Creation of the “Matrix” escape room Germany, Dusseldorf
The main story of the escape room is based on the trilogy “Matrix” movies.
The escape room includes three locations: Neo’s room, the Black Room “the matrix world” and the white room “Metro station.”
When I arrived to Germany, customers were busy with construction works: installation of gyproc overlapping. Fixing tiles on the walls. The premises refurbishment.
Since the wiring takes place before the walls are closed, I immediately started to work not to slow down the workers. The existing Internet network was used, its wires allowed to save on cables to the main panel.
While the premises were being repaired, I created some puzzles and connected the first location “Neo’s Room” since everything there was ready for the scenery installation.
To avoid the light from the street spoiling the interior, the windows were covered with a black film.
In the photo above — creation of puzzles with a decoder which players connect to find out one of the codes.
In this escape room, microcontrollers were used. Although I try to avoid them in every possible way in my work in order to raise the level of reliability.
If you want to know how to build an interesting escape room without using microcontrollers, visit my site: super-escape-room.com, there is a lot of useful information there.
All the puzzles of the escape room work from the central panel. It allows the administrator to fully control the work of the room from the console and to switch on the puzzles if necessary to help players solve them.
One of the central puzzles for the “Metro Station” location was made of an arcade machine that had been standing in the cellar for many years.
It had to be painted in 4 layers. The paint just refused to lie evenly. A feature of the white room was that in the bright light all the flaws are perfectly visible.
If you do not want to waste much time on the scenery, use dim lighting.
Besides, for mounting the buttons on the front panel, it was necessary to drill a hole for 14 mm. To do this you need a cone drill for metal that costs 60 euros. The trouble was that when I started drilling the panel it turned out to be made of steel.
To drill 6 holes, I had to waste 2 conical drills.
But it was worth it, the machine perfectly fitted the entourage. And the riddle turned out to be bright and interesting.
While the locations were on the construction, the customer prepared the waiting room for the players.
Reception was very cozy.
For one of the riddles we used a real payphone. Despite its small size players interact with it three times:
- It has a cache (coin counter);
- Players enter a password to open a cache near the phone;
- In the end it rings and a conversation record is played.
Hieroglyphs in the photo below are painted on the wall with a paint that is glowing in UV light. On the ceiling UV lamps are fixed.
Customers painted the hieroglyphs with their own hand using stencils. It took several days although 5 people took part in the process.
The “Metro Station” location is one of the episodes in the Film. Even its name MOBIL AVE is the same as in the movie. And it is used to solve the puzzle. All elements are logically sacred.
After all the riddles were securely fixed.
Tests for reliability and game tests were performed which showed a number of half-baked moments with the clues. The players couldn’t understand what to do. Quest was. The escape turned out to be more complicated than it was expected.
All the flaws were fixed and then the players began to pass the riddles in the given hour.
The peculiarity of this escape room is that the room is huge, about 70 sq. meters.
There are not so many decorations. This allows you to invite large companies of people. Up to 8 people.
Generally speaking, I noticed a trend in Europe and the US, the escape room is better to be prepared for corporate parties, for one large customer can bring substantial profits.
But this means that the room should be for 8–12 people or you should have 2–3 rooms in one location.
The escape room turned out to be interesting, spacious and in a technical style.
Not only fans of the film will like it, but also ordinary players who want some drive and complex puzzles in cyber punk style.
When I got to Tripadvisor (8 months after the opening) I was surprised to find 51 reviews and all 51 were 5 stars.
And these are real people, not fakes.
It seems like I’ve managed to build the best escape room in the city, again…
If you are planning to open a cool escape room and are looking for a reliable performer, welcome to my website:
Here you will find a lot of useful information about escape rooms construction: guides, check lists, business plans. Visit super-escape-room.com, it will be interesting!
Thank you for your attention, have a great day!
