This site has written about Can You Escape? of Edinburgh previously, but it’s a thrill that there is now enough progress and hard fact about the site that it’s possible to write a “Coming soon” article about it.
The site is now taking bookings and is selling its first games from 5th December onwards. (The opening weekend is starting to fill up already.) They offer one sixty-minute game for teams of three to six players; the fee is £55 for teams of three, £60 for teams of four, £70 for teams of five and £75 for teams of six. The theme is pleasingly tongue-in-cheek:
Dr. Herr Kutz has hatched an evil plan to infiltrate the water systems of Edinburgh that will cause the population to go bald. We require agents to enter his home at 16 Barber Street and retrieve the secret formula from his safe as part of Operation Bald Eagle. The man is a genius, so we need a team who can release their inner detective and solve the mystery so we can save the city!
The marketing campaign is a textbook example, well worthy of attention by those uncertain about their marketing, though exact emulation of it might be a tribute too far. The web site is gorgeous; split-flap delays (also known as Solari boards, though the Czech term Pragotron is even jollier still) are always welcome, the site’s Twitter feed has already attracted buzz by running a “guess the site’s location” competition, tempting-looking keys are already being sent to local bloggers and press, who are as intrigued to receive them as you might hope. The scheme of hiding giant keys around the city with prize tickets for VIP week being up for grabs is also going to be great publicity.
This all bodes extremely well, being signs of people who know what they’re doing, they’ve clearly thought about it for a long time and it’s a relief that people who backed the crowdfunding scheme half a year ago will get their promised reward. It’ll be great fun to follow this site’s progress; let’s hope that the game itself matches up to its packaging.