Can two people succeed in an Escape Room?

Group of 7 Escaped!

Escape rooms are games, and all games are designed to be won by the players. Our games are fun, exciting, and out-of-the-box adventures made into hour-long fantasy stories where the stakes are low, but the adrenaline is high. At the very least, an Escape Room is four walls that contains a key to get out hidden under plants, inside locked drawers, or hidden in secret panels. Normally up to three clues are given via simple riddles. At Boerne Escape Rooms, we make sure each clue helps you unlock something; that is why we use key symbols for our clues. We give you a chance to puzzle it out with a riddle, and if you are still stuck, we will continue helping until that particular puzzle piece is solved (all counting as just one clue). Most importantly, you will not really be locked in the room. For the safety and comfort of all guests, the exit door is never locked. We design puzzles you will want to get lost in, and the hour timer keeps you moving. Each room has a leaderboard, so keep it to three clues or less for a chance at the leaderboard, and get moving if you want to set the record for the room.

As with most things in life #BoerneEscapeRooms is better with a group of your friends, co- workers, wedding party, fantasy football team, family, or a date night. For the HR minded, an escape room is an excellent team-building activity. Solving puzzles and answering riddles under pressure helps bond a team - and as a bonus, it’s fun!

Imagine a team of eight of the smartest people in the room, versus you on date night, with someone you just met. Possible to get through it, but maybe not beating any high scores. Want to prove me wrong? Use code: BLOG10, for 10% off your booking at Boerne Escape Rooms

Now, my wife and I do escape rooms all the time with just the two of us. So, before you think this is an ambush, let me tell you there are advantages when you know your partner well. Let’s go over my top three.

WHAT WAS THAT?

Group of 5 Didn’t Escape!

Communication is key, and when you are in there, just the two of you, that is a huge advantage. Remarkably, it is easier to communicate when you can look someone in the eye without six other people frantically shouting riddle pieces and clue directions. This advantage alone could be the single greatest reason groups fail an escape room. Not working together and frantically looking and reading clues one at a time will quickly eat away at your 60 minutes.

Sometimes when you solve one puzzle it gives you a fragment of another puzzle. If players are not clearly communicating, they will keep all that brain power segmented and leave the room wondering what were those XYZ clues for?

So, while there is the fun and camaraderie in a bigger group, good communicate is always key.

Laser Focus

Fun for the whole family

Tunnel vision can be an ally in an escape room. With less distractions from teammates using props... inappropriately... you can lock in and solve puzzles methodically. Part of this advantage is the us vs them mentality that sets in, you are not having to worry about beating a family member to a solve to look smart, you are working with your ride or die to have a fun time, work out your brain muscles, and have a bonded memory afterwards.

This focus comes in when you find a movable prop, you are less likely to set it down and move on, or lose focus on it. If I pick up a book, I am shelving it somewhere that the spines match, or fits a slot, or has a giant label matching the book title before moving on. Because, if it moves its in play, and if its in play I am going to say it out loud “Found a book... says ‘EARTH’ on the cover” my partner either hears me and knows where it goes or says, “not now I’m working on pi to the 13th digit”.

Elbow Room

Group of 2 Escaped!

There is an advantage that two people have over groups of twelve. Escape rooms are often found in converted shopping strips, long ago a vet clinic moved out, or some postcard mailing company shuttered its doors. In these places, affordable rent can be found for Escape Room owners. Imagine turning your bedroom (9ftx12ft on average) into an escape room. Now invite a friend over, and another... fun right, and another... ok we can work with this... now four more friends... and, whoa, it is getting a bit crowded. Taking a fixed space and adding locks, puzzles, trap doors, pulleys, desks, and NASA consoles. You start to wonder if everyone put on deodorant today, and hoping no one ate a dicey lunch. If it’s difficult to move around, it will be difficult to see the big picture of the room. That’s kind of a bummer, and having looked up the fire safety space, it’s seven feet per person. So in a 9x12 (108 sq ft) room, you could legally get fifteen people in there, and I have met some owners that would try.

Now, having more people has advantages, but diminishing returns. 6-8 people make a great middle ground. This gives you 12-16 eyes covering 18-13.5 sq ft. in a 108 sq ft room, all those eyes are connected to all those brains and all those brains have hands and mouths to touch and talk. If we were all connected like the mycelium imagine how fast we could solve escape rooms! Ha!

So, a group of eight can solve eight puzzles simultaneously. A focused and systematic couple can work methodically and easily beat the large group. But a disadvantage becomes clear when you start to form expectations of the room and biases, a puzzle will suddenly be too hard, and your partner is busy. If you had a large group, you could swap in fresh eyes, and they will see things you did not.

In the end, what matters is the type of fun you are looking to have, and there are no wrong answers. It’s up to you! I hope these tips, tricks, and the discount code, will help you make the decision to pick a date, pick a time, and pick a group size to book an escape room with us at Boerne Escape Rooms