At the juncture between gaming, puzzle-solving, storytelling and technical production exist escape rooms, which have burgeoned in popularity since the first one was introduced out the back of a residential house in Flemington, Melbourne in 2007. Since then, larger venues have opened, incorporating bars and entertainment in CBD locations, but fortunately, the hole-in-the-wall venues created by indie groups of passionate creatives are flourishing.
Earthrise One is in the latter category: a sci-fi themed escape room experience hidden up a flight of stairs behind an unassuming door in Richmond, Melbourne. The experience has been developed by PlayReactive, a group of Melbourne-based creatives who design immersive experiences, including video games and installation art. It has members who are involved in other projects, including guided forms of LARP (live action role play)-inspired immersive theatre, such as the recent Mysterion: Descent into Hades – a recent collaboration between Medusa RPG and the Hellenic Museum. The group has just launched a Kickstarter for its upcoming project Earthrise – Star Crew, a Star Trek-inspired escape room experience where each player is assigned a role in a ship’s crew.
While Earthrise One involves no physical interaction with in-game actors, unlike some more fully automated escape room experiences, it does involve remote interaction with a behind-the-scenes operator, meaning that there is a wider variety of in-game experiences, choices and narrative possibilities.
The story is a popular one for fans of sci-fi and at various times will give Star Trek/Alien/2001: A Space Odyssey/Ad Astra vibes. Designed for groups of two to six, it sees you and your co-escape roomees as members of a small crew sent to a space station lab, which has recently had a communications breakdown. Your mission, which you learn in your pre-mission video briefing, is to reconnect comms, find out what’s going on and return the mission to Mars. The lab has been conducting off-planet biotesting, with the view to creating a new biospecimen for use on Mars.
From the minute you step into the (off) world, it’s easy to suspend disbelief and get carried away in the story; the design elements of the game are impressive. After the pre-mission briefing, the doors to a narrow “pod” open: your vehicle to the space station. The pod shakes as you lift off, red light visible through the door. The screens display the number of bodies on your mission and the results of your bioscans.
Once docked, you walk out into the ship, to discover the ship’s computer registering a complete power failure. Your first mission is to connect power, so you can start to open the doors on the ship, gain access to the comms deck and work out what’s going on. The ship’s controls are a satisfying display of metal consoles, with switches and light-up buttons – there’s a commitment to retro-futurism going on that feels nostalgic and tactile.
As you work through the puzzles, doors and tunnels open up and you discover a high tech-looking fabrication machine that provides an enormous amount of fun. While there is a purpose for the machine in the story, there is the ability to ask the machine to fabricate a number of random items that you don’t need to complete your mission. On our mission, we procured a tube of wound ointment, which appeared after a brief whirring wait.
For fans of escape rooms, Earthrise One will satisfy both the puzzle solvers and the narrative-motivated players, although the focus here is on the narrative. Hard-core puzzle solvers beware: it is possible to get so focused on the puzzles, or siloed as crew members working on different smaller puzzles, that you skip over an important ethical decision to be made at the end of the experience. For the most satisfying experience, be sure to keep the talk up with your co-crew, so you all know and agree to the collective choice that’s being made as you decide on the ship’s ultimate fate.Â
Earthrise One is a top-class escape room experience, built by a team who are building a solid reputation for immersive gamified theatrical experiences and narrative-led games. Their expertise in detailed world-building and storytelling has been used to great effect to create a robust escape room experience, with a wealth of narrative choices and – fundamentally – a pivotal ethical decision that decides the outcome of the game.
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The overall experience is one that feels truly interactive, making Earthrise One a cut above other experiences in the genre.
Earthrise One is a one-hour escape room experience for teams of 2-6 players, in Richmond, Melbourne.
Creative Director: Harry Shang Lun Lee
Producer: Jack Nolan
Technical Director: David Williams
Writer and Co-producer: Sandy Whittem
Writer: Georgia Symons: writer
Sound: Michael Barbagallo and Sarah Baradhi
Props: James Smith
Programming: Adam Carr
Production: Alexandra Lee, Matt Collins, Nina Mulhall, Tom Key
Narrative: Alexander Swords
Engineering: Barnaby RW
