Amidst physical distancing and Covid-19, it is understandable that escape room enthusiasts would want a more safe and sanitary experience at home. Even if your reason for a DIY mystery room is to have fun at home, then don’t worry we got you covered.
Mystery rooms are great fun and can easily be constructed within your house. Be it a temporary room or a permanent room. Preparation is the key to a DIY mystery room.
Before you begin planning your mystery room/escape room, it is important you outline the purpose for it. While the general idea is to have fun, it can also be an educational room for kids, a party room for adults, and a fun puzzle-solving time with family.
Once the desired purpose is clear, set a background story for it, escape rooms can feel like a tedious puzzle-filled cage without a good background story.
Next, ensure you have a theme and characters to along with the story. Is a set in the 1950s or 2010s? having a theme and set of characters will help in ensuring that the puzzles are relevant and do not break immersion.
With characters and themes out of the away, plan your puzzles. This is perhaps the most difficult out of all the preparations. Deciding on puzzles relevant to your escape room is important. you don’t want a puzzle involving mobile phones in a 1970’s murder escape room. that breaks the immersion.
Another key thing is to not overdo puzzles. Ensure that the experience is fun and not brain-scratching and agonizing experience. Ensure that the puzzles are not too difficult or easy. Place proper clues around.
With the basic preparation done, let us look at the 5 (five) DIY ideas to turn your ordinary room into a fun-filled mystery room/escape room.
1. LOCK & KEY
Lock and Key are some of the most essential items in a DIY escape room. locking things such as cupboards, dressers, or boxes containing clues gives a sense of purpose. Incorporating puzzles that reward you with keys instantly allows for a great search and find mission.
Simple, cheap, and effective, LOCK and KEY are available almost in every household and are great items for making interesting puzzles.
Using small padlocks to lockboxes containing clues or using a combination lock as part and parcel of a puzzle, locks have great versatility, locks and chain can even be used to seal the escape room to help with immersion.
As a safety feature, always ensure to keep spare keys with the room master or in a place accessible in case of any emergency.
2. HIDDEN ITEMS
Hiding items around the room can be great fun, finding the last piece of the puzzle can be gratifying. Hiding items behind locked doors, cabinets, dressers, or inside them is a great Idea.
Items such as passcodes, keys, clues, messages, or even a whole new puzzle can be hidden for the players to find. If you have a safe with passwords or with a traditional locking mechanism, then various things can be hidden in them.
A great idea to hide small things is to put them into other items such as balloons, bottles, out-of-reach ceilings, pillow covers.
Various objects such as plastic balls, cups, and holders can be cut or designed to hold keys in plain sight without raising suspicion.
3. WORD PUZZLES
Playing around with words is amazing, isn’t it? We all have come across a word puzzle at least once in our lifetime. However, word puzzles are a staple for escape rooms.
A word puzzle in the form of riddles and questions can be used to provide either clue or hint towards another puzzle. Writing down on small pieces of paper that can be hidden will give you an opportunity to search every nook and cranny.
Word puzzles can be made using jigsaw pieces with words written behind each piece. Requiring players to solve the jigsaw to get the next clue.
Alternatively, keep random bits of paper with a single or more alphabet hidden. The player will have to solve and make sense of these alphabets to get access to another clue/key.
Various cut-outs of the crossword puzzle can be used as hints or even puzzles. Combination puzzles requiring alphabets to align (cryptex) to form a word are another great idea that can be used.
Taking inspiration from ‘The Riddler’, Batman’s nemesis and an expert in riddles are suggested for maximum effect.
4. NUMBER PUZZLES
Just like word puzzles, number puzzles are complementary in that they can be used with lock and key mechanisms, with word puzzles, and any other riddle that is used. A combination lock can be used in which only opens with specific numbers.
A table can be created with each alphabet corresponding to a different digit. These digits can further be access codes to secret safes or items.
Various objects can be labeled with alphanumeric language. Puzzles involving the player solving and decoding secret codes from alphanumeric to numeric or alphabets can be a fun and easy DIY puzzle.
5. HIDDEN CLUES
Clues are like catalysts in an escape room. without clues, escape is slow and boring. To hide clues or to have hidden clues in a DIY escape room, a small piece of paper can be taped on any number of objects hidden out of the field of view. It is the oldest trick in the book.
Taping keys or that final jigsaw puzzle piece underneath a dresser that when found leads to another puzzle that when solved leads to the hidden item inside a pillow that when used…. you get the point. Clues can simply be hidden in plain sight with all your stuff in dressers or pen stands or places cluttered with items.
Make sure your clues even if found early can only make sense when they are found correctly and not by skipping puzzles. This will ensure players stick to the traditional way of solving puzzles to advance. Sequencing your clues and predicting the order of them being found is important.
CONCLUSION
REMEMBER, Escape rooms are immersive and fun, do not go overboard by creating impossible puzzles and tough clues. Keeping it simple is the number one rule. Ensure everyone abides by the rule as cheating or bypassing stages/puzzles will break the immersion and defeat the purpose.
With these ideas, you should be able to cater to people of all ages at your house in your room. with little preparation, you can experience a mystery room now!
