Escape Box is the escape room design studio and escape room factory of Escape This, Australia’s largest escape room operator. Every world is written, designed, built, wired, painted and scored here by one in-house team, then installed at a centre in Perth, Sydney or Melbourne.
In short: Escape Box is the escape room design studio and escape room factory of Escape This, Australia’s largest escape room operator, at 21 River Road, Bayswater, in Perth. One in-house team writes, designs, builds, wires, paints and scores every Escape This world here.
A prop set is not a world. What makes one is the set, the scenic art, the soundscapes, the smells, the tech and the special effects, and the factory makes all of it.
No franchise, no licence and no flat-pack rooms: the same team that writes a world’s story builds it at full size in Bayswater, wires every puzzle and paints every surface before it leaves for a centre.
The puzzles run on controllers the technicians build and program themselves, and every booking and game runs through ER-OS, Escape This’s own booking and game system.
15 worlds taken apart layer by layer: the set, the props and the tech, with their trailers.
AdventureThe Wizard’s ChamberA race against the Sorcerers of the Dark Side to wipe out a formula for eternal life.
AdventureHigh NoonOutlaws locked in the county gaol, the loot in the Sheriff’s safe next door, and the town clock ticking towards noon.
AdventureEntombedFind the missing archaeologist, Khufu’s treasure and the curse that guards it.
AdventureHitmanA lift stalled at floor 7½ opens into the secret lair of Assassins Anonymous, and its owner is out on business.
AdventureLost TombA tomb older than the Pharaohs, built to hold back a dark god, with a sandstorm closing in behind you.
AdventureThe DunnyHuge Axeman’s outback long-drop, and you need to be gone before he’s back.
MysteryHotel: Murder MysteryParis, 1920: a guest lies dead in a grand hotel, the gendarmes are on their way, and you’re the one being framed.
HorrorCannibalA copycat killer’s meat locker, and you’re on the menu unless you get out.
HorrorZombie ApocalypseA deserted lab with the cure half made, and one test subject still pacing behind the containment door.
HorrorBuried AliveOne coffin built for two, in a grave the Undertaker has already filled.
HorrorAsylumA padded cell, a chain, and someone talking to you over the intercom.
AdventureBank HeistThe getaway tunnel has caved in, so the only way out is through the vault.
ThrillerThe InstituteAn institute with something to hide, and an experiment about to begin.
AdventureCaptain NemoAboard Captain Nemo’s Nautilus as it fails, far below the waves.
AdventurePiratesBelow deck on Calico Jack’s galleon, with his treasure to steal before sunrise.Run an escape room? Partner with Escape This → Make prop sets? Partner with Escape Box →
Accused, President’s Bunker, Aladdin, Wonderland, Area 51, Super Soldier and Dragon’s Dungeon, plus sequels to The Wizard’s Chamber and Buried Alive.
Every world the factory makes is playing at an Escape This centre in Perth, Sydney or Melbourne.
Escape Box is the escape room design studio and escape room factory of Escape This, Australia’s largest escape room operator. Escape This writes, designs, builds, wires, paints and scores its escape room worlds there, at 21 River Road, Bayswater, in Perth, then installs them at its centres in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.
An escape room factory is a workshop where escape rooms are built rather than played. At Escape Box, the Escape This factory in Bayswater, Perth, sets are built at full size, props are made by hand, puzzles are wired and tested, and scenic artists finish every surface before a world is installed at a centre.
“Total immersion” is the two-word idea behind every Escape This world. At Escape Box it means a world is more than a room with puzzles: the set, the scenic art, the soundscape, the smells, the tech and the special effects all tell the same story, so players feel they are somewhere else for the whole game.
The Escape Box website takes you inside the Escape This escape room factory: the eight crafts that make a world, the hardware and software behind the puzzles, room-by-room breakdowns of fifteen Escape This worlds with their trailers, a stop-by-stop factory tour, pages for escape room operators and prop manufacturers interested in partnering with Escape This, and a fact sheet.
Eight, all employed by Escape This: escape room designers, script writers, puzzle planners, set builders, scenic artists, the props team, puzzle technicians and audio production. They work under one roof at Escape Box in Bayswater, so the people who write a world’s story are down the corridor from the people building it.
Controllers that Escape This’s puzzle technicians build and program themselves. They work on Arduino and Raspberry Pi boards, code in C++ and Python, design and solder their own circuit boards, and connect a world’s puzzles with Cat 5/6 cabling and Ethernet and serial links, in the Escape Box workshop.
ER-OS is Escape This’s own booking and game system. It takes every booking for every Escape This world at every centre, records each game as it is played and feeds the live leaderboards on escaper.com.au and the statistics on escapethat.com.au, so the results players see come straight from the games.
Fifteen so far: The Wizard’s Chamber, High Noon, Entombed, Hitman, Lost Tomb, The Dunny, Hotel: Murder Mystery, Cannibal, Zombie Apocalypse, Buried Alive, Asylum, Bank Heist, The Institute, Captain Nemo and Pirates. Each Escape Box breakdown shows the room’s set, props and tech in photos, with its Escape This trailer, and links to the room’s own page for tickets and details.
Escape Box is at 21 River Road, Bayswater WA 6053, in Perth, in the same building as the Escape This head office; the phone number is (08) 6118 0286. It is a working workshop rather than a venue, so the Escape This worlds made there are played at the centres in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.
In six steps, all in-house. Escape This starts with a story, plans the puzzles and game flow, and builds the set full-scale at Escape Box. Scenic artists and the props team dress it, puzzle technicians and audio producers add the tech, sound, light and effects, and the finished world is installed at a centre and run by trained game masters.
On the Escape Box floor now: Accused, President’s Bunker, Aladdin, Wonderland, Area 51, Super Soldier and Dragon’s Dungeon, plus sequels to The Wizard’s Chamber and Buried Alive. The same Escape This team that made the rooms in the Escape Box portfolio is designing and building them.
Escape This. Escape Box is the in-house studio and factory of Escape This, which Bernie and Daniel Janes founded in Perth in 2020. It has grown into Australia’s largest escape room operator, with centres in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne and more than 500,000 players hosted.
No. There is no franchise or licence behind any Escape This world. Escape This sometimes starts from a bought prop set, then its own team at Escape Box crafts it into a world: the set, the scenic art, the soundscapes, the smells, the tech and the special effects.
At Escape This centres: Perth CBD on Hay Street Mall, Northbridge in Perth, Sydney CBD on George Street, Manly Beach in Sydney and Melbourne CBD on Collins Street, with Brisbane and the Gold Coast coming soon. Book at escapethis.com.au; each Escape Box breakdown also links to the room’s own site.
Yes, by expression of interest only. Escape This partners with a small number of escape room operators to bring rooms from the Escape Box portfolio to their venues, installed by the operator’s own team or by the Escape Box team. Escape This is highly selective about who it works with.
Escape Box partners with prop set and furniture manufacturers to bring the final magic to their sets: the sound, the smells, the lighting, a totally immersive set and the scenic artistry that turn a collection of props into a world players believe in.
