Escape the Box — An Immersive Review
Escape the Box, produced by Wishing Horse Productions, is a (mostly) analog group scavenger hunt location-specific game focusing on popular and interesting structures and places of Austin, Texas. We had the opportunity to partake in a custom UT campus, and adjacent “drag” of Guadalupe St., game experience on March 21st, 2024, as part of Texas Immersive Institute’s field trips this spring semester.
I heard about their Escape the Box outdoor escape room experience from a quick conversation with one of the two leads of Wishing Horse at a TXI mixer. The quick summary of the experience I had explained to me had a similar attraction of interest and setting the right expectations — an important component Erin Reilly of TXI preaches as part of an immersive experience — that a cursory look at their web page also delivers. Wishing Horse has done a great job of setting the appropriate expectations by simplifying their game pitch into an “outdoor escape room.” As escape rooms are a concept a wide audience will be familiar with, this is an excellent quick summary of what the audience should expect. Both drawbacks and benefits to the experience can be gleaned from this simple phrase, “outdoor escape room.” “Outdoor” often implies a physically active component, and this is one part of the experience which may limit some different abled people. On the other hand, they are attracting both people that are interested in group gaming experiences — by alluding to an escape room — and those who are looking to have less digitally focused entertainment, as “outdoors” often implies more hands-on experiences. On their website they invite you to “unleash your inner detective,” and “interact with public art,” which are great ways to both target the right audience and build excitement.
On the day of the game we were greeted by the two Wishing Horse producers, Mark and Eris, a married couple who clearly have been working on streamlining this experience for some time. They introduced the narrative of the experience, that we were going through the world’s fastest master program to solve time puzzles in just one hour. After a quick slideshow to explain the masters program, each group was assigned a box of tools to use and given the advice that neither Google search nor ChatGPT would help us in problem solving our group puzzles. The box included a cipher, a map of locations, a custom newspaper (of fictional and fantastical stories), a pencil and note paper, a mad-lib card (to fill the answers to our puzzles which would be used later to solve the final puzzle), and several numbered envelopes with clues and problems to solve within. We were also given a playlist to listen to at our leisure, which later came into play with a puzzle. We were then set loose to locate our targets and solve our mysteries.
The game took us to a handful of unique statues, plaques, murals and a music venue. These were all items that most people don’t closely scrutinize, but are mostly permanent structures within the public sphere of Austin city life. At each location we used clues provided in the box to solve puzzles with information we had to find or discover at the location. One of the locations brought us into the Cactus Cafe where we combined an old Loretta Lynn concert poster and the lyrics of one of the songs on the playlist to solve our puzzle.
Our group solved each puzzle using clues provided with group discussion, and we all seemed to enjoy the experience. Part of the experience, and the only digital element besides the slide show, asked us to take group photos at particular locations, with encouragement and extra credit given to creative and entertaining content. This was an excellent way to both form group cohesion and manipulate the situation to provide lasting memories of entertainment and content, in an unobtrusive way, for Wishing Horse to use for advertising.
Our first stumbling block came with forgetting to use all the content of the box. We searched for some time at a location before finally realizing the answer was in the newspaper which we had nearly forgotten about. Mark or Eris were available via text if we needed assistance, but we managed without. There was an additional stumbling block at this same location when the mad-lib didn’t match the provided spaces with what we were sure was the answer to a puzzle. As it turns out, there was an error in the making of the mad-lib. Because of the time lost at this location, not all Wishing Horse’s fault, we did not have enough time to fulfill all the puzzles before returning to home base.
There was also some confusion about the semantics of what consisted of a “patio” at our final location where we were supposed to locate a plaque of some kind (UT has many plaques all over the place). Even though there was some confusion, and one error on the part of Wishing Horse, the game was structured so that in the finale there was wiggle room. We had enough of the mad-lib card filled out so that we were able to solve the final puzzle at home base, Wheel of Fortune style, and our group won the competition against the other group and earned our medallions. The other group seemed a little let down that they never solved their mad-lib. I can’t speak for them, but the effort from Wishing Horse to include them in the celebration seemed to fall a little flat, so I wonder if they had a less satisfying experience than our group.
Although there were some issues, Wishing Horse did an excellent job creating an interactive, group problem solving experience in just over one hour. Some of the Common Errors that Erin Reilly mentions in presentation six, “Building a Guest Experience” in her video series at TXI, were neatly avoided in the structure of this game.
Although walking fast to multiple locations does exclude some differently abled persons, the locations were designed to be relatively close to one another. You didn’t need to be an athlete to compete in this game. It also wasn’t too complicated. One way they managed to make the puzzles not too obvious but not too complicated was that although each puzzle was relatively easy, they were solved in different ways each time, using different elements of the box and game at each location. This kept players engaged and curious about what tools would be used next. Even easy puzzles are hard to solve with four people talking over one another, and the variety of tactics needed to solve the puzzles, utilizing simple math, visual cues, reading, word games etc., played into different strengths in the group. Which was another great way to build group cohesion and enjoyment. Additionally, while a time traveling scavenger hunt with a box of many different items and requests for photos seems like a lot of elements, they managed to not make the game too complicated by using puzzle techniques that some participants of each group were likely familiar with.
In all, Escape the Box appears to be a well crafted game built on years of trial and error. This is an experience with clear audience expectations and not too many barriers to entry. Relating to the tools and technologies involved was easy and group dynamics were reinforced and encouraged in a highly interactive, creative, location-specific way that utilized the surrounding environment resourcefully to create a memorable and satisfying experience. This game inspired me to utilize similar tactics in experiences that I create and I hope to see more of what Wishing Horse Productions does in the future!
Works Cited:
“Escape the Box: The Outdoor Escape Game.” Wishing Horse Productions. https://wishinghorseproductions.com/
“Building a Guest Experience.” Erin Reilly. Texas Immersive Institute. https://tower.la.utexas.edu/app_home/video?act_key=458458e71f2e2ebf7f33057fadfd90596604e4323fe33#/
