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• What is Lockme?

  Innovative business ventures are growing out of the global escape room boom. One of them is Lockme, a marketplace for booking so-called escape rooms. It has more than 95% market coverage in Poland and is pursuing expansion in foreign markets. It is a site for searching by various criteria, browsing, booking and then rating escape rooms. As a result, it has created a community-building and experience-sharing mechanism among enthusiasts around the ranking of the best rooms.

• Are escape rooms a sport?

  They can be. Escape rooms are primarily entertainment, fun for people of basically all ages. The multitude of scenarios, categories of rooms (criminal, adventure, thriller, or based on movie plots) allow everyone to find something for themselves. However, thanks to the fact that each such game is based on the need to fit in a certain time, and many rooms keep their own record board - the most passionate enthusiasts began to compete with each other and exchange times for beating a room, for example, on Internet forums. Red Bull was the first to reach out to these people by organizing the "Red Bull Mind Gamers" event in Hungary in 2017, which attracts teams from all over the world - this year, in their next edition, the best 23 teams competed in the finals in London. Poland, on the other hand, has held the Poland Escape national championship since 2017. The first edition attracted more than 1,700 participants, the second edition already attracted 2,750, and in 2019, the third edition saw around 3,000 escape room enthusiasts (as part of 2-4-person teams) enter the first stage. In 2020, the competition has changed its name to ER_Champ and will have a fully international formula. More at: https://erchamp.com/en/

• How does the market look in each country?

  The market in global terms is growing consistently. The upward trend continues all the time. Admittedly, some markets have stagnated or even declined, but the vast majority have grown. An increase of up to 20% in the number of escape rooms is no longer surprising - even in the most dense markets, such as the Netherlands.
  The number of puzzle rooms in the world? An estimate can be made that there are about 60,000 of them. It's hard to be sure - not least because the numbers from the US and China are approximate. New escape rooms are opening around the world all the time, and even if this trend stabilizes in Europe and North America, one can expect very strong growth in South America and Africa.
  It is noteworthy that the Netherlands has taken the lead in the number of escape rooms per capita and is rapidly approaching the level of one game per 20,000 people. There are many factors contributing to the Netherlands' success. It is a prosperous country with a work-life balance. It's also a small land area country with a relatively high population density, so each escape room has a greater reach at the start and access to a large number of customers.

• Escape rooms are a good business idea? What does it look like?

  Most companies, are single points run by enthusiasts. However, the market has already developed to the point where there are many companies that have several or even a dozen rooms in their city. Franchise networks are also already in operation, providing licensees with entire scenarios and know-how. The industry has even developed a market for additional services, i.e., for example, creators of scenarios, producers of scenery elements, special effects or systems responsible for ensuring the safety and, what is also important, the well-being of players during the game. The construction of a room until a few years ago cost about 2-6 thousand euros (ignoring the cost of premises and labor). Investments in such budgets are still being made, but if we want to move with the times, we have to expect to spend about 15-25 thousand euros. However, on the market we already have very advanced rooms, the cost of construction of which is at the level of 60-80 thousand euros.

• At what technological level are modern escape rooms?

  "You enter a dark room. Barely flashing fluorescent lights illuminate it just enough for you to be able to tell that suddenly, after crossing the door, you are in an abandoned hospital. The scenery is 100% realistic. There is quiet music coming from the speakers enhancing the aura of mystery. There is a distinctive hospital scent in the air, on the monitors you can see images from cameras throughout the complex, where you nervously look out for someone's presence, while in the room behind a thin wall someone seems to be walking around." - That, in a nutshell, is how you can describe your first experience with a sample, this time kept in the convention of a thriller, of a 3rd generation escape room scenario. These rooms have come a long way and now use the latest technology and special effects known from movies to engage game participants.

• Is it safe to play?

  Yes. Aside from the fact that this is a very professional industry, globally present, used for business, marketing, HR - from the very beginning, puzzle rooms have been created primarily by enthusiasts who visit each other's rooms, share best practices and develop standards incredibly quickly - a good example is the code of safe escape room rules, which was an internal initiative of the industry and is one step (or even several steps) ahead of top-down requirements such as fire safety. Constant monitoring, supervision of so-called game masters, periodic inspections by the fire department or emergency exits are essential. However, many companies have their own solutions to maximize safety. These include, for example, sensors and SAP system connected to the fire department unit, buttons or emergency keys that allow you to leave the game at any time and from any place. It should also be emphasized that locking out players is conventional, for the purposes of the game. Within the industry, we exchange experiences and support each other in maintaining the highest standards for one simple reason: escape room customers are our common customers.

• Do escape rooms have any value for children and young people? Is it a useful entertainment?

  Escape rooms combine learning with fun, an engaging storyline and a series of logical puzzles, brain teasers and manual tasks that can be based on any school subject or academic discipline. Escape rooms are becoming an increasingly popular form of education in the US or Scandinavian countries. The trend is also reaching Poland. There is a Facebook group for people connected with education from Poland (educators, teachers, school principals), where they exchange opinions and practices only about conducting classes in escape rooms, or even creating escape rooms for the needs of a given school. More than 21,000 people belong to it.

• What uses does the market find for escape rooms?

  Riddle rooms are used for tourist promotion of regions or cities (which is actively done, for example, by the City of Wroclaw), by the Adidas Originals brand or Microsoft, which opened the P@ssWord room in Warsaw, where the key to the exit lies in the use of new technologies, such as the various applications available within the Office suite. In turn, Emergency Exit, a well-known Polish escaperoom company, organized a major event for Samsung, which promoted its products in so-called puzzle rooms. Each product had a specific role in the storyline and mechanics of the room - for example, Bixby helped decipher text in Korean, and Galaxy Watch located an object hidden in the corners of a wall. Nearly 500 people played such a special version of Samsung's rooms. This is one example of how escape rooms can be used by those in charge of marketing or promotion. However, there are many more possibilities.

• Are escape rooms now mainstream?

  The market has only been established for 10-11 years, and there are already an estimated 60,000 escape rooms around the world. This industry is one of the fastest growing entertainment industries in the world. New escape rooms are opening all over the world all the time, and even if this trend stabilizes in Europe and North America, we can expect very strong growth in South America and Africa. Escape rooms, by the way, are no longer just entertainment venues, but also a business tool that is finding more and more new uses. Back in November 2017, ING Bank Slaski took home the top prize in the "Innovation in Recruitment - Candidate Interaction" category of the Power of Attraction competition. The bank was recognized for its use of an innovative and non-standard recruitment tool - the escape room. Escape rooms around the world are used by businesses in various industries as an HR or marketing tool. Sony Pictures opened a room in Los Angeles to support the premiere of the film "Jumanji: An Adventure in the Jungle." HBO did the same by creating rooms for fans of "Game of Thrones" or "VEEP," through which more than 1,500 people swarmed during the famous SXSW conference and festival organized by the interactive, film and music industries. Also on Polish soil one can find examples of interest in escape rooms by the film industry. The main partner of the 3rd Polish Escape Room Championship, the first stage of which was inaugurated in May this year, was the film "X-Men: Dark Phoenix".