Welcome to the August 2017 edition of the London-focused monthly escape rumours post. I’m continuing to catch up on my backlog, but there’s still a long way to go and I’m playing games almost as fast! As always, I’ve got notes on all the games I’ve played, so don’t worry too much and, if you’re after an opinion, feel free to drop me an email and I’ll try to help.

Note that this update is about London (and surrounding area). If you want to know about games further afield, then follow exitgames.co.uk, where I publish a weekly update on the UK scene.

Plans

So, what have I been up to in July? Well, it was a quiet month for me with only 19 games. The vast majority of that was a trip to the South Coast, which saw us visiting Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight. Aside from that, there were a couple of games in London at Escape Rooms Angel, a cheeky game during a family trip to Barcelona and, finally, the infamous SCRAP Zelda game…

August is going to get underway with a bang as we hit Warsaw and play almost 30 games in a four-day run. After that, I’ve got nothing lined up other than a return to play my very first game at clueQuest accompanied by Mrs Logic, Midi Logic and Mini Logic.

News and Rumours

Sad news to start the column this week with the announcement that two of the best-loved London games are set to close: Escape Plan are closing The Adventure Begins while AI Escape are closing Leo’s Path. You’ve already missed Leo’s Path but you still can play The Adventure Begins until 28th August.

The good news is that they’re only closing to make way for new games and Escape Plan have already announced The Battle For Britain which is set to open on 16th September.

Meanwhile, those of you who were expecting this column to mention the demise of Time Run‘s London Fields’ venue will likely be happy to hear that the lease has been extended and you can now book in until the end of October with the expectation being that you’ll be able to play until year end.

Trapped in opened their second game last month, Trapped in a Prison Van. Word from the first group that I know to have played it is that it’s an interesting premise but there were issues with the GMing and some of the puzzles. I’m going to wait a couple more months before checking it out to make sure that I get the best possible experience.

If you fancy becoming an actor GM, they’re looking for acting hosts.

Do Stuff Escape Games launched their second room last month, the imaginatively titled Pie and Mash Shop. I’m not aware of any enthusiasts visiting, but the Trip Advisor reviews suggest that it’s on a par with their first game.

St Augustine’s Priory, a school in Ealing, got in on the action when they decided to form an escape room club and create their own escape room. What a fantastic idea!

Last month saw SCRAP’s ballroom game Zelda: Defenders of the Triforce visiting London. I’d heard plenty about the experience, so I was curious to know how it would play out. Surprisingly, I found myself rather enjoying the whole thing in spite of what I’d been led to believe. Review to follow when I’ve got time…

City Mazes have officially announced that they’re going to open a venue in Islington. No word yet on the games they’ll be launching but, given that their most recently installed game in Oxford looked to be from a Russian design house, the London games may be a step up from most of their rooms.

Claustrophobia have updated their website and the London branch is now visible again, but this time with THREE games after adding Boardwalk Empire to the list. If you’ve ever played Claustrophobia games abroad, you’ll know that they tend to be impressive affairs, so these could be some of the most exciting games to hit London in the recent past. No hard opening date, but my expectation is for the end of the summer.

I chatted to the Escape Hunt team at the end of July about their plans for the UK. It’s all pretty interesting but, from a London point of view, the key thing is that they’re planning to open multiple venues across the capital, each containing multiple games. And even better news for those of you who remember the Escape Hunt venue that used to be in London: they seem to have a real focus on producing high quality games (although they’ll need to really work on it if they want to top the game they recently launched in Houston).

No updates on rumours about Fox in a Box. They seem to have gone quiet for now. I do have rumours from a few other London companies, including some pretty big news which I hope to be able to share with you in the not too distant future… Watch this space!

Discounts

Escape Plan are offering a 10% discount for early-bird bookers of their new game.

As is pretty normal now, there are plenty of companies on discount sites at the moment – all these are on Groupon unless mentioned otherwise:

• Adventox
• Breakin’
• Clue Adventures
• Clue Trace
• Do Stuff
• Escape Games London
• Inside Out
• Modern Fables
• Omescape’s VR experience
• Operation Escape
• Room Lockdown (Wowcher)

That’s all, folks

That’s all I’m aware of. If any of the above is incorrect, then let me know via email or in the comments below; or, equally, if you’re aware of other news, discounts or competitions, and I’ll include updates in the next edition.

Thanks for reading!