In the 1970s, several escape room-themed point-and-click and tabletop games emerged to entertain families and friends. By the early 2000s, escape rooms became more realistic by allowing players to use their brains and brawn to solve puzzles. Since then, breakout games have popped up worldwide, offering something exciting for adults and kids to play in groups.
Escape room games instill teamwork, quick thinking, and resourcefulness in their players, which is why they’re excellent activities for children. Making your own breakout game at home is relatively easy. School teachers do it for their students, so you should also be able to do it as a parent. You could even rope your kids into helping you as a bonding activity.
Escape room games instill teamwork, quick thinking, and resourcefulness in their players, which is why they’re excellent activities for children. Making your own breakout game at home is relatively easy. School teachers do it for their students, so you should also be able to do it as a parent. You could even rope in your kids to help you out as a bonding activity.
If you want to set up an escape room at home for your children but don’t know where to start, this guide should tell you all you need to know:
1.Look For Inspiration
Usually, you can’t create something out of nothing, especially if you don’t have a basis or an idea. Every escape room has a story to set the mood or feel of the experience. The story also helps you get a clue of what kind of puzzles you’ll expect to encounter. Try participating in nearby breakout games in the city, like Hour To Midnight Portland Escape Rooms, to get some inspiration.
You don’t need to form a new story for your homemade escape room. Some popular themes you could imitate include:
- Clones escaping a mad scientist’s lab
- Adventurers trapped in an archaeological site
- Museum heist
- Haunted mansion
Kids love roleplaying, and these themes encourage them to play as different characters to solve a mystery and escape the room. Interesting stories add to the engagement of any escape room game, no matter how simple it is. So, choose the one you think will get your children excited to play.
2.Keep Props Simple
Many people flock to official’ escape rooms because of how realistic some are. They make participants feel like they’re in a new world they must escape from before time runs out. You might also want to do the same for your breakout game, but remember that you don’t have as large a budget as those companies. You can still make do with most of the things you already have at home to create a fulfilling escape room experience for kids.
Start with the boxes and their corresponding locks. You may already have a bunch of these lying around. If not, you could buy affordable ones or use empty shoeboxes, so even younger children won’t have difficulty opening them. Make sure they don’t cheat by using scissors once they’re playing unless the game calls for it.
Depending on your theme or story, you can use similar-looking boxes or different ones with various types of locks. Incorporate three-to four-digit and removable locks, so the game has some variety when the kids start solving puzzles. Having a diverse set of locked boxes with differing contents will keep things interesting for the players until they finally finish the game.
3.Don’t Overcomplicate Puzzles
Once you have your locks and boxes, you can start brainstorming puzzles. Since you’re letting children play your breakout game, it’s better to stick with simple yet challenging puzzles that suit their age range.
Try some questions that match what your children are currently learning in school, like simple math problems. It’s one way to test their knowledge and apply what they learned to something other than their homework assignments. They might notice what’s going on, but if there’s a promised prize or treat in store, they’ll do their best to solve it to get to the next clue.
Escape room puzzles don’t always have to be related to numbers. You can include logic and word riddles to diversify your clue collection. Mini-games also break the monotony of solving random puzzles. Insert these games in the escape room for an additional challenge:
- Memory game
- Jigsaw puzzle with large pieces
- Picture or color matching challenge
- Hangman, Categories, or other pen-and-paper games
If the kids win the mini-game, they receive a new clue. If not, you can provide other slightly easier tasks for them to do. What matters is that the activities are mentally stimulating and, most importantly, fun for all the children involved. And it should also lead them to victory since all kids love winning some prize at the end.
4.Rehearse And Make Changes As Needed
It’s a fantastic feeling to get clues after solving multiple puzzles on your own or with your teammates. That’s what makes escape rooms so exciting for many people. Hence, you must complete a run-through of your escape room before letting the kids play with it. Imagine it as a rehearsal before the big show.
Start at the beginning of the game and pretend you’re one of your children and ask yourself these questions:
- What would they do first in this situation?
- What do you expect them to do?
- How long would they take to solve one puzzle?
- Are the tasks easy enough for them?
- Are the instructions easily understandable?
If you believe your knowledge of the game affects your first playthrough, you could ask your friends or relatives to try it out for themselves. After playing, collect their thoughts and opinions on the escape room. Then, adjust tasks that seem too confusing for the average player or remove the unnecessary parts. Prepare some hints to give on the actual game, too. All puzzles must make sense and lead to the following clues in succession for one cohesive game.
Your goal is to create a simple yet entertaining escape room challenge for children. You don’t need to make it the best one ever or worry about copyright infringement since you’ll hold the game at home. The game flow and the difficulty should be your top priority when designing breakout games for kids.
5.Get Into The Other Details
Before you let the kids play, you need to take note of and do a couple of other things. Firstly, children have pretty short attention spans. So, you must ensure your escape room and the tasks it includes don’t take too long to solve. Or else the kids will get bored quickly. Make the game last for at least 30 minutes, to be sure.
Secondly, mind the number of players. It’s easy if they’re your children since you likely only have a few. But if your kids are playing with their neighbors or classmates, you might need to consider splitting them up into groups. Also, note that you must let each group into the escape room one by one. So, if you have three groups, the whole game could take up to 1.5 hours to complete. That’s not yet including the time you need to reset all the locks.
Lastly, build up anticipation. Leave sticky notes with cryptic messages teasing the escape room around the house where your kids frequent. They’ll see these, wonder what you’re up to, and wait for something new to happen. Most children enjoy surprises, but many also love thinking they know what’s happening. Give them a little nudge in the right direction without spoiling the fun that’s in store.
6.Commence The Game
Even after a trial playthrough, you’ll never truly know if your homemade escape room is successful unless you let the children play it. Remember to set aside a few minutes to explain the rules to ensure all the participants understand what they must do to win. Don’t take too long and dump information on them, though. These are children you’re dealing with, and they want to get into the action immediately.
Expect a lot of noise and questions to pop up once the kids are in the area. If one of your puzzles is too tricky to solve, offer the kids the hint you prepared for them to progress to the next challenge. Don’t worry if things slowly become a little chaotic. That’s part of the fun of escape room games. Just gently remind the children to play as quietly as possible and assist them when needed.
After they finish the game and escape’ the room, join in their celebration. The game was a success, and the kids did a job well done. If you’ve planned a timed game and they don’t finish within the limit, give them a consolation prize that’s just as good as the grand prize. If the kids still had fun, no matter the outcome, you’ve done a great job of creating something exhilarating for them.
7.Learn From The Experience
Your first homemade escape room will probably not be your last, especially if you have a couple of other ideas and stories in mind. You can set up another one for birthdays, family reunions, or for summer and winter activities at home.
Like your rehearsal playthrough, ask the kids what they liked and disliked about the escape room. Find out if they’ve also learned something from their experience. You could use that information to improve your future breakout games or include the kids in creating the next ones with you.
Conclusion
Escape rooms are excellent ways to get the children on their feet and the gears in their brains working. On the surface, it seems like just another. But the kids don’t know they’re learning to cooperate with their teammates and be resourceful. They’re also figuring out how to solve problems under pressure to get a valuable prize.
So, even if the children are out of school for the holidays, they can still learn important life lessons and academic facts through an exciting, large-scale game at home.
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