If you’re a puzzle lover like us, then you’ll have come to understand early on that scavenger hunting isn’t puzzle solving. Feeling around the inside of a drawer leads to splinters, hiding keys behind TV’s forces you to tangle your fingers into wires, and some props are just too heavy to lift safely or comfortably. Sometimes, you’ve understood the puzzle but can’t solve it because you’re missing a key piece (that’s hiding under the painting on the wall behind you.) It’s frustrating! So here’s a few reminders on why scavenger hunting just isn’t puzzle solving.
There’s no engaging brain activity
When you have a puzzle before you that requires a solution, your brain will turn it over in your mind, look at it from multiple angles, consider both the inside and the outside of the box. Part of the dopamine release that comes with playing an escape room is the challenge of facing a task and using your wits to overcome it. There is nothing satisfying about hunting around a room for twenty minutes only to finally discover a hidden key taped under a desk that opens a single lock. At that point you’re not using your smarts and intellect, you’re using your eyes—and if you have bad eyesight, well, then I guess you’re stuck.
Encourages taking the room apart
Even as a facility that requires zero scavenger hunting in any of our rooms, we’ll still come to reset a game that has been methodically taken apart as people start to look for hidden clues that don’t exist. Encouraging scavenger hunting is the easiest way to get props or sets accidentally broken, which leads to a poor experience for customers who feel bad about breaking something, and for the people who have to fix it. Scavenger hunting requires more wasted time and effort for escapers and game masters.
Causes confusion
Another good reason why scavenger hunting isn’t puzzle solving is that it causes confusion for people trying to escape the room. People who are looking for hidden items in a room that doesn’t have any will be misdirected by a random sticker that’s only in the room for décor. Escapers who aren’t used to scavenger hunting and are suddenly faced with it will waste time trying to solve an incomplete puzzle. In extreme cases, scavenger hunting can cause you to inadvertently skip ahead in your experience. There’s just no reason for it.
Overall, scavenger hunting just isn’t fun. When you’re put into an escape room, you’re looking for the thrill of puzzle solving, not the mundane task of recreating the scenario from this morning where you couldn’t find your car keys. There is no innovative design in hiding things from you that are necessary to successfully complete your experience. Scavenger hunting is boring, at times destructive, and muddles your immersion and fun.
