In conversation with Simone Fontaine, game designer
The drafting table at the back of the Calgary facility holds three circuit boards, two bundles of nylon rope, and an empty cup of coffee that has been sitting there since the morning shift. Simone Fontaine pushes a half-built prop aside to clear a patch of plywood. Ten years of building rooms in this city means the sawdust gets into everything, settling on the toolboxes and the spare padlocks. The work involves more drywall repair and soldering than people expect when they sign up for a booked session. Behind the workshop wall, players are walking down the corridor toward the reception desk, checking their watches before the door clicks shut behind them.
What changed in the format over the last few years?
People usually assume we reinvented the entire setup because escape rooms got popular online, but the actual shift was pretty boring. We stopped making puzzles that required local historical knowledge of Alberta. Groups kept getting stuck on obscure railway dates instead of looking at the physical props in front of them. The rooms themselves still run on standard magnetic locks and basic triggers, but we reduced the number of padlock combinations per session. A group of four players gets bogged down if they have to spin five different dials just to open a single wooden box. We also adjusted the run times. Some setups need 45 minutes like Cold Storage and The Signal Room, while others like The Archive and Blackout take 75 minutes. The format didn't transform into some high-tech digital sandbox. It just got tighter and more focused on physical manipulation of objects.
How sessions are staffed and reset between groups?
Staffing isn't a complex operation with backstage coordinators wearing headsets. One game host manages the reception desk, checks the bookings, and monitors two rooms at once through the CCTV monitors in the back office. When a group finishes Blackout or The Foundry, the host walks into the space with a clipboard and a plastic tote containing spare props. Resetting a room means checking twelve specific magnetic contacts, winding the mechanical timer in the corner, and hiding three physical keys in plain sight. If a prop gets broken during a 90-minute session in The Foundry, the host glues it back together or swaps it with a backup from the shelf. It takes about twelve minutes to clear a space before the next booking arrives, which leaves very little room for delays if a group spends the full duration arguing over a riddle.
What separates a good puzzle from a frustrating one?
Frustration happens when designers try to be clever instead of clear. A good puzzle gives immediate feedback, like a mechanical click or a light turning on when a brass plate is slid into the correct slot. If players move a heavy iron lever and nothing happens, they assume the mechanism is broken rather than their logic. That wastes ten minutes of a 75-minute session in The Archive. We test every sequence by watching new groups through the camera feed without giving hints. If three consecutive groups miss a logical connection because the painted arrow points the wrong way, we take the prop off the table and repaint it. Good design is basically editing out things that confuse people for the wrong reasons.
How a room is designed, tested and rebuilt?
Building a space starts with a blank plywood box and a list of physical constraints. We map out the wiring routes before putting up the interior drywall, because fishing cables through finished walls is a headache. Once the basic shell is up, we test the electronic triggers manually about a hundred times to make sure the sensors register weight and pressure correctly. Then we invite staff members to run through it without instructions. They break things, test the door frames, and find blind spots where a clue is too dark to read. Only after those internal tests do we open the space to paying groups. Rebuilding happens in stages when a theme gets tired. We strip out the old props, patch the screw holes in the partitions, and start cutting new lumber for the next layout.