Join us deep within Robin's Hole, where it's time to pull up a cozy armchair and discuss this week's pubisode topic: When should escape rooms retire? We reflect on some of the recent real-life escape rooms we've played together in Nottingham and discuss the lifecycle of an escape room. How long should an escape room be open for? When should it be updated? When should it be retired? And how might an escape room's life be increased? If you're an owner, when do you retire your rooms?

As always, here are your recommendations for this month.

Jamie - Tears of Metal (videogame), think Dynasty Warriors, a comic book art style but set in medieval Scotland.

Mairi - The Fall (film), a trippy fairy tale of an adventure film.

Jon - The documentaries of Adam Curtis, and in particular, HyperNormalisation.

Mike - Knitting! In the background of whatever you're doing... And I quote: "It keeps your naughty hands busy"

Hosts: Mike Collins, Mairi Nolan, Jon Saunders, Jamie Gibbs

Editor: Jamie Gibbs

The solvers find themselves in a series of strange caves deep underneath Nottingham. But they quickly realise these are no ordinary spaces as they seem to shift and transform on a whim.

Jamie, how big is the space?

The size of a key or the size of a football pitch? The door is on the ceiling and of course the walls are made of purrfectly normal materials. Right. Right?!

Puzzle Maestro: Mairi Nolan

Solvers: Mike Collins, Jon Saunders, Jamie Gibbs

Episode Art: Dom Jordan

Editor: Mike Collins

TLDR: The players walk through a series spaces and can choose the size, the material on the walls, and the way out.

*blip blip blip beeeep*

Somewhere in the labyrinthine corridors of a recording studio, the solvers find themselves back and with a bigger challenge than ever: Find the cassettes and solve the puzzles to put on the ultimate BBC Radio 4 "kitchen drama". What else could possibly save the BBC from it's ten trillion pound debt, afterall? Also Jack Foley is locked in a cupboard.

This is a room which just proves that in the end, everything really is just foley.

Puzzle Maestro: Mike Collins

Solvers: Jon Saunders, Jamie Gibbs, Mairi Nolan

Episode Art: Dom Jordan

Editor: Mike Collins

TLDR: The Infinite Escape Room returns, the solvers use a variety of foley items to put on a BBC drama.

Howdy you bunch!

The mead has been replenished, and we've finally remembered the password to log back into this account. Which can only mean one thing: The new season is right around the corner! Here's a little preview from Mike as to what to expect, when to expect it, and how excited we all are to be coming back.

The Infinite Escape Room will return for the Patreon Feed at the end of March, and for all listeners in April.

We'll see you very soon 👋

Much love

xxxx

In this new series, we put our professional puzzle design experience to good use and look at escape rooms in film and TV as if they were real escape rooms.

In this podcast we're looking at the escape room episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, "The Gang Escapes". Follow Mairi, Jamie, and special guest Alex Hylands-White as they put the room through its paces and discuss what improvements they'd make to make it a better escape room.

Alex brings a wealth of escape room experience through his work as a designer at Clockwork Dog and Marketing Director at COGS. COGS is a show control software and hardware platform used to create and manage interactive live experiences like escape rooms, haunted houses, and immersive theater. It allows operators to easily design automated puzzles, control effects such as lights and sounds, and manage hardware like sensors and locks through a user-friendly interface, all without requiring complex programming skills.

Hosts: Jamie Gibbs, Mairi Nolan

Special Guest: Alex Hylands-White, Marketing Director of Clockwork Dog and COGS

Editor: Jamie Gibbs

The Witching Hour is upon us in this Halloween special, it's time to pull up a rickety, mouldy stool at the near-empty pub, the Brush, Nose and Bone. In this episode, we're joined by a master of horror, Keith Dozois of USB Escape to discuss all things horror in escape rooms. How does horror affect puzzles? What are our best (and worst) experiences with horror? And how do you make horror good in an escape room?

As always, here are your recommendations for this month.

Jamie - Ice Nine Kills (band), a metalcore whose recent output has been centred around iconic horror films, and was a big inspiration for Jamie's episode this arc.

Mairi - Strange Jigsaws (game by fleb), a short digital puzzle game about solving 50 or so rather strange jigsaws. The prequel (20 Small Mazes) is free, if you want to see what sort of thing you're getting yourself into.

Jon - Never Let Me Go (novel by Kazuo Ishiguro), a slow gentle book about a trio of young folks in the British countryside but they attend a very unusual school and are on an unusual life trajectory.

Keith - Scarlet Envelope for their fantastic puzzle games (yay), and Curios' Albrecht Manor Letters, an epistolary horror experience through writing letters. Two fantastic Canada-based game creators.

Hosts: Mairi Nolan, Jon Saunders, Jamie Gibbs

Special Guest: Keith Dozois

Editor: Jamie Gibbs

TLDR: The final episode in the VHS Nightmare arc has the four hosts chatting about all things horror game, and puzzle game design at a spooky pub.

Safely returned from their doorless room, with a hairbrush in hand, the team are left with only one VHS tape, adorned with images of graves. It sends them to a London Garden Park, with a curious statue guarding the gate, it's amazing what they call Art these days...

Puzzle Maestro: Jon Saunders

Solvers: Jamie Gibbs, Mairi Nolan

Special Guest: Keith Dozois of USB Escape

Episode Art: Dom Jordan -Dom Jordan Illustration

Editor: Jon Saunders

TLDR: The third episode in the VHS Nightmare arc follows the team and special guest Keith Dozois in an escape room set in a London graveyard.

After missing their one-flight-a-day from the Australian desert, the gang decide to shelter for the night in an abandoned shack deep in the outback. Inside they find a VHS player, and three tapes.

Last week the team tried to play a VHS tape and were transported to a sinister sewer to face a laughing clown, this week they find themselves stood in a room with no windows or doors, lit only by the pale glow of a television showing static. Until it doesn't.

With 999 possible channels for the team to uncover, this won't be an easy task.

Puzzle Maestro: Mairi Nolan

Solvers: Jamie Gibbs, Jon Saunders

Special Guest: Keith Dozois of USB Escape

Episode Art: Dom Jordan

Editor: Jon Saunders

TLDR: The second episode in the VHS Nightmare arc follows the team and special guest Keith Dozois in a Ring inspired escape room.

After missing their one-flight-a-day from the Australian desert, the gang decide to shelter for the night in an abandoned shack deep in the outback. Inside they find a VHS player, and three tapes.

But this is no ordinary VHS player, as the moment the tape goes in the world shimmers in static and we find ourselves transported to... A sewer.

There's distant crying coming from the darkness and a creepy red balloon hovering in the air. But there's no time for clowning around when there's a puzzle to solve.

If you're playing along with the puzzle, check out this visual asset when Jon finds the compass.

Puzzle Maestro: Jamie Gibbs

Solvers: Mairi Nolan, Jon Saunders

Special Guest: Keith Dozois of USB Escape

Episode Art: Dom Jordan

Editor: Jamie Gibbs

TLDR: The first episode in the VHS Nightmare arc follows the team and special guest Keith Dozois in a maze-like sewer system inspired by Stephen King's IT.

In this new series, we put our professional puzzle design experience to good use and look at escape rooms in film and TV as if they were real escape rooms.

In this podcast we're looking at the escape room episode of Inside No. 9, "CTRL ALT ESCAPE". Follow Mairi, Jamie, and special guest Alex Hylands-White as they put the room through its paces and discuss what improvements they'd make to make it a better escape room.

Alex brings a wealth of escape room experience through his work as a designer at Clockwork Dog and Marketing Director at COGS. COGS is a show control software and hardware platform used to create and manage interactive live experiences like escape rooms, haunted houses, and immersive theater. It allows operators to easily design automated puzzles, control effects such as lights and sounds, and manage hardware like sensors and locks through a user-friendly interface, all without requiring complex programming skills.

Hosts: Mairi Nolan, Jamie Gibbs

Special Guest: Alex Hylands-White, Marketing Director of Clockwork Dog and COGS

Editor: Jamie Gibbs