Horror escape room "There is someone in this house"
the story of the creation of a scary escape room
Video from cameras during a test game
About game
A client from Moscow, Russia approached me with an order to build him a horror-style escape room with an actor.
Initially, he prepared his own script for the game, but in the course of negotiations I convinced him to change the theme of the escape room and the setting to adapt to the film "It".
This solution was proposed as more understandable for players and more flexible for implementation in the escape room.
In general, scary escape room go very well on the Russian entertainment market.
For example, in the same Germany, there are more popular logic detectives.
But Russians are not particularly fond of complex riddles, but they are willing to bright emotions.
This is neither good nor bad, just such a feature that must be taken into account when developing projects.
It was a pleasure to build this project because the client supported my ideas and actively participated in the process of creating the project.
Initially, he prepared his own script for the game, but in the course of negotiations I convinced him to change the theme of the escape room and the setting to adapt to the film "It".
This solution was proposed as more understandable for players and more flexible for implementation in the escape room.
In general, scary escape room go very well on the Russian entertainment market.
For example, in the same Germany, there are more popular logic detectives.
But Russians are not particularly fond of complex riddles, but they are willing to bright emotions.
This is neither good nor bad, just such a feature that must be taken into account when developing projects.
It was a pleasure to build this project because the client supported my ideas and actively participated in the process of creating the project.
The plot of the game
Children are missing in the city. The players are conducting their own investigation.
The last time the missing children were playing next to him. And the locals tell very strange and frightening stories that happened here.
Some say that at night he heard the screams of children from this house.
The police searched the house during the day but found nothing.
The players decide to believe the rumors and go to this house at night.
Hoping to find the missing children.
Entering the house, the door closes behind them.
And the player understands that besides them, there is someone in this house.
Now players are not just looking for children and are desperately fighting for their lives. After all, now they are new prey, the tenant of this house who hunts at night.
The last time the missing children were playing next to him. And the locals tell very strange and frightening stories that happened here.
Some say that at night he heard the screams of children from this house.
The police searched the house during the day but found nothing.
The players decide to believe the rumors and go to this house at night.
Hoping to find the missing children.
Entering the house, the door closes behind them.
And the player understands that besides them, there is someone in this house.
Now players are not just looking for children and are desperately fighting for their lives. After all, now they are new prey, the tenant of this house who hunts at night.
Gameplay
This is a large escape room, approximately 120 sq.
It has 5 locations and 13 riddles.
Usually I do more riddles, but scary horror escape room have a specificity that people are very poor at thinking under stress.
Therefore, even those riddles that are, are easy. And they belong to the class of riddles for hidden objects, dexterity, motor skills and attentiveness.
The goal of scary games is to give a person emotions and immerse them in the world of the game.
Complex riddles only distract from this goal.
The actor eats in the game. He plays the role of a clown. The mask creates a very striking image. The photos do not convey this well, but the clown is really very scary. Especially when he starts to breathe loudly.
By the rules of the best horror movies, I don't show the clown at the beginning of the game.
Whipping up the fear of players with screamers, sounds, atmosphere and darkness.
Only in 3 parts of the game in the penultimate location the players see the clown for the first time.
This approach creates anticipation of fear, which reveals much more vividly the ending with the clown chasing the players to the exit door.
All locations have different decor:
1 location - garbage tunnel, players pass it with a flashlight
2 location - children's room, warm light and toys
3 location - green room with gloomy dolls on chains
4 location - neon room with mannequins of people and stuffed birds
5 location - red room with children's clothes and circus style
It has 5 locations and 13 riddles.
Usually I do more riddles, but scary horror escape room have a specificity that people are very poor at thinking under stress.
Therefore, even those riddles that are, are easy. And they belong to the class of riddles for hidden objects, dexterity, motor skills and attentiveness.
The goal of scary games is to give a person emotions and immerse them in the world of the game.
Complex riddles only distract from this goal.
The actor eats in the game. He plays the role of a clown. The mask creates a very striking image. The photos do not convey this well, but the clown is really very scary. Especially when he starts to breathe loudly.
By the rules of the best horror movies, I don't show the clown at the beginning of the game.
Whipping up the fear of players with screamers, sounds, atmosphere and darkness.
Only in 3 parts of the game in the penultimate location the players see the clown for the first time.
This approach creates anticipation of fear, which reveals much more vividly the ending with the clown chasing the players to the exit door.
All locations have different decor:
1 location - garbage tunnel, players pass it with a flashlight
2 location - children's room, warm light and toys
3 location - green room with gloomy dolls on chains
4 location - neon room with mannequins of people and stuffed birds
5 location - red room with children's clothes and circus style
Development features
The escape room was pristine when I arrived at the construction site of the game.
This commercial space was rented out immediately after the construction of the residential building, and therefore in the photo you can only see the concrete walls.
Since the game is in a horror style, it made it easier to create decor. A decorator's best friend is darkness. And horror is almost like darkness.
In addition, a horror movie about an abandoned house. Therefore, although the scenery was very large in volume due to the large footage of the room, their creation took only about a month of work.
After making the wood base, I quickly painted everything from the bullet, then applied decorative shading to create a textured look.
We devoted about a week to finding free props in landfills.
The Moscow landfill owners turned out to be very enterprising and had to bargain pretty much knocking down the price of garbage, but that for some garbage is a useful props for me.
To prevent players from getting bored with the monotonous decor of a destroyed house, all 5 locations have a different concept of lighting and filling items.
The hidden point that played a big role in the positive feedback from the players was the tunnels.
In the photo you can see the low tunnels that I covered with plywood.
On them the player moves between locations. I made them in such a way as to create the feeling of an "endless home". Players do not understand the real size of the locations due to the peculiarities of the tunnels and their turns.
For example, players from 2 locations fall into 3 by crawling through a tunnel in 1 location. And from 3 to 4 through 5 locations. At the same time, the tunnel does not take up space, but itself is part of the decor both outside and inside.
Using tight spaces and darkness as another way to create fear in players.
I liked building this escape room. And I was pleased with the positive reviews on the test games. It was great to hear grown tough guys squeak like girls, afraid to go into the tunnel, simply because: "there are scary sounds coming from there."
This commercial space was rented out immediately after the construction of the residential building, and therefore in the photo you can only see the concrete walls.
Since the game is in a horror style, it made it easier to create decor. A decorator's best friend is darkness. And horror is almost like darkness.
In addition, a horror movie about an abandoned house. Therefore, although the scenery was very large in volume due to the large footage of the room, their creation took only about a month of work.
After making the wood base, I quickly painted everything from the bullet, then applied decorative shading to create a textured look.
We devoted about a week to finding free props in landfills.
The Moscow landfill owners turned out to be very enterprising and had to bargain pretty much knocking down the price of garbage, but that for some garbage is a useful props for me.
To prevent players from getting bored with the monotonous decor of a destroyed house, all 5 locations have a different concept of lighting and filling items.
The hidden point that played a big role in the positive feedback from the players was the tunnels.
In the photo you can see the low tunnels that I covered with plywood.
On them the player moves between locations. I made them in such a way as to create the feeling of an "endless home". Players do not understand the real size of the locations due to the peculiarities of the tunnels and their turns.
For example, players from 2 locations fall into 3 by crawling through a tunnel in 1 location. And from 3 to 4 through 5 locations. At the same time, the tunnel does not take up space, but itself is part of the decor both outside and inside.
Using tight spaces and darkness as another way to create fear in players.
I liked building this escape room. And I was pleased with the positive reviews on the test games. It was great to hear grown tough guys squeak like girls, afraid to go into the tunnel, simply because: "there are scary sounds coming from there."
You can find out more details about the construction of the horror escape room "There is someone in this house" by downloading the PDF file.
