Reality Escape Pod - Escape Rooms & Immersive Games

Escape rooms may have originated in Japan, but the format has since spread around the world, evolving in fascinating ways along the way. Cultural preferences, design traditions, and local puzzle communities have all shaped what an escape room looks and feels like from country to country.

Japanese puzzle designer and immersive experience creator Tokohal (pronounced Tokoharu) joins us on REPOD to take us inside the Japanese escape room and puzzle scene, sharing insights into its unique puzzle culture.

Much of Japanese escape room and puzzle culture is designed around earning a hard-won victory. The idea is that struggling, getting stuck, and ultimately figuring something out makes the win all the sweeter. In Japan, they have a concept called ō-nazo, a style of puzzle that draws on elements introduced throughout an experience, bringing them together in a satisfying final reveal. Clever players who have been paying attention can make connections and experience hirameki, a Japanese term meaning "flash of inspiration." Many games build towards these hirameki endings, which can feel almost like a magic trick.

Tokohal specializes in designing for the ō-nazo moment. He has created many escape room-style experiences for Japanese variety game shows featuring celebrities. He has also worked on immersive experiences for Alice in Borderlands and Memory Contamination Exhibition. I really enjoyed hearing Tokohal discuss the emotional journey of solvers. He talks about how feeling that initial anger and frustration can lead to greater joy and happiness, making the solve more rewarding. I will also be adopting the term "angry drink" from now on when having that post-game debrief with my teammates.

Tokohal believes so strongly in this feeling of pride and joy from solving puzzles that he built this mechanic into his fashion line TOKIQIL. Every item of clothing in the line has a puzzle embedded in it, and you can only purchase the item after you've solved the puzzle. Talk about earning that reward!

Thank you to REA writer Matthew Stein who first met Tokohal on his three month trip exploring Japan's extensive puzzle culture. If you're interested in exploring more, I recommend checking out The Brilliance of Japanese Puzzle Culture. Planning a trip to Japan? Don't miss Reviews of English-friendly Japanese escape rooms, and we also have Tips on playing Japanese escape rooms as a foreigner.

We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: Buzzshot Bookings, Ubisoft VR Escape Games, Immersif, and Patreon supporters like you. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.

Buzzshot is proud to announce their new "all-in-one" Booking System designed from the ground up for one type of business, escape rooms.

Offering:

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. FREE Trial Account with full features* including SMS messaging, and 'Buzzshot Bookings' trial upon request. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.

Harness the power of VR Escape games to maximize your venue's potential. Deliver blockbuster adventures and impossible experiences, all brought to life in Ubisoft's most popular worlds, including Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, and more.

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get an extended free trial for an entire month of royalty-free operation. To hear more and claim your free offer, send a message via their contact page and be sure to use our code REPODxUBI26. Enter the code into the "description" field on the contact form.

Are you looking to unlock more revenue and streamline efficiency? Sam Wai is helping creatives and suppliers in the immersive industry earn more with specialist accounting and mentorship.

Offering:

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get a free one hour Business Mentoring Call. This is a focused one-to-one session to help you work through a challenge, make a difficult decision or bring more structure to your next stage of growth. We’ll explore what’s holding the business back, weigh up your options, and agree on practical next steps. You’ll leave with clearer thinking, renewed confidence and a written summary to keep you moving forward. Book through immersif.co/REPOD or email Sam [email protected] and be sure to mention REPOD to claim your free business consultation.

Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events.

By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected.

Access exclusive Patreon content such as:

Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.

If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes.

Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Sheena Vira

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht

"If you've ever met him, he has probably handed you an unusual puzzle or curious object out of his Mary Poppins bag of puzzles." Brett Kuehner is THAT guy with the puzzles. Simply look for the large gathering of people all playing with what's collectively known as "cool stuff." You'll find Brett smack dab in the middle, dispensing puzzles and curios like Johnny Appleseed sowing his apples.

Besides being a puzzle pusher, Brett is a curator, connector, and general fount of knowledge. He started his website thatguywiththepuzzles.com after amassing a huge collection of escape room and puzzle design resources that he wanted to share with his community. This links to a massive google doc with 20 pages of links to articles about technology, audio and lighting design, immersion and storytelling, and general puzzle and escape room design.

Brett is a collector of the first order, and it isn't limited to design articles. As you can see from these "shelfies," his mechanical puzzle collection is also vast and varied. But what makes Brett's collection particularly special is how readily he shares it. His collections aren't just meant to sit on a pedestal. They're an invitation to explore, play, learn, and connect with other people who love puzzles.

In today's episode, Brett chats with us about what drives his fascination with puzzles, teaching escape room design, and his philosophy when it comes to the larger puzzling community. I especially loved hearing about designing for emotions in puzzles and thinking about what we want players to feel when they're solving a puzzle. Also, Brett has the coolest parents.

That Guy With the Puzzles is a fixture at most REA events. If you ever see a man with a large sack of puzzles and a twinkle in his eye, be sure to come up and say hi. You never know what inspiration you'll walk away with.

Full Show Notes

We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: Buzzshot Bookings, Ubisoft VR Escape Games, Immersif, and Patreon supporters like you. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.

Buzzshot is proud to announce their new "all-in-one" Booking System designed from the ground up for one type of business, escape rooms.

Offering:

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. FREE Trial Account with full features* including SMS messaging, and 'Buzzshot Bookings' trial upon request. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.

Harness the power of VR Escape games to maximize your venue's potential. Deliver blockbuster adventures and impossible experiences, all brought to life in Ubisoft's most popular worlds, including Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, and more.

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get an extended free trial for an entire month of royalty-free operation. To hear more and claim your free offer, send a message via their contact page and be sure to use our code REPODxUBI26. Enter the code into the "description" field on the contact form.

Are you looking to unlock more revenue and streamline efficiency? Sam Wai is helping creatives and suppliers in the immersive industry earn more with specialist accounting and mentorship.

Offering:

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get a free one hour Business Mentoring Call. This is a focused one-to-one session to help you work through a challenge, make a difficult decision or bring more structure to your next stage of growth. We’ll explore what’s holding the business back, weigh up your options, and agree on practical next steps. You’ll leave with clearer thinking, renewed confidence and a written summary to keep you moving forward. Book through immersif.co/REPOD or email Sam [email protected] and be sure to mention REPOD to claim your free business consultation.

Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events.

By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected.

Access exclusive Patreon content such as:

Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.

If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes.

Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Sheena Vira

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht

This is also the first time we've released a podcast in full video. So even if you're typically an audio podcast listener, we highly recommend you watch the full video on Youtube (click the link above). Let us know if you enjoyed our live show, and if you'd like to attend one in the future.

Emotional, hilarious, and... sexy?! Our very first REPOD Live Show was full of unexpected turns involving McDonald's drive thrus, a romance that blossomed amidst the most terrifying experience I've ever played, and some truly memorable moments. Oh, and it also had more references to sex than we've ever had on twelve seasons of this show. I guess that's what happens when you're recording live.

We’ve been wanting to take Reality Escape Pod live for a long time. What better place to finally do it than at RECON, our own escape room convention? For this experiment, we needed the right guest. Gijs Geers of DarkPark Escape Rooms in the Netherlands was perfect for this live show. Gijs is an escape room creator, owner, and former magician who has experienced plenty of the industry’s highs and lows.

What I appreciated most, though, was how candid Gijs was willing to be. He wasn't banging the drum of his self-importance. He got real with us. At times, he even became emotional, particularly when talking about the excitement and anxiety the TERPECAs bring. It made for a surprisingly personal conversation, especially considering it was all happening live on the RECON stage.

Full Show Notes

We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: Buzzshot Bookings, Ubisoft VR Escape Games, Immersif, and Patreon supporters like you. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.

Buzzshot is proud to announce their new "all-in-one" Booking System designed from the ground up for one type of business, escape rooms.

Offering:

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. FREE Trial Account with full features* including SMS messaging, and 'Buzzshot Bookings' trial upon request. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.

Harness the power of VR Escape games to maximize your venue's potential. Deliver blockbuster adventures and impossible experiences, all brought to life in Ubisoft's most popular worlds, including Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, and more.

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get an extended free trial for an entire month of royalty-free operation. To hear more and claim your free offer, send a message via their contact page and be sure to use our code REPODxUBI26. Enter the code into the "description" field on the contact form.

Are you looking to unlock more revenue and streamline efficiency? Sam Wai is helping creatives and suppliers in the immersive industry earn more with specialist accounting and mentorship.

Offering:

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get a free one hour Business Mentoring Call. This is a focused one-to-one session to help you work through a challenge, make a difficult decision or bring more structure to your next stage of growth. We’ll explore what’s holding the business back, weigh up your options, and agree on practical next steps. You’ll leave with clearer thinking, renewed confidence and a written summary to keep you moving forward. Book through immersif.co/REPOD or email Sam [email protected] and be sure to mention REPOD to claim your free business consultation.

Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events.

By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected.

Access exclusive Patreon content such as:

Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.

If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes.

Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza & Sheena Vira

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht

In this unhinged bonus episode, David and Peih-Gee were joined by REPOD episode guests Errol and Manda. Together they laughed their way through conversations covering stories from the Cryptex Hunt to David's memory of playing his first escape room with Errol. They also talked about a variety of topics including voice acting and interesting things that people say to content creators. Also, we finally learn whether Errol achieved the abs that he threatened to develop.

Want to listen to the rest of the episode? Support us on Patreon.

When you support Room Escape Artist on Patreon at $15 per month (or above), you get access to the Spoilers Club, our exclusive podcast where hosts David Spira and Peih-Gee Law chat in depth with creators about iconic escape rooms... spoilers and all!

https://www.patreon.com/roomescapeartist

At the end of every season, Editor Steve Ewing assembles an episode built from his favorite moments from each episode. 

Whether you have listened to the all of the episodes or just want to get a taste of Season 11, we hope that you enjoy this trip through the past 12 episodes of Reality Escape Pod.

Full Show Notes

We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and the Reality Escape Convention. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.

Buzzshot is Escape Room Software, Powering Business Growth, Player Marketing, and improving the Customer Experience. They offer an assortment of pre and post game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and streamlined review management for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and Morty. Buzzshot now has integration with the other REPOD sponsors: Morty and COGS.

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.

Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events.

By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected.

Access exclusive Patreon content such as:

Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.

If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes.

Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.

Our convention, RECON, will be in Laval, Quebec Canada on August 16th & 17th, 2026.

RECON offers a curated collection of talks and experiences exploring the business and art of escape room and immersive game creation. All are welcome at this event that is crafted around professionals and aspiring professionals.

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht

In this episode, David and Peih-Gee were joined by Nick Moran to talk about his first escape room, the iconic Lance of Longinus by Time Run. This game opened in 2014 and made a truly modern escape room masterpiece back in the days of padlocks and unhinged puzzle design. David, Nick, and Peih-Gee explore the flow of the game as well as its context, influence, and demise. Be warned... the last few minutes get mildly racy.

Want to listen to the rest of the episode? Support us on Patreon.

When you support Room Escape Artist on Patreon at $15 per month (or above), you get access to the Spoilers Club, our exclusive podcast where hosts David Spira and Peih-Gee Law chat in depth with creators about iconic escape rooms... spoilers and all!

https://www.patreon.com/roomescapeartist

This one is not safe for work.

David made his improv comedy debut earlier this year on Good Morning From Hell, playing the roll of Jigsaw. 

He spent a whole weekend preparing, and absolutely wrecked his voice for this one, and loved every second of the experience. Check out Good Morning From Hell, it's a hilarious show. 

For the Season 11 finale of Reality Escape Pod, we’re turning the spotlight inward.

After years of writing reviews, producing podcasts, running RECON, hosting Tours, and building a community around immersive experiences, we asked our audience a simple question "What do you think?"

Hundreds of you responded to the Room Escape Artist audience census, sharing how you engage with our work, what you want more of, and where we can improve. Lisa Spira, editor-in-chief of Room Escape Artist, data wizard, and David's wife, joins us on the podcast to for a deep dive into the census results.

We received over 200 responses to our massive audience survey covering topics ranging from audience demographics and favorite content formats to the future of escape rooms, the rise of immersive experiences, community feedback, and some honest critiques.

We gained perspective on what our audience enjoys, their awareness of REA content, and how they consume immersive experiences. Some results were truly surprising, including how many escape rooms the average participant plays per year.

We also asked for your feedback, critiques, and worries. We addressed many of the criticisms with honest and candid replies about why some aspects of Room Escape Artist have changed over the years. We also acknowledged times when we got things wrong and explained the reasoning behind the editorial schedule and structure.

I really enjoyed sharing this behind-the-scenes look at Room Escape Artist. I thought the most interesting parts of this episode were seeing how much thought goes into the choices behind the content we put out, why certain reviews get written, why some trends excite us, and how difficult it is to serve a global community with wildly different interests.

This was a conversation about growth, and the future of Room Escape Artist, REPOD, and the escape room industry. When it comes to escape rooms, there is room for different kinds of play. We're seeing experiences that blur the lines between escape rooms, theater, games, and adventure.

As David puts it, "The medium continues to evolve, and that’s exactly what makes it exciting." I couldn't agree more.

Whether you found us through reviews, podcasts, RECON, Tours, or somewhere else entirely, we appreciate being part of your escape room journey. Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out the census and share feedback, and to those who support our community and continue listening.

Full Show Notes

We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and the Reality Escape Convention. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.

Buzzshot is Escape Room Software, Powering Business Growth, Player Marketing, and improving the Customer Experience. They offer an assortment of pre and post game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and streamlined review management for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and Morty. Buzzshot now has integration with the other REPOD sponsors: Morty and COGS.

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.

Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events.

By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected.

Access exclusive Patreon content such as:

Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.

If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes.

Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.

Our convention, RECON, will be in Laval, Quebec Canada on August 16th & 17th, 2026.

RECON offers a curated collection of talks and experiences exploring the business and art of escape room and immersive game creation. All are welcome at this event that is crafted around professionals and aspiring professionals.

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht

If you're a daily puzzle lover, your morning might start something like mine: pouring a cup of coffee and jumpstarting the brain with my favorite snack-sized games. Chief among those are the snappy games at LinkedIn, such as Queens, Zip, Tango, and Patches. The man behind this collection of puzzles powering LinkedIn's Games section is Thomas Snyder.

Thomas Snyder is a three-time World Sudoku Champion, co-author of the foundational puzzle design book Puzzlecraft, and Principal Puzzle Master at LinkedIn Games. A Harvard trained chemist, Thomas is a scientist at heart. He has a methodical approach to puzzle solving and puzzle crafting that makes for satisfying logic puzzles. However, there's also a lot of artistry to the puzzles Thomas designs.

Throughout the conversation, he emphasizes that each puzzle put out by LinkedIn is handcrafted. There is a playfulness and inventiveness to the layout and solve path. There's a dance between the puzzle creator and the solver. Thomas posts videos on LinkedIn of his solve path for the games, and he talks to us about the conversation that sparks. In fact, the whole reason behind the puzzle offerings at LinkedIn was to create opportunities for users to connect socially and bond over the games.

I especially appreciated talking about puzzles that empathize with the solver and how to create approachable puzzles that can still delight expert players. LinkedIn just launched their newest game Wend, which is Thomas's take on a word search puzzle. We also played a game I wrote, which Thomas solved embarrassingly (for me) quickly, but we had fun, which is the whole point.

If you enjoy zippy puzzle games, check out the LinkedIn Collection, and for even more fun games-on-the-go, listen to PG's Playhouse.

Full Show Notes

We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and the Reality Escape Convention. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.

Buzzshot is Escape Room Software, Powering Business Growth, Player Marketing, and improving the Customer Experience. They offer an assortment of pre and post game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and streamlined review management for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and Morty. Buzzshot now has integration with the other REPOD sponsors: Morty and COGS.

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.

Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events.

By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected.

Access exclusive Patreon content such as:

Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.

If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes.

Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.

Our convention, RECON, will be in Laval, Quebec Canada on August 16th & 17th, 2026.

RECON offers a curated collection of talks and experiences exploring the business and art of escape room and immersive game creation. All are welcome at this event that is crafted around professionals and aspiring professionals.

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht

They do things a little differently around here. That's been Steven Keller's personal design philosophy ever since he started making his first escape rooms at his company, Sauve Qui Peut, located in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec, Canada. If you've ever played games at this company, you'd know the house style is that there is no house style. Every game feels distinct and different, almost like they were designed by different people. And yet Steven is the mad genius behind it all.

Steven is one of the most instinct-driven designers I've encountered in this industry. He designed his first three rooms within five months of having the idea, before he'd even signed a lease. He deliberately avoided playing other escape rooms early on so he wouldn't get influenced. However, he eventually abandoned this philosophy when he realized that Egyptian-themed rooms were not, in fact, his invention. What hasn't changed is his core approach: start with one really cool thing, build around it, and figure out the story last. Like I said, they do things a little differently around here.

However, Steve doesn't do it alone. Shawn Mercier is Steven's right hand man, and he joins us also to give us the nuts and bolts perspective. He started as a gamemaster, began quietly fixing and improving mechanisms, and pretty soon made himself indispensable. Shawn introduced more sophisticated and reliable tech to Sauve Qui Peut's rooms. He helps keep everything running smoothly, all before he turned 26! We know, because he celebrated his birthday with us on the day of our recording.

Together, Steve and Shawn are responsible for some of the most inventive and, yes, slightly unhinged escape room design in Quebec. I really appreciated hearing Steven talk about his design process. There's a madcap creative improv quality to it, and it's part of what makes their games so quirky and memorable.

If you enjoyed this conversation and want to check out the games at Sauve Qui Peut, consider joining us on one of our future Escape, Immerse, Explore tours to the Montreal area.

Full Show Notes

We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and the Reality Escape Convention. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.

Buzzshot is Escape Room Software, Powering Business Growth, Player Marketing, and improving the Customer Experience. They offer an assortment of pre and post game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and streamlined review management for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and Morty. Buzzshot now has integration with the other REPOD sponsors: Morty and COGS.

Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:

REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.

Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events.

By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected.

Access exclusive Patreon content such as:

Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.

If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes.

Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.

Our convention, RECON, will be in Laval, Quebec Canada on August 16th & 17th, 2026.

RECON offers a curated collection of talks and experiences exploring the business and art of escape room and immersive game creation. All are welcome at this event that is crafted around professionals and aspiring professionals.

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht