London news and rumours – October 2016

news

Welcome to the October 2016 edition of the escape rumours post. Note that this is about London (and a little further afield). I do a separate (terse!) weekly post about UK news or you can read more in depth (although not quite so up-to-date) news on exitgames.co.uk.

Competitions and special offers

I put together an article earlier this month covering all the special offers in London at the moment. You can read it here.

Plans

Wow – what a month! After escaping four rooms in the first three days, I then stayed in for three weeks with only the ThinkFun escape room in a box to entertain me in the interim. That was a deliberate drought though to prepare me for a huge escape room feast in Budapest where I ended up escaping 17 rooms in 3 days. Yes, that’s excessive. Yes, I’d probably have enjoyed and appreciated them more if I’d spread them out a bit more/

Check out the front page for reviews from the North of England and eventually Budapest. I don’t anticipate catching up on review publishing till Christmas. Typically I post at most three a week and I’m already 25 behind with several more in the pipeline… It’s a tough life.

If you’re more interested in what the future brings, here’s my current list of bookings:

  • October
    • 1: Escape London
      • Area 51
      • Casino Escape
      • Da Vinci
    • 5: ClueTrace – Mind Crime
    • 10: Do Stuff Escape Games
    • 20: Mission Breakout – Codebreakers
    • 23: Trapped In (Bury)
      • Ruby Factory
      • Crazy Clown Carnival
    • 27: CoLab Theatre – Hunted

Well, at least it’s quieter than August and September…

News and Rumours

Let’s start off with the big news: Time Run have announced that they’re launching their second game next month. Tickets are already on sale for Celestial Chain priced at the same level as their original game. If you’re quick, you might be able to snap up preview tickets at only £20 but they’re going rapidly. The full launch is in late November ready for the Christmas season. They’ve taken out one of the two Lance of Longinus games to allow for the new game which I thought was an odd choice running up to the Christmas party season but with bookings available every fifteen minutes it looks like they’ve come up with an alternative way to attract larger group.

Operation Escape is a new outfit that’s opening up Bromley, South London. They’re basing their rooms around World War stories with the first one themed on WWII and called the Ops Room. Interestingly their plans include a World War III story which caught me by surprise – with two “historical” themes I didn’t think they’d look at something futuristic.

The West of London seems to be hotting up. Firstly Escape London opened up there a month or two ago, now I’ve heard rumours from different sources about two different escape rooms opening up in that area. Firstly I got a tip from a reader (thanks Chris!) that Handmade Mysteries’ new game, Poppa Plock’s Wonky Workshop, will be popping up in Acton while another reader mentioned that they’d been chatting to a shop owner in West12 (a Shepherd’s Bush shopping area) who’d told them an escape room would be opening there fairly soon. Exciting! Add to that a hint that Lock’d might open a new venue there soon and it seems that companies have finally spotted there’s a big gap in the market.

Enigma Escape are on the cusp of announcing their new room. No name or theme yet but I’d be willing to bet that they’ll be sticking with a “real” escape and carving themselves out a niche for people who want their games to truly make sense.

Enigma Quests have started beta testing Million Pound Heist and will be taking bookings from 21st October. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m excited about this game so I was pleased to see that Escape Room Reviewer, who beta tested their new game, recommended them. From what I know, this is going to be a game where you have to amass as much money as possible

Locked In A Room have finally opened in the last few days with the build out of their remaining rooms completing this month which will make them the largest escape room venue in the UK and probably Europe.

Inside Out Escape have now opened in Islington, North London with a single game, Finding Sherlock Holmes. Let’s hope this is the Sherlock Holmes’ room that London deserves.

Clue Adventures have started accepting bookings. It’s not clear to me when they opened exactly but they seem to be running on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights with bookings available this week.

Clue Trace have finally opened – I’ll be visiting them in a couple of days so expect a review of their room soon.

I got in touch with City Mazes to find out about their plans. Sadly their opening is on hold but they still plan on a venue in the capital with the date now being pushed back to the New Year.

No update on Escape Rooms plan to open in Aldgate or from Claustrophobia, or Escape Zone London. I’ll let you know if I hear more.

Something for the children?

If, like me, you’ve got children and fancy giving them something a bit like an escape room experience then there are a couple of London-based options.

I’m a kid get me out of here is an escape room like game with a distinctly educational feel targeted at kids of 8 and above. There are three different ways you can take part in their games. Firstly, they run in Blackheath during school holidays where you can go along as a small group and try it out. Secondly, they go along to fairs and festivals with varying sizes of games (they have three modules of 30 minutes each). Finally they can be hired for schools (and hopefully parties soon) for one or more days. I’m hoping to go along some time in the next couple of months, so watch this space for more details!

SI5 Missions is an escape room like game targeted at children from about the age of 6. You can either hire for a group of kids or go as a family. Or, in fact, go along in an adult group if that appeals. The Croydon branch opened up last week and has different missions for 6-7, 8+, families and adults.

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!

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