Planning Your Escape: Strategy Secrets to Make You an Escape Room Superstar

by L.E. Hall

Never get stuck inside an escape room again, with this strategy guidebook to beating your favorite immersive interactive game—from a well-known game designer and puzzle enthusiast

Chances are you have visited an escape room, whether for a birthday party, a corporate team-building exercise, or as a weekend excursion with your friends. But what does it take to maximize your chances of solving the puzzles, while ensuring everyone has a good time along the way?

Planning Your Escape is the perfect guide to making sure you never get stuck in another escape room again. Game designer extraordinaire Laura Hall has all the best strategies for every room you might encounter, so your team can function like a well-oiled machine. This guide
-A history of puzzles and experiential entertainment, from the 4,000-year-old dexterity puzzles of Mohenjo-daro to the spectacle of immersive theater installations like Secret Cinema, Meow Wolf, and Sleep No More;
-Different types of escape rooms, and solvable examples of the common puzzles they employ;
-Common escape room player personality types, and how best to work with them; and
-Advice for constructing your own escape rooms and puzzle hunts

Bringing in a cast of experts, Planning Your Escape is the must-have strategy book for any escape room enthusiast, puzzle fan, and aspiring experience designer. Get ready to wow your friends and impress your co-workers with your new skills, and never enter a room you can’t get out of again!

Genres: Nonfiction, Games

311 pages, Paperback

Published August 3, 2021

Reviews

[Ransom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book really is written for beginners and I did find that some sections were a bit basic. I imagine most people who would be picking this up already know something about escape rooms, so some of the material feels unnecessary. In addition, the whole first half of the book is a history of puzzles and games and can feel a bit disjointed and disconnected at times. It might have made more sense to separate this into two separate books: one on history and one on strategy.

The second half of the book has some really helpful lists and examples of common codes, puzzles, and ciphers as well as some general strategies and tips for escape rooms. I was able to put several of these to good use and beat an escape room with some friends after reading. This section was in general, quite useful and worthwhile!

I won this as a Goodreads Giveaway.

[Cari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slim volume is a good choice for any public library, especially for beginning escape room players and those doing research on the hobby. There's lots of great history, and Hall weaves in the different heritages of escape rooms from other kinds of entertainment such as amusement parks and D&D. I thought the parts about ARGs (alternate reality games) were the most interesting. There's also a lot of good information about early video games and the appeal of puzzle games such as Myst. I am an advanced player, so the strategy section wasn't very useful to me, but I can definitely see handing this book to a patron who is new to the experience. Now that it's slightly safer to do group things in my area of the world, I expect more people will be excited about trying rooms!

[Justine Olawsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

3-stars for content; 4-stars for vision; 4-stars for jaunty authorial voice.

This was a fun book. Our whole family loves escape rooms and puzzle games of all sorts, and I was eager to read this account to peek into the mind of someone who creates these games and how she goes about it. I wish that the book had had more in it precisely about the hows of pulling it all together - for example, a whole chapter that simply lays out the nitty-gritty of designing an escape room from first concept to first paid participant. Reading through the book, you can glean this information; however, I would have loved it all spelled out, because I think these game designers are geniuses!

The author begins with a history of humans and their gaming ways, digging into different cultures and showing how technology advancements have shaped the ways we play. The second part of the book is an in-depth exploration of all the various types of puzzles one might encounter in an escape room. I can vouch that these all show up somewhere along the line, when you do enough escape room games! Teamwork is the main stress throughout - you are not a puzzle wizard silo! - and she never ceases to exhort gamers to ask for hints when they need to move the story solutions along. It is hard to ask for hints, and Hall does what she can to remove the stigma surrounding it.

One of my favorite parts was her description of various players who might show up on your team - and then the dark side version of each. Hilarious! A good caution to remember to be a team player at all times - and, if you see a clue on the ceiling, don't just observe that and keep it to yourself, Grandma. 🙄

Overall, a nice cozy read that will have you licking your chops to get locked back in a room with no means of escape but your own wits and those of your teammates. So, our next escape room adventure is booked for Monday. Wish us luck!

[Geordie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I rather wanted to like this book; L.E. Hall is a good writer, witty, and knows her stuff. It's not her fault I don't like the book, maybe it's the subject material? She writes about how to escape from escape rooms, and really, there's not that much to write about. It's painfully obvious right after the first chapter, as a bloated one-third of the book is a history of games that tells us almost nothing about escape rooms, and literally nothing about escaping them. Though the book picks up after this, it is still over-filled with side-notes and self-evident advice. Have a snack before attempting an escape room, but don't do it on a full stomach. Don't do it in formal clothes. Don't make a team with a bunch of jerks. Did any of that need to be said out loud?
L.E. Hall really tries, but ultimately there isn't that much to be said about the topic. I'd give 4 stars if this were a pamphlet, but there is not enough substance for it to be a 304 page book!

[Kat Ice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Escape rooms are some of my All time favorite hobby so seeing a book about it got me very happy!! I bought it and just finished reading it. I was actually very disappointed! The first half of it was about the history of gaming. But all gaming not just escape games. It was interesting but all I cared about was escape games. The second half was how to play and some tips and tricks. If I was a new player this would be great! It really had some great tips and tricks but me being a big player it wasn’t that helpful. My team and I already knew all of these tips and tricks. It was an ok read but nothing I need to read again since we knew almost everything in this.

[Brian Enigma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a fairly experienced puzzler and escape room enthusiast. Despite the book being aimed toward newbies, I learned some great things, including:

- A deep history of immersive games.
- The psychology and dynamics of working with a team, including pointing out some negative archetypes.
- It conveyed puzzling ideas I intuitively knew, but didn't have a great vocabulary for explaining to others.

So whether you're beginner, intermediate, or advanced, I think you'll find something entertaining and worthwhile in here.

[Brent Mair]

The content of the book doesn't fit the title well, with over half the content being a history of puzzles and puzzle adjacent events. I did enjoy this once I settled into the book. The last part of a rudimentary set of information for those not familiar with escape rooms then a short primer on how to make puzzles.

Overall happy I read it but not what I wanted when I got it. Will likely reread later with different expectations.

[Rob Blatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed the history behind escape rooms and how each step of the way connects to the mechanics of the modern escape room. Also the book does a very good job of giving the the vocabulary of gaming and how it connects to escape rooms and also solidly gives a few ways you might be looking at clues askew.

[Adrian Hon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swift and entertaining gallop through the history of escape rooms, with good tips for escape room players.