Escape games of Hungarian origin have spread all around the world – VIDEO

The first escape room of the world opened in Budapest back in 2011. The creator of the room called “Parapark“ is Attila Gyurkovics, who only needed a cellar, some padlocks, and a good idea to realise this. 

Attila Gyurkovics created the first escape room in Budapest in his free time based on his experiences from logic games and code-cracking. After appearing in Japan, these escape games have gone global because of the creative and fun ways of escaping along with mysterious and puzzling experiences, according to malaymail.com. The scenarios can be different, but the concept is always the same:

players are locked in a room, and their objective is to follow a number of clues to find the exit.

According to Gyurkovics, his first escape room called “Parapark” was “the first real-life escape room in the whole galaxy.”

“I was surprised to discover that everyone liked it, even if at the beginning, the success rate (of players finding the way out) was 20 per cent,” AFPTV reported. He says that escape rooms provide a great opportunity to develop team spirit and cooperation while escaping and solving mysteries.

“Getting out is just a bonus, the time you spend inside with your group members, that is what really counts,”

Attila said. Even if it is a pretty minimalistic escape room, Parapark is still open for visitors in Budapest. Since its opening, thousands of escape rooms opened all around the world with different decoration, equipment, and themes. 

Photo: www.facebook.com/pg/paraparkbudapest/photos

EcoDecor (Russian firm in Moscow) exports dozens of puzzles and accessories to the US each month. “In 2015, we made between five and ten puzzles per month, while in the last two years, that went up to 50 a month,” said Ilina Talanov (co-founder of the company). She states that you need 20-30,000 USD to put together an ordinary escape room.

As it has become a trend, different institutions like museums (or schools) have started to create their own escape games to reach the public. E.g. the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam allowed visitors to look for clues and solve mysteries in the exhibition halls within the framework of the “Sherlocked” project. 

“In escape rooms, you can always touch everything, and in a museum, that’s obviously not the case. But in a museum, you can use all the stories that are inside all of the objects… it’s such a rich environment to find the right story,”

said Francie Bonn (developer of Sherlocked). 

Some cities also use escape rooms to advertise the local tourist attractions, e.g. beer brewing in Prague. In an escape game with a beer-theme, players need to unlock clues in order to find the way to secret bars, in a world where drinking beer is forbidden. 

You can read about the Hungarian role in the escape room business of the US here.

Source: malaymail.com