Progress

Progress, what does that mean? Well, on the International Space Station (ISS), one of the commonly used resupply vessels is named “Progress”. Of course, being Russian vessels we should really refer to them as “Wessels”.

*pause for laughter from Star Trek fans*

I wonder, would there be any puzzles on board for the crew? The ISS would be an amazing place to create an escape room. You can actually watch the live feed of astronauts right now, I mean the screen is completely dark right now (they’re sleeping as I’m writing this).

What was I supposed to write about again? Oh yeah, what have we been doing.

So the beginning of August may have been when you first heard about us; however, we have been actively working on this project since May. During this time we have been working hard on getting this business up and running. Some of the highlights are:

- Our puzzle design is complete - We will be opening with two escape room themes. Although completing the puzzle design was something we had accomplished months ago, we have continually have been tweaking the story, the puzzles and the experience to make sure that all of our participants have the best possible experience. The themes of the rooms should be released within the next few days so keep checking in on us to get a sneak peak.

(Are the astronauts still sleeping? Yes…)

- Our website and booking system is almost complete. We’re aiming to provide the best possible user experience in terms of navigating the site and making bookings. If there’s something you would like to see implemented or improved, please don’t be shy, leave a comment or contact us.

- We’ve been burning up the company credit card buying props, locks and secret items. We’re going to make these rooms look great and you’ll get a kick out of the gadgets we’ve been building.

- We’ve almost found a place to put everything into!

So I’ll go in to a little more detail on that last point. Since day one, we have been searching for the perfect place to situate The Enigma Room. Obviously, we will be based in Sydney, but where exactly was the more important question. At the moment we are very close to signing the lease on a property in the Sydney CBD, close to nightlife, public transportation and a restaurant that takes particular pride in the quality of their laksa (I’ll be the judge of that).

I have to say that finding a property has probably been the most challenging and frustrating aspect of our business development so far. Commercial property is something none of us had experience in to begin with and it was a telling factor that resulted in several delays.

However, this has not disheartened us, we are more determined than ever to get our Escape Room open and bring the puzzles to the people! Every set back we’ve had is just a learning experience that will make us better at running our business when we do eventually open.

When are we going to open? It’s hard to say, as I mentioned previously we are close to signing the lease, but we aren’t there yet. After that we’ll commence our build and testing phase, during which we will be able to release an official launch date. If you can’t wait any longer and want a rough guide, we could say that we’re tentatively looking to launch mid November.

Don’t think that we’ve been sitting around doing nothing waiting to sign a document. Definitely not! Our preparation work load has ramped up so much that we’ve taken on a fourth member, Vica, to help us with design feedback and the purchasing and construction of props.

So, in summary.

1. We’ve been working really hard to get open and show you all the cool stuff we’ve made.

2. The time is almost here, but not quite yet.

3. Astronauts are like lions at the zoo. They’re always sleeping when you’re looking.

4. I like numbered lists.

Thanks for reading!