Once you leave your air-conditioned, climate controlled environment, it is hot out there. And no, the title is not a typo. It's been hot enough to set everyone in a daze. And this brings to mind what motivates us at the School of Hard Locks to keep striving and pushing even as the temperatures heat up, and others wilt in body and mind . As my favorite Comicon Heroes just said to me: "It's not about what's on the outside that counts, it's what's in the inside." If you hav

Sorry for the delay in posts. We have a new Chiave - XVI if you are interested - who just joined the SoHL family and frankly, the little ankle-biter has me exhausted! “OK, everybody work on something and then in 10 minutes let’s all stop and check back and see where we are.” - Often heard, rarely seen at the School of Hard Locks So many groups come to SoHL with a plan. They are going to be the people who are organized. They ask what the fastest time is that anyone ever es

"Oh yeah, candy! Grab some on the way into the room. I need the sugar to help me think." At School of Hard Locks, it’s not just work, work, work. Yes, we spend long hours devising new puzzles, testing them with the newest members of our Faculty, and then ignoring the Faculty’s pleas to be released from the new Escape Room. But let's face it. Everybody has got to eat. Our puzzle master, as it turns out, is also a skilled cook. And attention to detail, focus, and culinary

"We need some team building. What can we do? I know, let’s go bowling? How about go-karts? Nah, let’s just go out for Happy Hour!" Companies often come to us looking for Team Building experiences. We ask them what other activities they have done in the past and we hear, “bowling, go-karts, laser tag, drinking.” All fun activities. Really fun activities. But then we ask them what their objectives are for this ‘team building.’ “Well, we are having communication issues,

You know, I spend a lot of time at SOHL and I observe a lot of groups. What never ceases to fascinate me is the family groups - we have multi-generational families come in together to try their hands at the Escape Rooms: children, parents, grandparents, cousins, all locked in together - talk about togetherness. Family groups, of all the groups I see, have the most emotions that come into play – when they come in to play with us. Yeah, you guessed it, there are teenagers who

“So we will see you, or not, in 60 minutes or less. Good luck.” You hear those words, the door locks. What do you do now?? Survey the Room, AKA Take Inventory Let's change the scenario for a minute. You crash land on a desert island. You have never been there before. You need to know what you have to help you survive. What is the first thing you do? That's right Sherlock, you take a few minutes to size up the situation. Didn't you see that movie? To find the treas

So we had a group in Science Lab. They were trying really hard and having a great time. But then they got stuck and here is what we heard: "What did she say we were supposed to do?" "Get out however we can, I think." "So let's pull this out of the wall." Now that helped them open a locked cabinet, but here is the problem (Besides them breaking our room). Now they had all of these clues that were there to help them open the cabinet the right way - but they did not know w

“I can’t leave my phone in a locker, what if I need it? What if I need to look something up? Are there math problems inside? I won’t have my calculator. What if someone needs me during that 60 minutes? You took away our phones, how were we supposed to figure THAT out??” This is an everyday conversation at the School of Hard Locks. So we started asking ourselves, 'Why?' Is there something we have created that is so difficult we can’t figure it out using our basic mental

ABOUT SANDY THE PUZZLEMASTER Thank you for reading our Gaming the Brain Blog. About a year ago Tony and I founded an Escape Room in my hometown of Carlsbad, California and to date, over 2000 people have been our guests. Why an Escape Room? Well, it is the culmination of a lifetime fascination with logic puzzles, anagrams, as well as my passion for theater and competitive sport. As a kid I wiled away hours doing puzzles (logic puzzles were my favorite). I grew up in New Jers