Every Escape This world passes through the same hands in the factory at 21 River Road, Bayswater. Here’s who does what.
In short: Eight crafts make an Escape This world: escape room designers, script writers, puzzle planners, set builders, scenic artists, the props team, puzzle technicians and audio production, all working in the Escape Box factory in Bayswater, Perth.
Decide what each world is and the path a team takes through it.
Designers decide what a world is: the place, the stakes, the route a team takes through it and the moment the last door opens. Every other craft builds to their plan.
Give each world its premise, its characters and their every line.
Script writers give each world its villain, its backstory and every line a player hears, from a game master’s intro to the voice on the intercom.
Plan non-linear puzzles that grow out of the story.
Puzzle planners map how a team moves through the hour. The puzzles are non-linear, so the whole team is busy, and each one moves the story on.
Frame every world at full size, to film-set standard, on the factory floor.
Set builders frame and build each world at full size in the factory: walls, floors, ceilings, hidden doors and the spaces between them where the tech lives.
Turn fresh timber and board into stone, rust and grime that look real.
Scenic artists turn new timber and board into stone, rust, ship’s planking and a century of grime, so nothing in a world looks built yesterday.
Make everything players handle, open, break and solve.
The props team, led by the Props Master, makes the things players handle: chests, keys, potions, ledgers and locks, built to be opened, turned and solved game after game.
Wire the controllers, electronics and effects that let a world respond to players.
Puzzle technicians design, build, program and maintain the electronics behind every puzzle, special effect and piece of theatre, in the workshop and on site at the centres.
Record and mix the soundtrack, the effects and the voice-overs.
Audio production records and mixes each world’s soundtrack, its sound effects and professional voice-overs, and sets up the sound systems that play them.
Prop designers and builders, tech and puzzle engineers and the maintenance crew: from set concept to construction, circuit board soldering, crafting props and everyday maintenance.
Every world the factory makes is playing at an Escape This centre in Perth, Sydney or Melbourne.
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.
Escape This’s own script writers. Working with the escape room designers at Escape Box, they create each world’s premise, its villain or hero and every line its characters speak, and Escape This’s audio production team then records those lines as professional voice-overs.
A puzzle planner at Escape This maps the route a team takes through a world. Escape This puzzles are non-linear, so several run at once and the whole team stays busy, and each one is planned to move the story on rather than interrupt it. Planners work from the designers’ plan and the writers’ story at Escape Box.
Full-size, in the factory. Escape This’s set builders frame each world’s walls, floors, ceilings and hidden doors at Escape Box in Bayswater, leaving room behind the scenes for the wiring and electronics. Scenic artists and the props team finish the set, and then it is installed at the centre where the world will play.
At Escape Box, Escape This’s scenic artists age, paint and texture every surface of a world until it looks real: new timber and board become stone walls, rusted metal, ship’s planking or a century of grime. Their work is why a freshly built Escape This set never looks like it went up last week.
The Escape This props team, led by the Props Master, in the Escape Box workshop. They make and finish the objects players pick up, open and solve, from chests and keys to potions, ledgers and locks, and build them to survive being handled game after game.
Escape This’s audio production team records and mixes each world’s soundtrack, sound effects and professional voice-overs at Escape Box, and sets up the sound system that plays them, so the music and effects come from the right places in the room. Audio system setup and design is part of the puzzle technicians’ trade too.
Escape This’s backstage crew: prop designers and builders, tech and puzzle engineers and the maintenance crew. Their work runs from set concept and construction to circuit board soldering, crafting props and everyday maintenance, and Escape This’s puzzle technicians work on site at the centres as well as in the Escape Box workshop.
Escape This advertises its backstage roles, from prop builders to puzzle technicians, at escapethiscareers.com.au, and welcomes expressions of interest for every role. Send your resume and why you fit the criteria to careers@escapethis.com.au; the factory roles are based at Escape Box in Bayswater, Perth.