Premier Event: Escape Room 2018
From the creaky stairs to the rough paint, with the out-of-the-way practice rooms and floorboards that squeak every other step, it’s no doubt that Century House is spooky enough to send chills down your spine—or at least eerie enough to make you feel a little uneasy. You just have to walk through the halls late at night and let your mind run wild with the possibilities to feel that crawling sense of restlessness slip down your spine and raise goosebumps on your arms. What tales would you hear if the walls could talk?
Well, you don’t need to wonder any longer. The possible stories came to life Saturday, March 31, 2018 as the Student Body Council hosted an Escape Room for the students and faculty of Maranatha Baptist University. Full of puzzles, clues, and games all crushed into a time limit, an escape room presses each team to use their wits and brains to get out as fast as possible with as little help as possible. Over two hundred people arranged into twenty teams showed up to take the challenge. Thankfully, everyone made it out alive.
The Escape Room Comes to Life
The story of an insane asylum, missing friends, confiscated letters, and illegal experiments slowly took form. It promised to be a hair-raising mission with high stakes, and people eagerly signed up for the adventure, experienced or not. The goal would be simple: rescue your friend from the evil clutches of an unnamed doctor and clear his name of the accusations, saving him from the dingy, haunted halls of Dark Hollows Psychiatric Hospital.
The story developed and so did the props and planning as everyone worked together to make the idea a reality. From its conception, the entire project took roughly eleven months to be planned, constructed, and put together. The team in charge combed thrift stores and pawn shops to find props, building any other props they might need. The desk containing the secret compartment in the third room was hand-built just for the occasion.
Fun, Games, and Leadership Opportunities
With the time constraint of ten minutes per room, the puzzles were designed to be simple enough to solve within that time but still hard enough to challenge each group. Still, to the council’s surprise, the first room stumped nearly every team. No puzzles were dismissed for being too hard, but some were modified in order to be solved within the time limit.
The entire design of the Escape Room was to bring people together and provide opportunities for leadership and fun. Dan Vanderhart, a member of the Student Body Council, said, “Not only did the Escape Room tie into Maranatha’s mission by creating an environment where students can sharpen their leadership skills through organizing a team to work through difficult problems, but it also fit into the Student Body Council’s mission by developing trust and future opportunities with students.”
All in all, students and faculty alike enjoyed the challenge of the Escape Room. Everyone who attended had a great time made many memories.
While the idea of Century House serving as an insane asylum is a bit of a stretch, the story was fun to explore and easy to produce in the halls of the 145-year-old building. A bit of mood lighting and expertly constructed props brought everything together perfectly. Combine this atmosphere with a time limit and the pressing need to solve all the puzzles while escaping the clutches of an evil scientist, and you get a great game that is fun for all. Next time you walk through the older parts of the building or hear the picked-out notes of a piano or any other instrument, perhaps entertain the idea that maybe the building is not entirely what it seems.