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It's November! ✨ Which means all the festive pop-up escape rooms are starting to appear. Meanwhilst I can't shake the existential dread that it was only yesterday it was January. Where did the whole year go, huh? Huh?! November also means TERPECA voting time! As always, if you've played over 100 rooms make sure you sign up and vote. Your vote has a huge impact, and also it's just excellent to support this weird little industry we're all in. In other news, REPOD is back, and I spotted not one but several interesting videos about various escape room things released this month which you can find linked below. So plenty to watch and listen to. And of course, if that's not enough, I do believe this year's ThinkyCon talks are available online. Anyway, until December, puzzle people! 👋 Be good, play lots of escape rooms, and make sure you vote. Mairi Nolan
Editor of Escape Industry News P.S. If you're already subscribed, consider forwarding this to a fellow escape room friend and let them know you think this newsletter is 10/10 very good and worth subscribing to.  |
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TERPECA Voting is Now Open With nominations now closed, the TERPECA team have released some numbers from this year's nominations phase: - Over 725 enthusiasts submitted nominations, up from 604 last year
- Over 6500 individual nominations were submitted
- Over 1150 eligible rooms received at least one nomination And with nomination stage over, it's time to vote! If you've played more than 100 escape rooms, you can sign up to be a voter and vote on your favourites. |
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REPOD Returns for Season 10 REPOD (Reality Escape Podcast) has returned for a new season, kicking off with an interview with puzzle designer Will Shortz. From the description: "For decades, the name Will Shortz has been synonymous with puzzles. Will Shortz is the crossword editor of The New York Times, the puzzle master on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, and the only person in the world with a college degree in “enigmatology,” the study of puzzles." |
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Escape Room Championship 2025 Aftermovie If you missed this year's Escape Room Championship in person or in the livestream, the team behind the competition have published an "Aftermovie" detailling some key highlights from the room and the event in general. |
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• TERPECA board member Dan Egnor has published an analysis of the horror selection bias in TERPECA voting.
• And speaking of TERPECA (yes, tis really the season), David Spira also talks about TERPECA bait in his most recent article on Room Escape Artist.
• And speaking of TERPECA (again?) Escape Roomers DE has published some interesting stats in their Facebook group.
• Extra Credits has posted an escape room video with help from Doors of Divergence.
• Blooloop has announced this year's 50 influencer list in the immersive space, and it features some familiar escape room names.
• In a recent announcement, the organisers of Game On Escape Room Conference have shared that the event will be postponed until 2027.
• Review the Room, UK escape room bloggers, have posted a round-up of the IEN Summit in London last month.
• We don't normally report on non-English language news but I saw a little spike in Korean escape room things trending this month, and it seems to have to do with this "bangtalchul cafe" phenonmenon the Korea Times is reporting on. If anyone knows more about this, I'm all ears! Not quite an escape room but we think you'll be interested in...
• Thinky Con has just concluded, and all of the talks can now be viewed online.
• Escape Simulator 2 is out! Very cool!
• ARGNet has posted a round-up of some of the puzzles from this year's Midnight Madness. Which honestly just sounds amazing the more I hear about it.
• Very not escape room related but I found this really interesting, Jim Sanborn, the designer of Kryptos is auctioning off the solution.
• There's a strong chance that Perplexing Doodles' puzzling advent calendar will be returning this year. Keep an eye out! Hopefully, so will the Confounding Calendar too, but I haven't heard anything yet. I normally list the following in "Other News" but I think they deserve their own spaces: Challenge Arcades Monthly Update
Thinky Third Thursday  |
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📆 Upcoming Dates for your Diary |
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🔑 Recent Doors Unlocked |
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🇺🇸 60 Out Escape Rooms has opened a new room, Big Brain Lab, in Los Angeles, CA.
About Last Night is a not-quite-escape-room immersive experience with puzzles, opening later this month in Fremont, CA.
Deleta Escapes has announced a new room, Unsolved History, in Pocatello, ID.
Doldricks has teased their new room launching next month, Galactic Beef, in Orlando, FL.
Portal Adventures has opened a new room, Frozen Forest, in Beaverton, OR. This was actually a few months ago but we missed it!
The Escape Game has opened a new branch at Westfield Southcentre in Seattle, WA. 🇨🇦 Improbable Escapes has opened a new room, Down the Rabbit Hole, in Kingston, ON. 🇬🇧/🇮🇪 Lots of Christmas rooms popping up! Escape the Review does an excellent job keeping track of these, and you should check out their round-up list here. Here are the non-festive rooms that opened this month: South England ClueQuest has opened a new room, Glitch Hunters: Mission Tidebreaker, in Brighton.
Escape London has opened a new room, Pirate’s Fortune, in Shadwell.
Houdini’s has opened a new room, Sneaky Finders, in Bristol.
Knockout Escape Rooms has opened a new room, The Locktopus, in Reading.
Other World Escapes has opened a new room, Solve It Society Box, in Portsmouth. East England Clue Finders has opened two new rooms in Basildon.
Cluetopia has opened a new room, What the Duck? in Braintree.
EO Escape Rooms has opened two new rooms in Sudbury.
The Evidence Room has opened a new room, The Rendlesham Room, in Bury St Edmunds. North England Breakout Chester has opened a new room, Upsidedown, in Chester.
Escape Rooms Beverley has opened a new room, 30 West Drive: The Beverley Poltergeist, in Beverley.
Houdini’s has opened a new site with five rooms in Sheffield.
Lucardo has opened two tabletop escape rooms in Manchester. Midlands Break Escape has opened a new room, Dead Man’s Chest, in Loughborough.
Hereford Escape Rooms has opened a new room, The Mystic Temple, in Hereford.
Trapp’d Chester House has opened a new room, Operation 404, in Wellingborough. Scotland Nomad Escape has opened two new rooms in Glasgow.
The Locked Door Escape Games has opened a new room, A Mysterious Ascent, in Aberdeen. Wales Beyond Breakout has opened a new experience, Chocolate Cat-astrophe, in Llanidloes.
Treforest Escape Rooms has opened a new room, The Mine, in Pontypridd. Islands MTG Escapes has opened three new rooms (two festive, one trail) in Guernsey. 🇦🇺/🇳🇿 We didn't spot any new openings in Australia / New Zealand this month! A shout out to the resources & individuals who were a huge help this month: Escape the Review (UK), Rich Bragg (USA), ERA Mag (Australia).  |
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One of my parents is learning Old English, and so I've been on the lookout for things to send them. I stumbled across this "riddle" from Anglo-Saxon England this month and thought it was too beautiful not to share: I saw a wonderful creature carrying Light plunder between its horns.
Curved lamp of the air, cunningly formed, It fetched home its loot from the day's raid
And plotted to build in its castle if it could A night-chamber brightly adorned.
Then over the east wall came another creature
Well known to earth-dwellers. Wonderful as well,
It seized back its booty and sent the plunderer home
Like an unwilling wanderer. The wretch went west,
Moved morosely and murderously on. Dust rose to the heavens, dew fell on earth-
Night moved on. Afterwards no one In the world knew where the wanderer had gone. The "answer" is two things. What is this riddle describing? |
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