Reality Escape Pod - Escape Rooms & Immersive Games

In this special episode, we look back on some key moments from Season 4 of REPOD. Season 4 was notable for several reasons—every guest was from a different country, and all our guests were from the escape room world... yes, we do consider Boda Borg to be an escape room (well, perhaps a distant cousin). Our editor, Steve Ewing, put together a selection of some of his favorite moments from Season 4....

In Season 4, Episode 12, David and I reflect back on a season of podcasting with global escape room creators. I am continually impressed with all the guests who were brave enough to come on a podcast and chat with us in a language that’s not their native tongue. After recording this season, one of the most noticeable trends was the rampant imposter syndrome that affects even the most brilliant esc...

In Season 4, Episode 11, we chat with Lukas Rauscher of Crime Runners, Austria. His game, Going Underground, has consistently placed high on the Terpeca list since it first premiered, and has garnered rave reviews for its sense of adventure and adaptive difficulty that creates a fulfilling experience for both new players and experienced enthusiasts. Lukas is an unapologetically passionate escape r...

In Season 4, Episode 10, we head to Sweden to explore Boda Borg... or at least that's where we thought we were going with this episode. As it turns out, the President/ CEO of Boda Borg is an American business strategy visionary living in Laguna Hills, California named David Spigner. There is surprisingly little information about the Boda Borg story, and we are thrilled to share the tale of how he...

Please consider donating to Direct Relief   In Season 4, Episode 9, we share stories from Ukraine. We talk to Nataliya (Tasha) Tarkhanova of Hypno Dive, creator of the Project Avatar series of virtual escape room games. Project Avatar is an incredible virtual experience that plays like a live-action video game, where you are directing a live actor (the Avatar) through an enormous abandoned warehou...

In Season 4, Episode 8 of REPOD, we return home to the United States for a chat with Mark Flint, CEO of The Escape Game (TEG). With over 26 locations in 14 states, TEG is positioned to offer a shared American experience. Many of their locations have the same games as locations in other cities, all with consistently high quality rooms, accessible venues in high-profile shopping centers, beautifully...

In Season 4, episode 7, we head over to Israel, a relatively unexplored escape room region that has a bounty of creative, lighthearted themes. We chat with prolific escape room designer Gai Bosco of Cerebro , who has designed over 200 escape rooms, or roughly 25% of the Israeli market. Gai is not only an escape room creator, he is a mega-enthusiast and self-proclaimed nerd who got his start creati...

In Season 4, episode 6, we chat with Dino Paulo, owner of escape room company Hinthunt Africa, located in Cape Town, South Africa. Dino also happens to be the winner of the reality show Survivor South Africa: Return of the Outcasts. In his first season, Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island, Dino was voted out early on. However, he established enough of a presence to return for an all-star return...

In Season 4, episode 5 of Reality Escape Pod, we headed to Canada to chat with Jonathan Driscoll and Sacha St. Denis, owners of Escaparium escape games, Nuit de Terreur haunted attraction, L'Atelier resto-pub game cafe, and Ezkapaz immersive experiences. As you can tell from their list of businesses, Jonathan and Sacha have big ambitions. Not only do they have over 30 escape rooms under the Escapa...

In Season 4, Episode 4, we head over to The Netherlands for a chat with Alexander Gierholz of Logic Locks, creator of The Amsterdam Catacombs, which has won numerous accolades including a Golden Lock Award and a TERPECA. In a country rich with globally top-rated escape rooms, The Catacombs stands out for its commitment to immersion, stunning location and incredible ending. The Netherlands has a vi...

Next up on our global tour, in Season 4, Episode 3, David and Peih-Gee go down under with The Doctor and The Alchemist, aka, Aaron Hooper and Leanne Yong from Next Level Escape in Sydney, Australia. They gave a fantastic talk at RECON '21, Playing with Game Structure: the Macro of Mechanics . In this podcast, they go into more depth about designing unusual game mechanics like their game, The Game,...

In Season Four of Reality Escape Pod, we’re going global! Each episode we’ll be interviewing escape room creators from a different country, and there’s no better place to start with than Athens, Greece, home to Paradox Project. Paradox Project’s escape rooms are some of the most highly regarded games in the world, with two of their rooms ranked in the top twenty best escape rooms according to TERP...

We're kicking off Season Four of Reality Escape Pod with a RECON Boston recap! David and Peih-Gee are joined by Lisa Spira and Theresa Wagner. RECON was an incredibly special event with brilliant talks, amazing lobby parties, and some very special escape rooms. Magic was definitely in the air.   We recap the talks from industry leaders and discuss the amazing ARG (alternate reality game) created e...

Last week, David and Peih-Gee managed to solve the mystery of the Silver Screen room on Escape This Podcast , and this week, they're recapping their adventures in the madcap chocolate factory. We recommend listening to that episode before you listen to this one. After getting stuck on donuts and pies, it was a relief to know that Dani and Bill had graciously reserved one of their harder rooms for...

David and Peih-Gee go on a romp through a very wonky chocolate factory on Escape This Podcast , a show that's a mix between table top role-playing and escape room style puzzles. Much like Willy Wonka, Dani and Bill are madly creative geniuses, dreaming up fantastical audio escape rooms that have come very close to stumping us on more than one occasion. Going on their podcast is always a good time,...

Today we're releasing a Patreon Bonus Episode from Season 3 to give you a sneak peek of our REPOD Patreon perks. Johanna's episode was extremely popular, and with good reason. She shared a wealth of knowledge about game design with us on the main episode, and yet, we still had so many questions for her. Luckily she stuck around for the Aftershow. This one in particular feels very much like an exte...

The Infinite Escape Room is a puzzling podcast where a group of pals sit down, have a drink, and work together to solve an audio escape room. The creators are brilliant and hilarious, and they were kind enough to welcome us on a recent episode. We had a blast puzzling our way through this Stranger Things-inspired episode, despite David constantly trying to off Peih-Gee in some nefarious way, and P...

In season 3, episode 12, we chat with Lee-Fay Low and Theresa Wagner about the upcoming RECON, the Reality Escape Convention, taking place in person, in Boston, August 21-22, 2022. RECON is a new type of convention mixing talks from leaders in the immersive gaming industry as well as games ranging from an ARG, a large-format ballroom game, an included escape room, and visits to Level99 and Boda Bo...

In season 3, episode 11, we chat with New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs, about his newest book The Puzzler . A.J. is a self-described “human guinea-pig,” immersing himself deeply, even masochistically, into a given topic and chronicling his experiments, whether it’s living by the Bible literally for a year, or thanking everyone involved in the creation...

In season 3, episode 10, we chat with Jeff Leinenveber and Jarrett Lantz, creators of The Nest, an intimate, memorable immersive experience that was a masterclass in environmental storytelling. The Nest unfolded through a series of audio cassette tapes that guests discovered while wandering through a labyrinth of memorabilia and memories.   As former Disney Imagineers, Jarrett and Jeff really show...

In Season 3, episode 9 of REPOD, David and Peih-Gee are joined by David’s wife and REPOD producer Lisa Spira, along with Steve Ewing, the REPOD editor. We take questions and comments from listeners who have called in with voicemails or sent us emails. We had some really thought provoking questions, some lovely compliments about listeners’ favorite episodes, and of course, some hilarious prank call...

In Season 3, Episode 8, we chat with Chris Waters, The Architect of Constructed Adventures. Chris creates extraordinary, customized treasure hunt adventures for special occasions. His experiences are primarily for private clients and have included everything from being picked up in helicopters to getting mysterious envelopes delivered by otters. Chris is the Willy Wonka of treasure hunts, doling o...

In season 3, episode 7, we chat with Tommy Honton, creator of the award-winning escape room Stash House . He is a master craftsman of experience design with his bottomless bag of tools, combining storytelling and game design to create memorable, playable experiences. It’s no coincidence that Tommy’s been mentioned by so many guests on this podcast. It’s clear his huge network exists because he gen...

In Season 3, episode 6 of REPOD, we chat with Hillary Manning, the puzzle design expert on Create The Escape. Create the Escape is a fun kids show where in each episode, kids design an escape room for their parents to play and hopefully escape. Hillary has previously worked at escape rooms like Beat the Bomb and Escape The Room as a puzzle designer and gamemaster. Hillary walks us through the chal...

In Season 3, Episode 5 of REPOD, we sat down with Matt Leacock, best known for creating the Pandemic series of cooperative board games. There are several expansions for Pandemic as well as the Pandemic Legacy games, which are stand alone versions of the game with an interwoven narrative that affects the rules and mechanics of the game as you play. The Pandemic and Pandemic Legacy games share many...