Featuring a Q&A with Escape From Dalnavert’s Co-Creator, Eric Rae
This Halloween, Dalnavert is trying something new. On Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from October 13 to November 5, groups of 4 to 8 will be able to Escape From Dalnavert at our a Dracula-themed escape house! But what is an escape house? Why are we doing this? How did this happen? There are answers to these questions and more in this blog post.
What is an escape room?
An escape room is a live-action, team-based, immersive experience and game. The objective of an escape room is for the team of players to discover hints, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks within the defined space to accomplish a defined goal, usually to escape. Teams must use logical thinking and communication to work together to accomplish the goal. If they succeed, they have “won” the game.
Escape room is an umbrella term for a variety of similar games. The goal is not always to escape, nor does the game necessarily take place in one room. Most escape rooms have a time limit (usually 1 hour) and are designed for teams of 2 to 10 players. Escape From Dalnavert takes place over 2 hours and is designed for teams of 4 to 8.
We have decided to call Escape From Dalnavert an escape house rather than an escape room to more accurately convey the nature of the game, which takes place across multiple rooms within our lovely Victorian mansion.
A brief history of escape rooms
Game scholars have listed numerous influences on the escape room including live-action role playing (LARPing), interactive theatre, adventure and horror movies, point-and-click adventure games, treasure- and puzzle-hunts, television game shows of the 80s and 90s, and table-top roleplaying games (TRPGs) like Dungeons and Dragons. Escape rooms combine aspects of role-playing, problem-solving, and teamwork that can be found in some capacity in all of the above activities.
An important precursor of the escape room with particular influence on Escape From Dalnavert is, of course, the haunted house.
Of course? Why ‘Of course?’ you may ask.
Well, it’s not just the spookiness of our vampire theme that links Escape From Dalnavert to the haunted house tradition. The modern understanding of the haunted house originated around the time when the Macdonald family was still living at Dalnavert. Many people in the early 20th century were fascinated by the occult, including possibly the Macdonalds. Hugh John attended a séance in 1904. However, such superstition was publicly frowned upon and considered idolatrous.
An excerpt from “Superstition à la Mode” from the 1911 Girls’ Own Annual
The haunted house has its origins in 19th-century London. Marie Tussaud (yes, that Madame Tussaud) made grotesque wax sculptures including death masks of the guillotine victims of the French Revolution. When her wax displays became a permanent exhibition in London, she called the collection the “Chamber of Horrors.” The first proper haunted house, in the modern sense, is thought to be Orton & Spooner’s “Haunted Cottage,” built in England in 1915.
The early- and mid-20th century marked a shift towards the formation of the contemporary idea and celebration of Halloween. So, many of our modern sensibilities about what is or isn’t ‘spooky’ are informed by this time period.
The haunted house was popular during the great depression as a way to keep kids entertained and prevent them from getting up to more dangerous shenanigans like pestering strangers and property damage. But the haunted house wouldn’t become the cultural icon we know it as today until the late 1960s when Disney launched its Haunted Mansion.
The escape room as we know it arrived on scene in 2007 when Japan’s SCRAP Co. released their Real Escape Game. The escape room caught on in Asia and Europe in the late 2000s and then made its way to Australia, the United States, and, eventually Canada. Canada’s first escape room opened circa 2013 and the first one in Winnipeg opened in late 2014. Ever since, escape rooms have been springing up rapidly.
Learn more about Victorian Halloween from our last year's Halloween blog post or check out our post on the rise of spiritualism.
Interview with the Escape Room Creator
Escape From Dalnavert’s co-creator, Eric Rae of Rose Coloured Apocalypse, is here to answer your questions about escape rooms and our upcoming Halloween event.
(Note: This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.)
What is an escape room?
Eric Rae: An escape room is a themed room full of puzzles that you have to solve in order to complete a goal. When they first started, the goal was to escape, but escape rooms have evolved and there can be all kinds of different goals, depending on the theme or story.
How do escape rooms work?
ER: Generally, there's a little bit of a themed introduction before you go into the room, then you go into the room and usually have an hour to "escape" by solving the puzzles.
Can you win? Do you win anything?
ER: You can win! By solving all the puzzles and escaping! There usually aren't prizes, but you get bragging rights, and a lot of escape rooms have leaderboards that keep track of the fastest groups.
(Editor’s note: This interview was completed prior to the announcement of The Grand Escape Prize, provided by Liquor Mart.)
Are you actually locked in?
ER: For fire safety reasons, no.
How and why did you get into designing escape rooms?
ER: I got into the design side of escape rooms while I was doing my masters in Nice, France. My research was on theatre space, how it influenced the audience experience and how changing the space could change that experience. At the same time, I was working in an escape room as a gamemaster (the person who watches the players, makes sure they don't wreck the place and gives them hints when they need help). These two things occupying so much space in my brain at once started to combine. How could escape rooms become more theatrical to improve immersion, or even incorporate the gamemaster into the experience to change up the kinds of puzzles possible and make it an overall more interesting experience.
Have you done any/many escape rooms? Are you good at them?
ER: I've done around 20 escape rooms now, I think. I'm pretty good at them. Escape rooms are a team effort. You need a variety of different skills to have a successful team. Observation, logic, communication, leadership, [and] organization are among the skills the team needs to have among its members. I'm a leader and a "oh! These two things go together!" kind of player.
Can you give a quick overview of the escape room design process?
ER: This is actually my first time designing a room! I've been creating puzzles for rooms for around a year, and altering existing rooms to be more immersive, but this is my first time designing a whole escape experience. I think it differs depending on the designer though. Since I come from a theatre background, I started with the story and characters, then built some puzzles and put them in order to create sort of a flow to the whole thing. The steps aren't neatly separated though; I'll come up with a puzzle and then alter the story to fit it in, or change the flow to incorporate the new puzzle.
Can you share a brief overview of Escape From Dalnavert?
ER: The Dalnavert website does a pretty good job of that, and I don't want to give away too much.
What differentiates Escape From Dalnavert from other escape rooms?
ER: The biggest differences are in the atmosphere as well as in the building of the experience. Even the best escape room designer would have a hard time matching Dalnavert for atmosphere. It's authentic and comes across as such. The second is a limitation that will reflect the types of puzzles involved. Escape rooms are built from the bare bones of a space to incorporate puzzles and effects into the walls, floor, anything. We couldn't build anything into the museum, so you're not going to see a lot of the tech you often find in escape rooms (RFIDs, magnets and magnetic locks, secret doors, etc.).
Given the opportunities and restrictions presented by the house, I've tried to lean into the experience and story side of things, rather than the technology and big set piece puzzles traditional escape rooms offer. If players treat this like other escape rooms and try to get through it as fast as they can, rather than immersing themselves in the world of Bram Stoker's Dracula, it isn't going to be as much fun. Suspend your disbelief, give yourself over to the experience, and you'll have a great time!
What, if any, previous knowledge of Dalnavert, Dracula, and the Victorian era is required to successfully complete the escape house?
ER: None! A good escape room doesn't require outside knowledge. Everything you need should be in the house.
What were your inspirations when working on Escape From Dalnavert?
ER: Bram Stoker's Dracula and the previous incarnations of Dalnavert's Dracula Unearthed! experience. I took some creative liberties and created an extension to the original novel to bring it into the modern era, but it was all based on Bram Stoker's original work.
Without giving too much away, what is your favourite part about Escape From Dalnavert?
ER: It's going to be a very experiential thing. I don't think I can answer this question until at least a few groups have gone through, maybe not until it's finished!
What have been some of the challenges of creating an escape room for a museum?
ER: Not being able to alter the space much is a big one. Working from an existing experience and story was both a challenge and a boon. I'm working on a room for the escape room I work at, and the wide-openness of the concept leaves more room to do whatever I want, but it also provides little guidance or structure. Working on an experience at Dalnavert is like a haiku, whereas creating one from scratch is like a free-form poem.
What kinds of puzzles should people expect in Escape From Dalnavert?
ER: Part of the fun of escape rooms is the "oh, that's part of a puzzle" moment, so I don't want to say too much. There are some riddle-like word-based puzzles, some logic puzzles, some social/action based puzzles... I think that's all I'm going to say.
What is the difficulty level of Escape From Dalnavert?
ER: Since it's more theatrical/experiential than other escape rooms, it isn't as difficult. Ideally, everyone "escapes" because the finale is going to be really cool, and it would be a shame to not get to it.
What do you think the Macdonald family would have thought about escape rooms? How would they feel about one happening in their house?
ER: I'm a climate justice activist, and Indigenous rights and #LandBack are big parts of that, so I honestly don't have a high opinion of the Macdonalds. I honestly don't know a lot about them as people.
What would you say to someone who’s never tried an escape room before and is wary of the idea?
ER: I would say try it! If you have a friend who has done them before, bring them! Go with people you communicate well with. And most importantly, give in to the experience! Get excited! Immerse yourself! Have fun!
Anything we didn’t cover? Reach out on social media or send an email to info@dalnavertmuseum.ca if you have any lingering questions.
Escape From Dalnavert is available to book online here.
Warning: Escape From Dalnavert takes place throughout a darkened three-story house and requires the use of stairs. Though there is neither violence nor gore, the experience and subject matter may be frightening to some.
About Eric Rae
My name is Eric (he/them/iel) and I'm a non-binary actor, director, and escape room designer who makes theatre that is literally outside the box. Or inside the box, but uses the box in unconventional ways. It's all about space! And by all I mean mostly. If this is complicated or doesn't make a lot of sense, that's okay. We're all learning, myself included! I try to make theatre that is a little confusing. I want to make people think about what we often consider foundations of society, things we take for granted as true. That can be a little disconcerting, and that's okay.
I studied acting at the University of Winnipeg through the Acting Honours program and theory and directing at the University of Nice in through the Master Arts du Spectacle program.