The Infinite Escape Room

In this series, we put our professional puzzle design experience to good use and look at escape rooms in film and TV as if they were real escape rooms. In this podcast we're looking at the escape room episode of Hey Duggee, "The Puzzle Badge". This episode is the 44th episode of Season 3. Follow Jamie, Mike, and special guest Will Bain as they put the room through it's paces and discuss what impro...

Welcome to Perdition Games, voted best small business in this particular shopping center three years running - and these lucky TIER chaps have just bagged a Groupon discount to play! Don't forget to give them 5 stars on TripAdvisor! What follows are some of the classic escape room tropes: Old gramophones, pipes on the walls, grandfather clocks, curiosity cabinets, and so on. But as the rooms go de...

Jamie and Mike are joined by special guest host Will Bain who puts them through their paces in a storm-soaked dinosaur park. Along the way they must piece together a map, scavenge for supplies, and navigate the T-rexcellent world Will put together. Will they make it to the Visitor Centre, or will Mike throw Jamie to the raptors? TIER uhh... Finds a way. Puzzle Maestro (and Special Guest): Will Bai...

Join us in this week's pubisode...(when Jon finally gets the intro right) the Jersey Republican, where robots sip their oily brews and poke captive humans with sticks. This week we are joined by Chris Dickson of www.challengearcades.com , a connoisseur of this growing subset of the industry. Chris takes us on a journey through the history of the genre to the present day resurgence, along with some...

TIER are once again joined by a very special guest, Chris Dickson of Challenge Arcades as this time they're thrown into the distant future of the year 2099... /Cue epic synthwave music/ Armed with the Sonic Quantum Unlikely Interference Reconstruction Thingy (or SQUIRT device for short - thanks for that Mike), the team solve a series of corrupted transmissions and repeatedly press the 🔥 emoji whi...

Join the TIER gang with special guest Chris Dickson of Challenge Arcades as they tackle a challenge arcade unlike any other... No, literally. This one is legally distinct from any other you might have heard of. It's GENER8 GLOBAL GAMES time! In this episode, the team are representing the UK and must compete for the most points in the four challenge rooms: The Floor Is Lava (But Worse) Shoot Your S...

Join us in this week's pubisode, in the "local pub" which has been taken over by a massive brewery corporation, and so now also serves coffees. Following on from Jon's double bill of TIERtubbies, we're discussing the British Kids TV Shows of our childhoods. As always, here are your recommendations for this month. Jon - Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (book), about an artificial friend called K...

In part 2 of Jon's Kid's TV arc, Mairi and Jamie step into the Superdome, where they meet a harried TV producer and recieve their mission. They have 40 minutes, 4 characters, and the delicate standards of the BBC to uphold! Puzzle Maestro: Jon Saunders Solvers: Mairi Nolan, Jamie Gibbs Episode Art: Dom Jordan Editor: Jon Saunders Assets used in the puzzle solving can be found here Come and chat to...

...I won't spoil it, but if that title twigged something from your childhood, you're on the right track. In this episode the team find themselves in an idyllic countryside landscape, home to a cuddly rabbit and dominated by a strange windmill, locked by a very strange device. The puzzle is simple and so are the players. Puzzle Maestro: Jon Saunders Solvers: Mike Collins, Mairi Nolan, Jamie Gibbs E...

In this episode the gang encounter Big Brain who (and you'll never guess this) is a really, really big brain, trying to sort out the problems of the world. In it, we explore puzzles around neuroplasticity, the various functions of the brain, and stimulation of the hypothalamus and cerebral cortex... ...Or in other words, Jamie, Jon and Mairi see how much they can "poke the giant brain". It's big b...

Join us in this week's pubisode where we sip a tipple at The Sax and Trumpet, the coolest jazz bar /slash/ pub /slash/ cafe bistro /slash/ trendy vintage record shop in these parts. In this month's pubisode we're discussing all the escape rooms we've never done. That's right: Puzzley escape room themes we haven't seen done by anyone yet. From games too scary to run, to games they probably couldn't...

Have you heard? Aliens have made first contact with us! ...And who better to decipher the message from the stars than a seasoned podcasting trio who are experts in not only puzzle solving, but also audio communication and perhaps most importantly: diplomacy. Thanks to the Super Sophisticated Alien Communication Terminal (or SSACT for short). These beings have travelled billions of lightyears to im...

His Royal Majesty is on his way to the legally distinct underground sandwich shop for his daily favourite footlong. But this week's solvers will first need to figure out exactly what that sandwich is, and how to make it. The stakes quite literally could not be higher. So join in, lettuce investigate... Puzzle Maestro: Jamie Gibbs Solvers: Jon Saunders, Mike Collins, Mairi Nolan Episode Art: Dom Jo...

Join us in this week's 'cafe-isode' at Squeaky Cream's Artisanal Fromagery and Coffee Roastery, where instead of coffee foam they serve cappuccinos with a dollop of gorgonzola. Here we'll be reflecting on a big question in the escape room industry: Is escaping "enough" anymore? Or do you have another core central mechanic? How about inserting other mechanics into rooms, such as achievements and si...

Another in-person recording from Jamie's home in the Welsh hills, with Jamie hosting and Mike and Emma (Bailey) solving. Here, the gang wander into a fantasy tavern called The Weary Wyvern. Straight out of a D&D adventure opening, the orc innkeeper has a problem. What follows is an epic adventure, all in the name of the ultimate prize: a free pint. No quest? No problem! Lets hope it's natural...

This very special episode of The Infinite Escape Room is brought to you from Jamie's house in Wales... ...Or rather, Year 10 work experience at a local hospital! A somewhat universal experience for British kids. Their surgeon mentor promptly injects himself with anaesthetic, collapses on the operating table, and leaves them locked in the surgery room with only one way out: perform a laparoscopic c...

The black box recording of our faltering stumble through some of Nottingham's finest Escape Rooms. Jamie, Mike, Mairi and Jon are here to separate the wheat from the chaff, and leave you nothing but the finest flour to bake your Escape Bread with. Or, we would've done, if things hadn't gone a teeny bit wrong. With discussions and spoiler-free reviews of our recent TIER trip to Nottingham, UK to pl...

Very nearly the quickest solve we've ever had!   In the final regular episode from our Nottingham AirBnB recording, Jon takes the helm and delivers, without notes, what he believes to be a deceptively simple yet fiendish death trap puzzle...only for Jamie to figure it out within seconds. It isn't the fastest solve we've had but it came damn close. Puzzle Maestro: Jon Saunders Solvers: Mike Collins...

Somewhere in this room there's a secret! Go get up and find it! Or as I like to call it: The one in which Jamie hosts an audio escape room set in an airBNB, whilst recording from the airBNB, in which we have to get up and find actual hidden things in the airBNB. It's airBNBception in here. Will the solvers untie the knots in Notts in time? (K)not likely! Puzzle Maestro: Jamie Gibbs Solvers: Mike C...

Join us deep within Robin's Hole, where it's time to pull up a cozy armchair and discuss this week's pubisode topic: When should escape rooms retire? We reflect on some of the recent real-life escape rooms we've played together in Nottingham and discuss the lifecycle of an escape room. How long should an escape room be open for? When should it be updated? When should it be retired? And how might a...

The solvers find themselves in a series of strange caves deep underneath Nottingham. But they quickly realise these are no ordinary spaces as they seem to shift and transform on a whim. Jamie, how big is the space? Mike, where is the door located? Jon, what are the walls made of? The size of a key or the size of a football pitch? The door is on the ceiling and of course the walls are made of purrf...

*blip blip blip beeeep* Somewhere in the labyrinthine corridors of a recording studio, the solvers find themselves back and with a bigger challenge than ever: Find the cassettes and solve the puzzles to put on the ultimate BBC Radio 4 "kitchen drama". What else could possibly save the BBC from it's ten trillion pound debt, afterall? Also Jack Foley is locked in a cupboard. This is a room which jus...

Howdy you bunch! The mead has been replenished, and we've finally remembered the password to log back into this account. Which can only mean one thing: The new season is right around the corner! Here's a little preview from Mike as to what to expect, when to expect it, and how excited we all are to be coming back. The Infinite Escape Room will return for the Patreon Feed at the end of March, and f...

In this new series, we put our professional puzzle design experience to good use and look at escape rooms in film and TV as if they were real escape rooms. In this podcast we're looking at the escape room episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, "The Gang Escapes". Follow Mairi, Jamie, and special guest Alex Hylands-White as they put the room through its paces and discuss what improvements th...

The Witching Hour is upon us in this Halloween special, it's time to pull up a rickety, mouldy stool at the near-empty pub, the Brush, Nose and Bone. In this episode, we're joined by a master of horror, Keith Dozois of USB Escape to discuss all things horror in escape rooms. How does horror affect puzzles? What are our best (and worst) experiences with horror? And how do you make horror good in an...