How to Plan an Escape Room Outing for Your Teammates

Virtual escape room team-building challenges are a fantastic way to build rapport with your colleagues or even spend time with friends and family. You have no doubt heard about escape rooms, but how much do you really know about the experience and what to expect when taking on the world’s leading puzzling adventures. 

We will do a deep dive into a few different aspects of escape rooms, namely what it is and what you can expect, the different ways you can experience them, why it’s a fantastic choice for an outing, and more. 

Let’s dive right in! 

Escape Rooms for Beginners 

The first thing that most people ask is, what exactly is an escape room?

An escape room is a puzzle experience for groups of all sizes. Puzzles can be many things, as we’ve mentioned before in our fun facts about puzzles, but what makes escape rooms stand out? The experience entails deciphering a series of puzzles to solve with the help of clues. Figuring out one puzzle leads to the next, and so on until you eventually break free. 

Once you solve all of these puzzles, you open the door to your escape, hence the name. Escape rooms challenge you to think outside the box and pay close attention to details. On top of that, you usually have a time limit, and the ticking clock adds to the intensity of the experience. 

So, how can you participate in an escape room outing? 

When escape rooms first became a thing, the only way to participate in them was in-person at specific venues. These venues would take the time to think of puzzles and room designs, build the rooms, and let participants in one group at a time. It immediately becomes clear that this method severely limits the number of people who can enjoy the experience at the same venue. Even if the place has more than one escape room, there is a limit to how many people can be in the room at one time. 

Enter virtual escape rooms! The second way to enjoy an escape room is through a virtual experience. Since creating the first escape room, people have wanted to find ways to make these experiences more widely accessible and from anywhere. 

Virtual escape rooms come with benefits, from allowing multiple teams to experience the same room to hosting various options without a physical location. These can also capitalize on digital tools that enable anything from fantasy to sci-fi escape rooms, using powerful 3D features and amazing visual and audio effects. 

So, there’s a way for everyone to enjoy it. 

Work Outings the Entire Team Will Enjoy 

Finding a work outing that an entire team will enjoy can be tricky. When your whole team needs to find common ground outside work, it can prove a bit of a headscratcher. So, what do you do if not everyone feels like going for drinks during happy hour or going for the same old dinner at a restaurant? 

The answer lies in a digital escape room outing that can accommodate everyone. It’s already making waves the world over and has become an innovative new way to enjoy a classic experience. 

As an alternative to traditional team-building outings, escape rooms bring out a problem-solving side that encourages teamwork. It’s a fantastic way to get to know each other in a fun way that allows everyone to add value to the outcome. It also shows everyone that your workplace has room for fun beyond the traditional sense, and as we’ve said before, a fun workplace is undoubtedly the best workplace. 

You can even look for escape rooms that best fit a theme everyone would love. Why not dress for the part if you’re all going to be bold adventurers or crime-solving Sherlocks. There are many ways to enjoy an escape room beyond the puzzles, so feel free to be creative. Even Forbes wrote about how fun the roleplaying element to escape rooms can be. 

Build Collaboration in a Fun Way 

Escape rooms offer multiple enjoyable aspects, from allowing team leaders to step up, collaborative problem solving, critical discussions, and even hilariously silly moments as the time ticks down. Getting out of the room is the primary concern, but there is ample time for everyone to enjoy themselves and learn their teammates’ strengths and weaknesses during the escape room outing. It can even operate as a summit or webinar for teams that want to do something unique once or twice a year. 

You might feel as if the experience is daunting and wonder whether your team would be capable of solving all the puzzles in the room. These puzzles require brainpower and clear communication, but that is no different from solving business-related problems. It truly is an excellent way to better work relationships and even strengthen teamwork with people who need some assistance in that department. 

To top it all off, escape room adventures are easy to organize. Since you can do it in-person or online, there’s no reason you can’t do it with a close-knit team or a team whose members work remotely from different parts of the country. It all comes down to finding the right escape room hosts and trying it. 

As explained by Huffington Post, there are many reasons to enjoy an escape room, and there is no time like the present. 

Will You Escape? 

If you think your team might be ready to step into the world of escape rooms, we have all the tools you need for your experience. 

At Puzzle Break, we have produced multiple world-famous puzzles that make up the ideal escape room outing. We have different locations across the United States that you can visit for your next escape room, and we can even host your team online for a virtual outing. 

With Puzzle Break, you have two choices: 

• Our in-person Seattle escape rooms: With our in-person experience, you can visit one of our locations across the United States with your team. We will provide you with a walkthrough of what to expect, which escape room you will take on, and time to ask any questions. After that, you’ll step into the room with your team and work against the clock, trying to get out.
• Our online virtual escape rooms: Since many teams work remotely nowadays, online escape rooms are a fantastic option. Our team of moderators will curate your experience from beginning to end. They will explain everything about the experience, answer any questions, and guide your team through the necessary steps as you discover clues, solve puzzles, and come out ahead of the complex challenges. 

At Puzzle Break, we also provide various booking options. We have a digital option for competitive play if you feel like breaking up your group and racing another team against the clock. We can also accommodate any requirements for privacy and have no problem assisting more than one person sitting at the same computer. If you’re ready to tackle a fantastic escape room outing with your team, give us a call and start booking your puzzling adventure today.

-Nate

Nate Martin

Dubbed the "Founding Father of Escape Rooms," Nate Martin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Puzzle Break, the first American escape room company. Puzzle Break is headquartered in Seattle with locations in Long Island, Massachusetts and on Royal Caribbean ships. Prior to Puzzle Break, he was a senior executive at Microsoft and Electronic Arts. He has shipped software used by billions of users as well as some of the most beloved video games of a generation. @GuyFromTomorrow on Twitter.

More posts by Nate Martin