Having completed a fair few escape rooms since being introduced to them some three years ago, I'm confident in saying, that new rooms have to go a little further in their design to stand out from the crowd. Puzzles that reveal codes using ultraviolet light are more often met with groans than gasps of excitement, as it's become a bit of a trope in the escape room culture. Never the less, each room I've gone to has always had at least one memorable puzzle, concept or mechanic that was new to me. An escape room I went to recently separated the players into two cells. The two groups had information that would help their counterparts unlock their cell doors making communication vital. This however was the only positive I could draw from this particular room. The other puzzles weren't as creative.
Avoiding the location or specifics on the room, one of the puzzles solutions was so odd that I spoke to the host about it at the end. Imagine going to an escape room where the theme was that of this website (it would certainly keep the decorating options to a minimum). You have collected three tokens, each with a letter on one side and a number on the other. The letters are O, E and J with numbers 2, 3 and 1 respectively. Of course, you come to the conclusion that the letters spell “JOE”, after all that fits with the room's theme and they don't spell any other words. The code must be “123”. But you'd be wrong in this case. The answer is “EOJ” with the code “321”. The reason for this reversal being “that would be too easy”, according to the instructor at the end of the session. No other puzzles were reversed and none of the flavour text in the room suggested doing anything backwards. This puzzle, as well as several others in the room, stuck me as nonsensical for the sake of replacing a challenge with a way to drain the players time.
This location boasts a twenty percent pass rate with no one completing it without some clues. This strikes me as poor design. I've not completed a room without at least some clues, but in most cases the clues have been met as a revelation and not with me trying to unravel the mystery of the clue itself.
Every time I visit an escape room I feel the itch to design a puzzle that is both interesting and has its own internal logic. I think it's time I got to making one.