Mad Digest: Mark Rober's Beat Any Escape Room

BEAT ANY ESCAPE ROOM - 10 proven tricks and tips

I recently got a Roku (not to be confused with Róka, my comfort animal) so rabbit-holes of content consumption (not to be confused with TB) are emerging in my life.

I actually came across this YouTube gem and it reminded me of the way my industry throws people together and demands excellence. Project are their own Escape Rooms, right? 

So, how does a diverse (or friendly) group quickly come together, solve problems and find success? Or just hack one of dem ‘Scape Rooms?

Here is the content I reviewed:

BEAT ANY ESCAPE ROOM: 10 proven tricks and tips

By Mark Rober

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwgaTYOx0RI&feature

Watch this quick 12min clip for full, glorious details on how you can beat any Escape Room (maybe) and you might be surprised how much these applies to what we do here.

Me Writing A Lot of Junk About A 12min YouTube You Could Just Watch

The host, Mark Rober, talks with Scott Nicholson who is a Professor of Game Design and Development at Wilfrid Laurier University in Brantford, Ontario about designing games that change the world. And also how to hack games.

And…be good at. Stuff.

Mark has implemented Scott’s guidance on how to break records when it comes to solving Escape Rooms.

Our focus here is actually making games to change the world. So a lot of the games we make here have some sort of learning outcome. Our goal is to help get people to learn stuff in a playful way - Scott Nicholson

Here are the 10 tips from the video about solving an Escape Room in record time:

Think simple

Remind yourself that the average person should be able to complete the room in one hour in a well-designed room.

Search 

The first thing you should do is search for clues and items – nothing else. Keep it simple; you shouldn’t have to disassemble a light fixture or spend too much time trying to make a random item into a clue if it doesn’t match the theme.

Organize your stuff

As you find clues and items, put all the things in one location (no one should hold on to something). Group similar items together. This will make it easier to tell what you are missing and a bigger picture should start to emerge. Once you have used an item, put it in a discard pile so no one is confused while working on different puzzles.

Focus on stops

Focus on what is stopping you from moving forward to prevent getting overwhelmed. Address what is stopping forward progress. This will also prevent you from getting side-tracked by red herrings (the bane of ALL gamers).

Team roles

Poor communication is the number one reason teams fail. In Mark’s case, having a "project manager" alleviated the issue of poor communication. The PM does NOT get involved in puzzles, s/he is the person who will cycle through incoming information from the search and call out, "Everyone, we are looking for four numbers for a four digit code!" and the group will then look for that or "Everyone, that poster looks funny, take a look at that."

Lock types

You should be familiar with the most common locks and their inputs such as, combo locks, dial locks and key locks. Know some rare locks like directional locks so you don’t get tripped up by the device itself.

Code types

Know basic codes and cyphers such as Morse code, pigpen cipher or Caesar cipher. Know what they look like and what their keys look like is more important than memorizing solutions. For example, long-short patterns are probably Morse code and a list of numbers from 1-26, probably align with letters in the alphabet (1=a, 2=b, etc.)

Witten clues

When you see text, look for punctuation or grammatical errors as these are often codes within text. Even how the words are typeset on a page can give you clues as to how it can be used. Never take a note at face value. It’s a code.

Look for patterns

In Escape Rooms (or general puzzle games), few things are random. Keep a look out for like items, like colors or groupings of different things. Our brains are wired to find patterns, so, let your brain look for repeating shapes, colors, symbol styles as well as numbers and words.

Your guide is your friend
At the end of the day, you are supposed to have fun, so, if you are super frustrated, just ask for help. It’s better to take a hint and feel the excitement of escaping than being stuck on a task and leaving frustrated.

My policy for the number of people in an Escape Room is the same as the number of people in a tent – no matter what the package says, you’ll have a better time at half capacity - Scott Nicholson

Bonus Round

My takeaways having survived our project workshop errrr...personal Escape Room.

Think simple

Remind yourself that the average person should be able to complete the training and learn the stuff in the allowed time. Keep design simple. You can jazz stuff up later.

Search

Spend time getting items first, aka research. Research should be published, accessible and reviewed. Don’t go digging deeply into wormholes and unsupported or outdated materials. Also, don’t make your learner have to search too hard to find key learning points or apply the points to their next actions after training.

Organize your stuff

Put all your data in one place where everyone on the team can see and access it. This will keep everyone on the same page and prevent overwork or re-work. No one should uniquely hold information or notes. 

A single depository of information will help everyone moving faster and allow them ask better questions (stand on shoulders of giants, people). Once a resource has been fully consumed, move it to an archive/backup folder. Keep only active and truly important resources in the open.

Focus on stops

Look at immediate roadblocks, not the final deadline. Work step-by-step, not “what about in 50 years when ____.” 

Ask: What are the inputs we need to get us to the next phrase and only search for those answers. If you know you will have roadblocks, work backwards not only to give yourself time but to find the inputs to remove it.

Team roles

Assigning project based roles (not so much job title roles) means skills can be used to their greatest potential. 

Have one person who is not doing active work keep visibility to all tasks and activities in order to best direct the team toward the bigger picture. This allows others to get safely buried in the details of each task because someone is watching their back and processing their findings to move everyone forward.

Lock types

From a project standpoint, if you can’t open a lock, let someone else try before you start over. We all perform differently under pressure and pressure removes brain-power. 

Build your own mental catalog of project locks - understanding common lock types means you can make educated guesses: a three-combo lock means you only need 2 inputs, you can guess the last one. Or you might be able to access non-liner problem solving to arrive at resolution: If 1-2-3 combo is the same as 2-3-1 combo, why get bogged down in details of processes that come to the same place? Unlock that sucka.

Code types

Don’t worry about planning and figuring out every aspect of every potential problem and every little detail in order to solve every human, technical, weather, ergonomic, spiritual and task-related issue that possibly could happen. 

You only need to recognize when stuff is getting cryptic and then pull out solutions. Having a general view of what common problems might happen is a better than spending early stages of a project learning how to hot wire a car just in case you lose your keys.

Written clue

If someone is emailing you every hour about progress on a smoothly running project, what does that really mean? If different published sources are saying different things – what does that mean? Often times, requests or stories have deeper clues under the request. 

Look for things out of the ordinary when processing resources, take some extra time to focus on the meaning-type-details so you can, as they say, be more agile.

Look for patterns

You can’t see all the patterns, no matter how hard you stare. Actively cycle people through problems to get new perspectives or to find better ways of explaining something. Everyone has a different design bias and rather than bleaching these out, they should be used wisely. 

If we all have these things, might as well put them to good use.

Your guide is your friend

Have check-ins not only to provide information but to get your bearing and to ask questions. Maybe it seems embarrassing to ask your stakeholder something “basic” but why spend days of frustration trying to figure something out when your stakeholder might be able to hand it over to you? 

Who are your magic-wand people – make them work for you.

Stay humble, stay woke - Maddie