Flight 282’s Secret Code
Over the last few months as we’ve built plans to open Escape Tactic, we’ve become intimately aware of the persistent challenges that come with opening a small business. We’ve been able to find our way past all of them (so far!), but the biggest surprise was when we didn’t get zoning approval for the original space for our business after we had initially received approval. We’re still perplexed at how the city can provide approval, let you do months of work, and then change their minds. But it’s how life goes, and we had no choice but to move on and look at other locations.
We’re currently looking at a small handful of additional sites that could work for us. And as luck would have it, some are even better locations for Escape Tactic than our first space. They’ll allow for bigger rooms, larger games, better locations, more parking, and a far superior customer experience.
The best part of this experience so far has been telling people about Escape Tactic, the plans for our rooms, and finding those who get as excited about escape rooms as we do. Well last week I think we met our match!
While touring one potential location (not yet sharing the address!) we met the most amazing woman who clearly loves escape rooms as much as we do. Because I haven’t yet asked her permission to write this, we’ll call her Jen. Jen nearly jumped out of her chair when we told her that her current office could become part of an escape room.
Her excitement was met by huge grins from us, and she proceeded to share with us her experiences with other escape rooms, what she likes, what she doesn’t, and how we can make them better. It’s what we’re CONSTANTLY seeking – honest, unabridged feedback from prospective guests who want nothing more to enjoy truly immersive escape rooms that go beyond anything they’ve done before.
That’s certainly a tall task, and we may well fall short. But randomly finding another fan of escape rooms who could enthusiastically match our energy for Escape Tactic was liberating after weeks of disappointment.
So the point is this. All of our rooms have been designed through a collaboration of us and the professional game designer we’ve hired. Not even our best friends have ever seen any of our clues, codes, or puzzles. And we’re going to keep it that way but for one exception.
We’ve extended an offer to Jen to leave something behind from her office to be a part of our Flight 282 game. Turns out, her office will be the First Class cabin on Flight if we open at that location. It’s still to be determined if the clue will actually be a part of the game play, but even if not, it will be a lasting tribute the tenants who occupied the space before us and a fun way to pay tribute to an amazing fan of escape rooms.
These are the kinds of things that we hope will make Escape Tactic fun. I’m sure there will be more fun stories like this in the future, but this was the first and one worth sharing.
