DIY At-Home Escape Room

I love giving gifts. I will spend weeks researching ideas for the perfect present for an upcoming birthday or holiday. Wish lists? Nah, I know what you want better than you do! The problem with being the best gift-giver, is trying to one-up yourself each year. My husband is notoriously difficult to buy for. He doesn’t have everything, but he doesn’t really want anything. I’ve had a few bombs, but some good ones too. A few years ago, I took my husband to Toronto for a historic beer tour with a detour to his favourite brewery. And then a couple of years later, I bought him a 3D Printer, which I may have turned into my personal cookie-cutter-factory.

This year, I was really feeling stumped. I was trying to think of experiences rather than items. I had heard that Escape Manor was holding a special Escape at the Museum of Nature. Something family friendly that we could bring the kids along to. Perfect! But I’ve always had trouble just handing over gift cards or print-outs as gifts. It doesn’t have the right… feel.

So I made a plan: For Will to receive his gift, he would have to solve a sort-of Escape Room of his own – right in our own home.

It didn’t all go exactly to plan, I may have made a small clerical error as and there were a few hints given… but I think everyone enjoyed it and agreed it was more fun than opening an envelope!

Here is a first-person description of “The Game”.

You receive a wrapped gift.

You unwrap it.

Inside is a locked briefcase, with a note:

This leads you to the board game cupboard to look for a clue.

 Phase 1: Finding Clues

Inside the cupboard is a “new” game:

Inside the game box are seven items.

Clue notes: There are 6 final clues leading to the combination of the briefcase.  Each clue note has something useful on the front (outlined above) and the back is lined with paper with a photo of Will at various ages and glitter around the photo.

Clue 1: The QR code leads to a song on Youtube: “Seasons of Love” from RENT.  The song sings about how to measure a year, most notably, “525 600 minutes in a year”.

 Clue 2: The stacking puzzle base is taped to our kitchen scale.  Each piece of the stacking puzzle has a number on it.

The numbers on the pieces are: 32, 31, 18, 8, 7, 6, 2, 1

 Clue 3: The message in full says:

 Clue 4: The USB key has a bunch of photos of Liam on it.  All the photos have names with numbers in the format: 351g.JPG, 1965g.JPG, 200g.JPG, 12g.JPG, etc.

Clue 5: The small box is closed with a 3-number combo lock.  There is a message on it:

Clue 6: The cipher has 2 digit numbers from 00 to 99, each matching a different Emoji icon and a question at the top:

 Clue 7: An angled piece of foam is taped to the laser pointer.  You recognize the sticker – you saw one just like it strangely on the wall in the main floor bathroom when you were checking the medicine cabinet.

 Phase 2: Putting the Clues Together

How do you combine these pieces of information?

You notice the phrase on the Emoji cipher is reminiscent of the song you listened to.  How do you measure YOUR years?  Well, you just turned 36.  36 x 525600 = 18921600 = 18 92 16 00

You get the following Emojis:

You think: Man, woman, and two daughters, search, bed(room) for socks.

 In each person’s sock drawer, you find a sock that definitely doesn’t belong.  3 of them digits stitched on and the last one has a letter A stitched on.

Hey, wasn’t there a combination lock that had 3 numbers?  “I open at the clothes”?  Socks are clothes.  But what order do they go in?  The letter A… well, there was a multiple choice question about feet.  “Put your Oldest foot forward.”  Let’s try the 3 sock numbers in order from oldest person’s sock to youngest.

Woohoo!  The lock is open.  Inside, you find a pocket UV flashlight and another clue note.  The note reads:

 You use the UV light on the back of the clue note, where the glitter and the photo are.  Lo and behold, there is a hidden message under the glitter!  A single number.  You check the other clue notes you’ve found already.  Same thing – a single number for each.

You take the laser pointer with the sticker up to the other sticker location in the bathroom.  You align the sticker on the laser with the sticker on the wall, at the angle you must hold it at because of the angled piece of foam.  It points to the bathroom mirror.  You make sure the bathroom door is open, and see where the laser points… the front door!  You open the door and find another clue note taped to the outside of the door.  The note reads:

You consider.  What is your new situation? Well, you’re 36 now.  Is that grave?  Or does it mean gravity as in the force that pulls us to the earth giving us weight?  Hey, wasn’t there a kitchen scale somewhere?

You return to the kitchen scale and stacking toy puzzle.  Each ring has a number on it, all of them are less than 36.  You discover that there is only one combination of rings that adds up to 36:  32, 31, 18, 8, 7, 6, 2, 1

You place these rings on the base and take note of the measurement: 243g.

Where have you seen that…?  243g.JPG!

You review the USB full of pictures.  You find 243g.JPG:

Liam in his play tent.

You open the play tent – another clue note!

You now have 6 clue notes, each with a number and a photo on the back.  Perhaps they should be arranged from youngest to oldest to form the 2 sets of 3 numbers on the briefcase combination!

 You open the briefcase and claim your prize, and then thank your wonderful wife for all the hard work she put into this. 🙂