Talk:Escape room video game

Content
I wish there was more to say about ETR games =\ A.Arc 15:30, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Creating escape the room games
Hi,

I'm really interested in creating an Escape the room game - but don't know how!

I'm fairly familiar with computers, and as there are so many of these games around, they surely can't be that difficult?

If anyone knows of any websites that describe the process, or software packages for creating them, I'd be very grateful!

Thanks,

Chris88.106.241.116 23:49, 22 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Not sure, but once you find out and make one, email me; I'm addicted to these games, and I can't find any more good ones! Ye Olde Luke 03:29, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Escape the room games that predate MOTAS?
Someone wrote: "The term "escape the room" and popularity of the genre is often attributed to MOTAS (2001), though there are many older examples of this style of gameplay.[1]" and refers to a site which claims "(other games that follow this format do predate MOTAS)." although no examples are given. Even the famous game "Crimson Room" is from 2004. Certainly not "many" as stated in the article. The only one that might be an early example might be "Droom". (Unknown to MOTAS' author at that time.) named also as inspiration by the creator of "Crimson Room". In 2004 the subgenre exploded with the popularity of Crimson Room and numerous games that it inspired. The "escape the room" genre did not have many games between 2001 and 2004.
 * 'Many' wasn't a term I should have introduced, the source gives no number. However, I've removed 'might' from the sentence - if the source is presumed reliable then there's no need to hedge bets or speculate about which games are considered earlier examples. That's the problem with cobbling together articles with sources which don't address the topic in detail, any kind of interpretation leads to pitfalls. Someone another (talk) 18:12, 15 December 2007 (UTC)
 * While there might be games using a similar setting, the term "Escape The Room" was introduced by the online community to refer to the online Flash games with similar settings. (Waking up in a locked room without memory). I haven't looked at the earlier game mentioned in the article though, but there might be more. MOTAS has influenced many online game developers to create their own clones and then people started calling the sub gerne 'Escape The Room' games. MOTAS has since then 'outgrown' the gerne by having outside levels. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.73.183.125 (talk) 16:47, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

The first example I can think of - although it predates the term by several years - is the 1988 ZX Spectrum text adventure Behind Closed Doors, in which you play a character who is trapped in a toilet. The goal was to escape the room, which was achieved by pushing a newspaper under the door, poking the key out of the keyhole so that it fell on the newspaper, and then retrieving the key by pulling the newspaper back under the door. I remember reading about it when it came out; the concept was new to me then. It's an obscure game but it exists. I challenge you to find an earlier example. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 14:23, 12 July 2009 (UTC) Notice that John Wilson of Zenobi wrote sequels to Behind Closed Doors as well, and as far as I recall, Retarded Creatures & Caverns was also a single-room game, though perhaps not room-escape.
 * An earlier example than Behind Closed Doors is the game known simply as One Room, by Jorge Mir. It was published as a program listing (source code) in the Rainbow Book Of Adventures for the TRS-80 in 1983 and also as a runnable program on the accompanying data cassette tape. A disk-image containing the game is available for use in TRS-80 CoCo emulators. The game has recently been ported to BBC BASIC for the 8-bit BBC Micro computer and is playable online. ahope (talk) 20:20, 13 July 2018 (UTC)

Merge with Graphic adventure game
I don't feel that "Escape the Room" is different enough from any other first person, point-and-click, adventure game to justify it as a completely separate sub-genre. Myst for example is not an Escape the Room game but it plays exactly the same. Some adventure games will even have an Escape the Room puzzle, but would not be categorized under the Escape the Room sub-genre. For these reasons I believe we should merge this article with Graphic adventure game. Eyenuh300 (talk) 04:33, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I think that a merge would be appropriate. While notable, I don't think there's much verifiable information here to write a great article. The graphic adventure game article might benefit from some of the information here. Better to have one good article than two mediocre ones. Randomran (talk) 04:42, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

There is definitely a difference in design and gameplay between a full-length point-and-click adventure and an escape room game. Escape-the-room is a category of game now: type adventure game in Google, and you get Zelda-style games and all sorts of nonsense.. type "escape the room" and you get these games. A merge might be ok, but the sheer number of these escape-room games is incredible, I think a lot of old-school adventure players don't know they're out there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.241.101.192 (talk) 22:48, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

At first thought I found it a bad idea, but after the first reactions I would have to agree that this could be part of the bigger article regarding adventure games. The last reaction made me doubt it again. I mean, if the article is about adventure games and things like RPG like and action like games are also shared in that article the editors should understand while a zelda and final fantasy like game might be a great adventure for the player of these games, these genres are totally different. Even if they are called adventure games, people looking for the real thing are frustrated by all kinds of sources polluting their search results with these action type games. Therefore distinction should be made between the old school graphic adventure games and the modern console crowd games. So I hope these genres are kept separated, then I say join this with Graphic Adventure Games. Most real adventure gamers do like other types of games but are puristic about what's called an adventure game. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.214.162.106 (talk) 03:02, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I keep a close idea on the graphic adventure game article and so far they've managed to keep out "any game that's an adventure" and instead focus on games that focus on interactive fiction, situational puzzles, and so on. Like those classics. I think we can have a really solid section on escape the room games, with a redirect to that section. A lot of the gameplay is fundamentally the same (pick up items, try to use them to solve a puzzle, advance the story, etc.) Randomran (talk) 03:27, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Escape the Room/Room Escape is definitely used a genre, and has been since at least the time of MOTAS and Crimson Room, though it is essentially a sub-genre of adventure game. The opening section has to be changed though as MYST is not really relevant: most room escape games, especially older ones are not in the style of Myst. It is relevant if discussing any particular escape games or 3D games, I think. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.167.194.91 (talk) 14:47, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

Possible references
I dug up some articles about the genre. Not sure which can be called "reliable sources", but I'll leave them here as well as putting some refs in the page. http://www.theotaku.com/worlds/kinodiaries/view/122787/escape-the-room_games%3A_a_history,_a_catalogue,_and_an_explanation/

http://samplereality.com/gmu/digital/2012/09/04/reading-escape-from-the-blue-room/

http://thachr.com/2012/what-escaped-the-real-escape-game/

http://blog.thewritersgateway.com/2009/08/21/game-of-the-week-crimson-room/

http://www.digitalplay.info/blog/2012/05/04/focus-on-genre-escape-the-room-games/

http://www.insidemobileapps.com/2012/09/26/murder-room-gives-players-a-horror-themed-room-escape-challenge/ " As with most other Japanese-developed room escape games, it is enormously challenging and not always obvious exactly what the player is supposed to do, but for fans of the genre this is part of the charm."

http://blog.mochigames.com/2011/07/28/top-5-room-escape-browser-games/ "Call them room escape games, call them point and click games, you may even call them puzzle adventures. Some players simply refer to them as “those games where you click on a bunch of stuff and solve riddles to get out of a room”. Call them what you will, but point and click room escape games are treasured gems of the Flash gaming world, and their presence is rarely seen outside of the browser."

http://www.letstalkonline.com/?p=377 "An ‘Escape the Room’ game is a popular type of game in which the player has to find hidden objects, solve puzzles and use logic to escape a room which he/she is trapped in."

http://www.sparkworkz.com/2010/11/sailing-the-flash-sea-2/ "Escape the Room games give you a First Person view of the scene – usually the inside of a locked room. You can look around, pick up objects, combine what you find or even take things apart, all in the goal of getting outside.  Often, just finding the key to the front door isn’t enough.  Codes, passwords and puzzles scattered around the walls all seek to thwart you.  They can be quite devious! There are so many possible variations on this theme, a huge number of games have spawned within this genre.  One of the earliest and most successful titles is a collection was created in 2004. This game was based around color themes.  The first in the set is called the Crimson Room where you find yourself with amnesia, trying to find a way out of your own house, room-by-room.  The most impressive series is a collection called Submachine :  a mysterious structure that seems to defy not only your own attempts to escape, but time and space as well."

http://android-games.com/2012/07/escape-the-room-in-love-is-not-tied-for-android/ "Just like other escape games the rules and gameplay are simple as you’ll collect items for your inventory and use said items to solve puzzles so you can escape from the room."

http://dangblastedcritic.blogspot.com/2011/11/escaping-from-rooms-and-eating.html

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/10/06/room-escape-a-secret-giant/

Maximum PC blog: 100 Websites To See Before You Die (Part 1) - "The premise or Crimson Room is simple: you’re in a room, its crimson, and you’re trying to escape. You’ll have to make use of everything in your environment and solve some seriously fiendish puzzles to get out. Crimson Room was so well received that it spawned an entire genre of “escape the room” adventures that now includes dozens of games." (Same content also appeared in Maximum PC's February 2011 issue: http://dl.maximumpc.com/Archives/MPC_2011_02-web.pdf)

--75.92.61.32 (talk) 00:38, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

There is no "real life version"
There is no real life version of this electronic game, it is an electronic game, and that is the end of the story. If the article was about the idea, and how that had spawned to different places, then that may be a different concept, but that isn't the case. The repeated addition of the advertisement style writing will just have this article semi-protected to stop further contamination. — billinghurst  sDrewth  11:24, 28 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Protected the article as the spammercial continues. — billinghurst  sDrewth  04:41, 1 August 2014 (UTC)
 * There is an article on io9 about the live-action version. http://io9.com/could-you-solve-enough-puzzles-to-make-it-out-of-this-l-1622405374 98.18.188.176 (talk) 02:52, 16 August 2014 (UTC)

Requested move 24 June 2023

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Moved. (non-admin closure) SilverLocust (talk) 21:55, 1 July 2023 (UTC)

Escape the room → Escape room video game – Too much confusion between the video game form and real life escape rooms - it requires clarification. Would also not be opposed to Room-escape video game depending on what people believe is more commonly used. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 21:23, 24 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Support either move ok In ictu oculi (talk) 12:23, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Support per nom. "Escape room video game" is definitely the more common term for this genre now. -- Netoholic @ 16:20, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Support with the shifting naming of the genre. However, I would argue that our disambiguation and hat note system perfectly allows for naming confusion if the genre was still popularized as "escape the room" vs real life "escape rooms". --M asem (t) 16:28, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

featured image
The current image seems to be of a real-life escape room; would it be better to have a still from an escape room video game? Exocytosis (talk) 00:28, 31 December 2023 (UTC)