – Alex

“Are these pregnancy tests?” – Phil

“Damn crazy people! Look at this! No Apostrophe!” – Pete

“Is there something I can use to reach it?” “I have a shirt!” – Wilson and Theo

“These are some DJ nurses” – Anna

“We’re going to get eaten!” “You don’t get eaten here. You go crazy!” – Joe and Mary

“You’re getting snappy” – Nikki

“Try it backwards just for fun” – Andrew

“Get it Guuuuurrrrllll! Oh no! Celebrated too soon!” – Shania and Maddie

“Look at your face in the mirror!” Jackie and Wendy

“Maybe someone has to suck it out?” – Anthony

If you haven’t done our escape room yet, these quotes will make zero sense but if you have, you can kind of guess when they said it and I hope you laugh as much as I did.

We still have many available spots left during our opening month special of $20pp so get your friends together and get locked in the Insane Asylum!!

Until next time,

Joan

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We started construction on our very empty property and in just a few short days, we’ve managed to put up the timber frames, insulation, gyprock and plaster.  We’ve also been very fortunate to find a couple of amazing guys. Charlie from Mr AV who will start installing our cameras next week and his friend Daniel who will be putting in emergency exit buttons on every door (because, you know, it’s kinda illegal to lock people inside a room without an easy and direct exit route in case of emergencies!!).

I’m going to be honest and say that I really didn’t put much thought into building the walls.  I always assumed that would be the easiest part of the whole process, but having to personally do it myself makes me appreciate builders so much more.

You know those times when you have to stay calm and look like nothing’s bothering you, but inside your head, you’re screaming at yourself as loud as possible?? Well, that was me this week!! Let me tell you, base coating a wall isn’t fun when you only have 45 minutes to use the stuff before it dries out, or when more than half the bucket tips over or when you get it all over your hair, your clothes and shoes!! Not fun I tells ya.  Not fun!! But, there is a silver lining.  After doing a messy job of the base-coat, you get to sand it all down and it looks pretty damn good – almost like a professional did it. Almost!

First time base-coating walls. More base-coat on the floors than the walls.

It was 4 weeks of going back and forth on design ideas, game elements and solutions to bring the best puzzles we could possibly think of.

On one hand we didn’t want the puzzles too easy but at the same time, I don’t want players to go through them real quickly either.  Each game uses a different way of thinking; they’re not your classic hide and seek or picking padlocks type of puzzles.  At one stage, one of the games was almost impossible to solve.  So it was back to the drawing board, and together we worked out how to make it user friendly and I think we found that sweet spot between “That was too easy” and “This is way too hard!  I’m never going to escape!  Call my family and tell them I love them”!

One of our custom made games; hope this doesn’t give too much away

I had a few people ask how we came up with our name. When we decided to start an Escape Room, we wrote down a list of words we thought would resonate with the business.  We came up with the lamest ideas!! I’m actually quite embarrassed to say them out loud now, but there we were asking our friend Jerome which name he liked best.  After sitting there for what seemed like forever waiting for his response, he said “What about Labyrinth?”.

AND that’s how simple our name came about! Thanks Jerome!! Without you, we’d probably be called “Gone in Sixty Minutes” (Yes, that was one of our ideas!! I did warn you they were lame!)

Once we were married to the name, we got to work on thinking of our logo.  We researched all about Labyrinths and we found that in Greek mythology, a Minotaur would be placed in the center of a Labyrinth to fight whoever tries to pass through.  These mythical creatures were strong and smart and knew their way around the Labyrinth they were protecting.  We loved the whole idea and that’s how our logo was born.

We contacted Tess from TNP Design and she went to work creating a whole heap of logos for us to choose.  At one stage I think we plagiarized Chicago Bulls haha but we quickly changed it to what you see today!! I love the way our website and logo has turned out and it wouldn’t have happened without her creative mind.

I read a funny quote the other day – “Anytime you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he had some help” – Alex Haley

Who helped you get there Mr Turtle?

These words couldn’t be more true with us and our business.  Frank and I are so grateful for all the help we’ve had along the way.  We’ve had amazing people guide us and give us great advice and we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for all of those who believed in us and encouraged us throughout this journey.

Thank you to our readers and followers and to everyone who’s spreading the word.  We’re already starting to get emails and calls regarding bookings and I know all of this wouldn’t be possible without all of you talking about it.  So thank you again!! We really do appreciate it!!

We’re also in the process of designing our third room.  Leave us a comment with your ideas on what theme you’d like to see built and if yours gets chosen, we’ll let you and 5 of your friends do that room for free!!

The post Adventure and Constructions appeared first on Labyrinth Escape Rooms.

You’ve probably arrived here out of curiosity–perhaps not really knowing what an escape room is.

Or maybe you’re a seasoned room escapee, eager to try out Sydney’s latest rooms.

Whatever leads you to the fanciful world of Escape Rooms, I’m so so happy you’re here. For those of you playing catch up, you can read all about Escape Rooms here.

From First-Time Escapee to Fanatic, Overnight.

I had my first taste of an escape room three months ago. A group of friends and I took ourselves along to a really great one in Sydney’s CBD – Paniq Room Sydney at The Rocks.  Owners, Martina and Akos were great hosts.  They explained what we could and couldn’t do, were helpful when we needed clues and allowed us to see the game in more detail once our time was up.   (This blog’s featured image is courtesy of their Facebook page).

From that first day, I’ll be the first to admit I was hooked.

I remember the excitement I felt after our time was up. We didn’t escape the room in time, but it was still the.most.fun I’ve had in a long while.

I vividly remember whispering–as loud as I could–to my partner, Frank, “THIS IS IT! THIS is what I want to do!!”

Seeing the Vision of an Escape Room for Myself.

We sat there for what felt like hours after our escape, talking about the puzzles and the impressive amount of creative detail that went into the theme.

We reflected on what each player did well, and how we worked together so effortlessly, communicating and voicing our opinions as we worked through the puzzles.

Fast forward to 3:00 am and I found myself up, wide awake, grinning from ear to ear.

I set to work reading and researching everything I could about Escape Rooms. I looked at other peoples websites. I read the reviews. I poured over every blog I could, from the ones here in Sydney, to people raving about the quality of Escape Rooms over in Europe, England and across Asia.

I started to imagine that there could be a community of people who travel and do Escape Rooms around the world.

Believing that, if there was, I would pack my family up in a suitcase to be a part of it.

I started dreaming of the day when Escape Room owners would get together and put on something like a Mega Escape Room, or an obstacle course for those who want to be locked in a puzzle-packed room for longer.  Or for those who might like to try numerous themes back to back, testing teams from all over the world to escape the room in record time.

From Vision to Reality in Sydney’s West.

That one magical night led to events that eventually brought Frank and I here–almost about to open Sydney’s Eleventh Escape Room in the heart of Parramatta.

For the last 3 months, we have searched endlessly for the perfect space to lease, spending hours purchasing props, puzzles, latches and padlocks. We’ve tried out every last Escape Room in Sydney, going back and forth on ideas for our logo and our website.

As locals of Parramatta, we’ll admit that yes–there’s great places to eat on Church street.  But there’s not really much else to do for young adults in the area.

Frank and I really want to bring something unique and memorable to the community; one that we know will draw families and friends closer, and bring a little known spark of fun and excitement to the often mundane everyday.

A Little Thanks to Those That Helped Our Dream Along.

A few people we want to mention for helping us get to where we are include:

• Our amazingly talented website designer, Tess, from TNP Creative, who worked tirelessly to get our logo, the layout of our website and our print materials exactly how we envisioned it.
• Super cool and extremely gifted duo, Kat and Nina, from Hello Developers
  , who coded and developed our website.
• Patrick Holcombe, from Douglas Fir Design, who is creating custom puzzles for us!! He is a true artist and such a creative genius!!
• My brother, Jonathan, for mapping a successful path for our first 2 years with his fantastic strategic insights and forward-planning.  When he’s not helping us, he’s studying to be a director at Sydney Film School and will one day be making blockbuster hits on the big screen.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Jim Carrey in his address to a group of 285 students at Maharishi University (the whole speech can be found here). One line in particular had an immense impact on solidifying Frank and my leap of faith, if you will.

“You can fail at what you don’t want,

so you might as well take a chance

on doing what you love”

We sold our previous business–our main (and only) source of income–and followed a path which we believe will truly inspire fun and excitement back into people’s lives.

We’d love it if you, your family and friends came down and said hello and through our rooms and the detail we’ve poured into our themes, we hope to inspire you to follow your dreams too.

The post The Story Behind Labyrinth Escape Rooms appeared first on Labyrinth Escape Rooms.

You are instructed to stand back-to-back in a neat row of four.

A door creaks open, and you and your friends are ushered into a dark, eerily quiet room.

With equal parts excitement and gut-wrenching terror, your heart starts to pace while your breath gets shallow as you wait for the sound of the timer.

The assistant shuts the door, turns the key, and a bright white light obstructs your view as your lift your blindfold to reveal the room…

Welcome to the Latest Attraction Taking Sydney by Storm

With just sixty minutes on the clock, you and your friends are faced with the task of working through a series of puzzles to escape your room before your time runs out.

It’s the latest craze taking Sydney by storm, and we’re pretty pumped to be leading the charge in one of Sydney’s fastest growing Western suburbs, Parramatta.

So what’s it all about?

From Video Games to Real Life Escape Rooms

The concept of an Escape Room is born from a slew of video games dating back to early 2000. Characters are placed in a locked room together, where they must use objects from within the room to solve a series of puzzles that stand between them and their escape.

From riddled computer games to real-life, Japanese-born Takao Kato’s “Real Escape Game” brought Escape Room video games to life in Kyoto in 2007.

Today, you’ll find Escape Rooms are taking over the US and Europe – while in Australia we are starting to see more and more pop up to delight the senses of unsuspecting patrons.

Choose From a Suite of Spine-Tingling Adventures

Before you plan your escape, take the time to choose your room of choice. Every Escape Room, including our very own Labyrinth Escape Rooms, are ‘themed’ to different scenarios – with puzzles, clues and props to suit.

As we open our doors to everyone from first-timers to die-hard-fans, we’ve got two rooms to choose from – plus a third themed room for release later this year:

                1. Mad Scientist

What would you do if you held in your hand a potion to reverse ageing, for good? A mad scientist has created just that – and word is he’s on the run with a pretty perilous plan in place. As watchmen track his path, you and your team are to go back to his lab to track his path before it’s too late.

                2. Insane Asylum

The Insane Asylum has stood abandoned atop the hill of a small town for years. In the last few years, staff have reported a strange string of events that have the whole town spooked. Doctors have called in your team of investigators to step inside and face the darkness that lies within!

Unlock Your Inner Investigator

Each Escape Room you enter has been carefully constructed to stimulate every one of your senses. You are locked in a thematic environment for just one hour where a string of clues and peculiarly placed objects await you.

You will be blindfolded and led into the room by an assistant. Once in the room, the door is closed shut and locked.

From that moment on, the clock is started and it’s game on!

Using survival instincts you may have since forgotten, you and your team will need to work together, keeping your eyes fastened on every minute detail in the room that might hold the key to your escape.

Challenge yourself and your team to use lateral thinking, intuition (follow your gut!) and problem-solving skills to work through the room before it’s too late!

Learn Strategic Thinking and Team-Building as a Bonus!

Here at Labyrinth Escape Rooms, we encourage everyone to try out the Escape Room experience for themselves!

From kids, adults, friends and family members, to partners and co-workers, we guarantee that everyone will benefit from an Escape Room experience!

Looking For a 60-minute Team Building Event?

For large group activities or corporate team-building, Escape Rooms present a unique team building experience.

• Help staff members to integrate into the team

• Improve staff relationships through greater interpersonal understanding

• Improve conflict management through encouraging teams to work together

• Facilitate the distribution of work-related tasks to create dynamic, efficient teams

• Have colleagues share an exciting experience to talk about for months to come!

Ready to Try It Out? Receive a Grand Opening Special!

Labyrinth Escape Rooms will be opening for business soon in Parramatta – Sydney’s West.

Receive a $20pp Opening Week special. 

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