It’s 2 pm on a Thursday. Twelve of us have sprung free from the Leap Motion bunker for the afternoon, weaving toward the Transamerica Building from SOMA, cutting past basement karaoke bars and barrels of green spiked jackfruits and proud Horses of the Zodiac to Jack Kerouac Alley – the narrow, muraled passageway where Chinatown gives way to North Beach.
But we’re not here to eat dim sum or peruse the shelves of City Lights. We’re here to solve puzzles.
A couple of months back, we received an intriguing call from Puzzle Break, a Seattle-based company that specializes in building mysterious rooms designed to dumbfound even the keenest cream-of-the-crop logician. The types of mindbenders you’ve encountered in video games, except rendered in real life.
When we got on the phone, Puzzle Break co-founder Nate Martin told us that after a successful first run in the Pacific Northwest with Escape From Studio D, his team would soon be debuting a new experience in San Francisco called The Grimm Escape – and that part of the puzzle would involve our technology.
Without revealing a single detail beyond that, Nate invited Team Leap Motion to give it a whirl.
The premise is simple. You and 11 companions are trapped in a room, surrounded by strange messages and cryptic clues tucked into every fathomable corner. Your sole mission is to escape the room in under an hour. Take it from us, it’s a lofty challenge; one that requires scintillating brain power and lots and lots of communication.
We’ll join Nate in keeping the Grimm details under wraps, but we can wholeheartedly promise an afternoon of insane fun in one of the City’s most colorful nooks.
If you think you and your crew have what it takes to crack the code, Puzzle Break: The Grimm Escape runs Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays in San Francisco at 1142 Grant Avenue. Tickets are $30 apiece, taxes and fees included. (And no, we’re not getting a slice of the action. We just think it’s really cool.)
You can sign up as an individual or small group and let the Puzzle Break crew match you up with other team members, or gather a full group of 12 for your next team building event or party. To make a reservation, email info@puzzlebreak.us. But be sure to keep the secret after you leave. Don’t be this guy: