Escape rooms are becoming more and more popular in location-based family entertainment centers (FECs). We believe it’s important to continually improve the experience for both operators and guests. After months of hard work, we’re excited to unveil a game-changing evolution: a self-guided, auto-resetting escape room theme called Zombie Research Lab.

Zombie Research Lab emphasizes features that are hugely beneficial to FEC operators. First, it’s a shorter 30-minute experience. Just about every attraction in a family entertainment center is built around high throughput. The change from 60 minutes to 30 minutes for the escape room means operators can double the hourly throughput. Plus, the shorter duration fits better with customer expectations at these types of facilities.

This new escape room is self-guided and it automatically resets itself. This is important because it significantly reduces the biggest cost for entertainment facilities: labor.

The escape room experience provides guests with story plot points, detailed descriptions of objectives, and helpful hints. All of these occur automatically throughout the game because all the props and puzzles are integrated with the software platform. Therefore, the game requires less attention from a staff member (AKA game master). A single game master can now watch 2-3 experiences simultaneously, instead of each experience requiring its own game master.

When the guests finish the escape room experience, the game master doesn’t have to do any extra work. Instead of spending 10 minutes manually resetting every prop and puzzle in the room, the game master can immediately bring in the next group because everything automatically resets. The gap between groups is eliminated, and when combined with the shorter experience, this greatly improves throughput.

Zombie Research Lab is game-changing for FEC operators, and as pioneers in the industry, we look forward to releasing more escape room themes with these same amazing features.

Come see Zombie Research Lab at booth 4274 at the IAAPA Attractions Expo 2018.