Designing Escape the Room Adventure Games in E-Learning #198

Escape the Room Games #198: Challenge | Recap

Escape rooms are adventure games where a group of players are locked in room (real world or digital) and tasked with solving a series of puzzles and challenges in order to unlock a door that leads to their escape. Sounds like some e-learning courses you've probably taken, right? Well, this week we're making a game out of it!

Challenge of the Week

This week, your challenge is to share an interactive demo based on the popular escape the room games. You can choose any theme you like for your game.

The thing with EtR games is that they can go from tricky to frustrating quickly. Try to find ways to integrate hints, clues, and even cheats into your interaction. This will help your fellow challengers as well as your humble curator when he’s recapping your amazing examples.

Resources

We’ve seen some cool examples of escape games in the community. Here are a few you should check out to learn what's possible:

Share Your E-Learning Work

Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post.
Forums: Start your own thread and share a link to your published example..
Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure.
Twitter: If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness.

Last Week’s Challenge:

Before this week’s challenge escapes your memory, check out the creative ways course designers are using awards and badges in e-learning:

Using Awards and Badges in E-Learning #197: Challenge | Recap

Wishing you a break-out week, E-Learning Heroes!

New to the E-Learning Challenges?

The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.

124 Comments

Jackie Van Nice
Hero

5 years ago04/20/18 at 2:11 pm (UTC)

How fun! I predict some great themes this week.

Bonnie Jeansonne

5 years ago04/20/18 at 3:28 pm (UTC)

I am looking forward to this challenge. In K12, BreakOutEDU uses a variety of locked boxes and the academic clues. (ie Coloured locks, directional locks, word locks, keys, and some puzzles that need to be assembled) Pintrest has many ideas for a face-to-face version. There are some digital Breakout Edu's too often using some form of the Google quiz options. I am looking forward to seeing what type of escape room "pieces" that will come from this group.

parashar love

5 years ago04/21/18 at 10:26 am (UTC)

Thanks for sharing this information I really enjoyed reading this article if you are looking for Android Mobile App Development ,IOS application development from the unplugged web please visit us.

James Addoms

5 years ago04/22/18 at 10:18 pm (UTC)

http://escape.skillspace360.com/ ( alt link: https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/escape.skillspace360.com/index.html ) I couldn’t resist this challenge, even though it caused me to pull two all-nighters! I’m a huge geek and former archeology major, so keep an eye out for some obscure and not so obscure references to the adventure genre, as well as some historical Easter eggs. Spoiler alert: This module has absolutely no educational content – but lots of media and audio. It was tons of fun to make! I’ll post a step-by-step walkthrough later in the week and include the link here when complete. Due to some creative animation sequencing, this module is best viewed in Chrome. Thanks Heroes!

5 years ago04/23/18 at 3:21 am (UTC)

Hi James! I can imagine this must have taken a ton of time. The intro is beautiful and sets the stage perfectly. Beyond that I'm not able to do anything besides grab the lantern and the rope, so I'll be interested to find out what I'm missing!

5 years ago04/23/18 at 3:52 am (UTC)

Thanks, Jackie for the kind words - I always enjoy your entries in the challenges and I'm thrilled you checked it out! I started noodling on this on Friday morning and procrastinated on a current - but less fun! - project over the weekend. The intro alone started to balloon out of control as I found more background images and thought of more people I wanted to include. ;) I also started without music during what was supposed to be a 5-second intro and decided I had to include a song that Indiana Jones fans may remember from one of the films. I had a friend of mine go through it quickly and I had to give hints - and I almost decided to code in hint pop-ups conditionally based on what items had been picked up - but I had to call it done at some point. I may revisit as a portfolio piece ... Expand

5 years ago04/23/18 at 10:39 am (UTC)

Jackie and I got stuck in the same place. I'm terrible at these! I only did it once with my friends. One wrote a book about Houdini and we still couldn't escape. Thanks for sharing it and spending all that time.

5 years ago04/24/18 at 12:43 am (UTC)

Jodi - thanks for checking it out!

5 years ago04/24/18 at 2:17 am (UTC)

I did it!!!! Well, technically you did it because you told me how to do it, James - but it worked!!! Really beautifully done. Congratulations!

5 years ago04/23/18 at 2:26 pm (UTC)

I'm so glad that I wasn't the only one who got stuck. I blamed it on the small screen of my laptop. It really is a good-looking course, James.

5 years ago04/24/18 at 12:47 am (UTC)

Linda, thank you for taking a look! I used a higher resolution than I usually use for courses. It's 1200 x 675. Did it require scrolling on your laptop?

Linda Lorenzetti
Hero

5 years ago04/24/18 at 1:31 am (UTC)

Yes, I missed the items at the top of the screen for the first few minutes.

Ashi (Neha) Tandon

5 years ago04/24/18 at 7:56 am (UTC)

Hola, Here's a simple one: http://s3.amazonaws.com/tempshare-stage.storyline.articulate.com/sto_1cbra01ap1va01ue1i705if14g09/story_html5.html You can find the character here: https://community.articulate.com/download/powerpoint-businesswoman-illustration

5 years ago04/24/18 at 11:01 am (UTC)

I liked your demo Ashi. I use an elevator every day so that is good to know. I hope I'll never get stuck, missing getting run down by 15 minutes yesterday was bad enough. I like your animations on the buttons.

5 years ago04/24/18 at 11:21 am (UTC)

I like this a lot, Ashi! Beautifully done as always. :)

5 years ago04/24/18 at 5:17 pm (UTC)

Thanks, Linda and Jackie...This feels like old times :D

5 years ago04/24/18 at 5:36 pm (UTC)

Sure does :)

Zsolt Olah
Hero
Ashi (Neha) Tandon

5 years ago04/29/18 at 1:34 pm (UTC)

Always learn something... At college I worked as a receptionist, often saving people from elevators. The most patient guy waited two hours. He thought he pressed the panic button but then just read the newspaper...

Jodi M. Sansone

5 years ago04/24/18 at 1:06 pm (UTC)

http://chilp.it/4f147e3 Amsterdam Vacation Drama Download: http://chilp.it/ea52f8e I've only done one escape room so I think I captured the spirit of this challenge, even though I hate being trapped. My submission is based on a debate I had with friends on vacation last week--would you store your passport in a hotel safe? I say no--tape it to your body. This was fun to build--I tried to give it a different look and feel than I normally use. And I leveraged a marker technique Tom and David showed a couple weeks ago in a Live session (the one that used the Peloton bike). It definitely works better with a mouse because I use a hover to show my clues--if you are looking at it on a phone, press the screen to find the clues. Please let me know if you find any glitches enteri... Expand

5 years ago04/24/18 at 1:29 pm (UTC)

That was great, Jodi! I did it on iPad and was able to find the clues. The passport debate is a good one. On a cruise last year our room safe broke (with our passports stuck inside) on several different days, which was a good reminder that safes aren’t always a sure thing either.

5 years ago04/24/18 at 4:24 pm (UTC)

Love this! Thanks for sharing.

5 years ago04/25/18 at 9:32 pm (UTC)

Excellent work! After finishing the game, I realized that there wasn't a timer but I was running room to room not to miss the flight :)

5 years ago04/28/18 at 3:08 am (UTC)

Rats, I didn't even think of a timer! I was so busy making sure my number variable worked that I forgot to add some drama. I might go back and revise it now. Thanks for the idea! the clues were pretty easy.

Zsolt Olah
Hero
Jodi M. Sansone

5 years ago04/29/18 at 1:39 pm (UTC)

Nicely done. I liked the storytelling. As an Easter egg, you could hide the five digit code in the "What's in the safe?" picture. See if anyone notices it :)

almost 2 years ago08/05/21 at 7:01 pm (UTC)

I know that this thread is old, but I really enjoyed it Jodi.

Chris Hodgson

5 years ago04/24/18 at 4:40 pm (UTC)

Back in 2016, an old colleague and I brainstormed over coffee whether it would be possible to build a side-scroller game in Storyline that could be controlled with the keyboard instead of a mouse. The game I ended up creating was an Escape The Room adventure, so it fits perfectly with this week's challenge! https://www.discoverelearninguk.com/our-work/escape-the-room-side-scroller-game-built-in-articulate-storyline/ I went on to create a full tutorial course that goes into complete detail on how this was made including all of the JavaScript code and behind the scenes stuff. This is also available on my site! - https://www.discoverelearninguk.com/store/create-a-side-scroller-game-using-articulate-storyline-2/

5 years ago04/24/18 at 5:31 pm (UTC)

I loveddd it, Chis...The character was super cute and I found the key :D

5 years ago04/24/18 at 7:06 pm (UTC)

That was great, Chris! :)

5 years ago04/26/18 at 4:50 am (UTC)

I like this a lot Chris!!

Tracy Carroll

5 years ago04/25/18 at 1:38 am (UTC)

Help Diego escape from his cubicle! Demo: https://goo.gl/UMwc8f Post: https://goo.gl/qac8Lx

5 years ago04/25/18 at 1:48 am (UTC)

I helped him, Tracy! He seems much happier now. :) If you're looking for him, he said he was headed over to Chotchkie's for some coffee.

5 years ago04/25/18 at 5:00 am (UTC)

I loved everything about it, Tracy :D The background graphics were really nice. That character was awesome. How did you create him?

5 years ago04/25/18 at 5:37 pm (UTC)

Thank you, Ashi! The animated character was done with Plotagon.

5 years ago04/25/18 at 11:02 am (UTC)

"Be...My...Guest." So sinister! HA!

5 years ago04/25/18 at 5:47 pm (UTC)

Thanks, Chris!

5 years ago04/26/18 at 2:25 pm (UTC)

Nicely done Tracy! I liked that you used a variety of development tools. It was very easy to follow along.

5 years ago04/26/18 at 11:21 pm (UTC)

Thank you, Samuel!

Tracy Carroll

5 years ago04/25/18 at 1:59 am (UTC)

Ah, done with flair, Jackie!

Priyanka Chandel

5 years ago04/25/18 at 6:29 am (UTC)

Hey, just curious. Are these challenges posted every week? Any particular day of the week?

5 years ago04/25/18 at 11:58 am (UTC)

Hi Priyanka - Yes, new challenges are posted on Fridays. The current challenge will always be the featured image (largest image in the top right) on the challenge hub: https://community.articulate.com/hubs/e-learning-challenges

Sumanmadhu Ramesh

5 years ago04/25/18 at 10:52 am (UTC)

Hello everybody!!! Here is my entry for this week's challenge https://360.articulate.com/review/content/fdfed00c-ea63-4994-a8b5-abeef0b196c0/review try to escape from this house;) will share the write up soon.....

David Anderson
Author

5 years ago04/25/18 at 11:59 am (UTC)

Hi Sumanmadhu - It looks like you challenge entry is trying to escape your C:/ drive:-) Can you try posting to a web server or sharing your files in the forums so we can check out your example?

5 years ago04/26/18 at 2:30 am (UTC)

I have updated the web link in my comment David, please try this link.

5 years ago05/10/18 at 6:06 pm (UTC)

Suman... Choose the "Articulate 360" option while publishing.

Paul Alders
Hero

5 years ago04/25/18 at 2:44 pm (UTC)

Hi Guys, Here is my entry to this awesome challenge. As soon as I have finished the write up I will share the download with you. http://paulalders.nl/wp-content/uploads/freebies/CHallenge%20198/story_html5.html

5 years ago04/25/18 at 3:06 pm (UTC)

Wow, Paul - this is beautiful! I’ve worked my way through most of it (very clever puzzles) - but in the word search I don’t see the Fer or the Malbec, so can’t finish. Are they in the grid and I’m just missing them? Great work! :)

5 years ago04/25/18 at 4:03 pm (UTC)

Hi Jackie, Thanks for your nice comments. The grapes Fer and Malbec are written diagonal from the top row ;)

5 years ago04/25/18 at 6:00 pm (UTC)

Ahhh! Thanks, Paul. I was looking at the diagonal and even backwards placement but still didn't see it. I'll give it another try. :)

5 years ago04/25/18 at 5:44 pm (UTC)

I like how there are some applications for k12. I am wondering if you folk design all of your own graphics?

5 years ago04/25/18 at 6:16 pm (UTC)

Hey Bonnie, I’m not sure how other members create their drawings, but most of the time I make use of flat design illustrations. The fun part of this type of design is that the illustrations can be drawn by combining all kind of shapes...even inPowerpoint.

5 years ago04/25/18 at 6:40 pm (UTC)

Hi Bonnie, I create quite a few of my own graphics in PowerPoint. Here are two tutorials I did on the subject: Tutorial: Create Common Craft Style Characters with PowerPoint Shapes - https://goo.gl/TLNfqo Annotated Video Tutorial: Create Cartoons with PowerPoint - https://goo.gl/1f8ZQo

5 years ago04/25/18 at 6:29 pm (UTC)

Lovely! Luckily I read Jackie's question before I started.

5 years ago04/25/18 at 10:12 pm (UTC)

Thanks Jodi, glad you liked the game! ;)

over 2 years ago09/28/20 at 3:02 pm (UTC)

This was great! Any tips on how to create the word search?

over 2 years ago10/27/20 at 11:28 am (UTC)

Hi. I came across this and wondered if anyone managed to solve all of it? there is not a way to go forward so see the next stages and I'm stock on this riddle "LOGIQUIZ". Wanted to explore more to understand how this is done. A nice and intelligent game:)

Linda Lorenzetti
Hero

5 years ago04/27/18 at 1:46 pm (UTC)

I was planning to enter this challenge, but on Monday in Toronto a van killed 10 people outside of my office window. I hope to pull myself together and maybe complete this at a later date.

5 years ago04/27/18 at 3:13 pm (UTC)

I’m so sorry, Linda. I had no idea you would have been so close. Take good care of yourself and your Escape Room entry will happen when the time is right. I’ve been putting in a ton of time on mine, but it’s not done yet. We’ll both catch up, though. :)

5 years ago04/27/18 at 3:22 pm (UTC)

Thanks Jackie, it's good to have you back. I went for a walk on Monday and got back 15 minutes before it happened. It hit too close to home.

5 years ago04/27/18 at 5:01 pm (UTC)

Thanks, Linda - it’s great to be back. :) I truly can’t imagine that experience, but thank goodness you’re OK. Hope you can take it easy this weekend.

5 years ago04/30/18 at 12:01 am (UTC)

Just saw this Linda. I am so glad you are safe and am so sorry you had to see this.

5 years ago04/28/18 at 3:09 am (UTC)

Terrible tragedy. So sorry for all of you.

Zsolt Olah
Hero
Linda Lorenzetti

5 years ago04/29/18 at 1:44 pm (UTC)

Linda, I'm so sorry.

Samuel Apata

5 years ago04/27/18 at 8:34 pm (UTC)

Happy Friday guys! See if you have what it takes to become The Last Jedi: https://360.articulate.com/review/content/55e07169-8862-419f-bc2c-21a9a7b9ae12/review David, How can I share my source file?

Zsolt Olah
Hero

5 years ago04/29/18 at 1:51 pm (UTC)

My contribution is actually part of Cara North's six week ID challenge (https://caranorth.com/id-6-week-challenge/). As you would expect, my Escape Room has some painting with a twist... Let me paint you the picture: You. The room. A box. 3 minutes. http://rabbitoreg.com/demo/designchallenge/w1/story.html

5 years ago04/29/18 at 11:26 pm (UTC)

Found it! You made it easy, Zsolt. :)

4 years ago04/09/19 at 7:31 pm (UTC)

Really breaking the fourth wall there! I like the boxes effect

Josh Petermann

5 years ago05/01/18 at 7:07 pm (UTC)

My entry is an educational piece on the pressures of being a teen/young adult. "Escape Teen Pressure" Warning: This course contains real issues teens and young adults may come across including drugs, alcohol, etc. I have a teenager and a pre-teen so many of these were important discussions. https://360.articulate.com/review/content/c12e63b1-b5e4-4e72-bba1-b87e3b290129/review

5 years ago05/01/18 at 7:44 pm (UTC)

Wow Josh, I really like your entry. Your design is very clean and the navigation is fun.

over 4 years ago09/19/18 at 8:24 pm (UTC)

Hey Josh! I love this. Are you open to sharing your source file?

Josh Petermann
Andrea Harrison, M.Ed

over 4 years ago09/19/18 at 8:55 pm (UTC)

Absolutely. Happy to share! Will load the file and message you with a link this evening.

over 4 years ago02/20/19 at 7:42 am (UTC)

Hi, Josh this course is really very nice. Can you send me the source link of this course?

Eran Adi Cioban

5 years ago05/02/18 at 4:18 am (UTC)

We developed the following escape room as part of the learning phase in a micro-credential course designed for primary school math teachers. The competency of this course is how to detect the root causes of student's error in compartative standart tests. It was developed by an instructional designer at my team, who had no experience whatsoever with Storyline before this project. I helped him with some of the more trickier technical stuff like the digital keypad, and also creating the graphics using SketchUp. It is in Hebrew, but I hope you will be able to investigate it nonetheless :-) https://storage.cet.ac.il/online/Micro/Lomda/meizav1/story_html5.html

5 years ago05/02/18 at 6:56 am (UTC)

Thanks Eran, working on this project was challenging at times but very rewarding :-)

shir shir
Eran Adi Cioban

5 years ago05/06/18 at 7:47 am (UTC)

Attached another example from our micro credential project: http://storage.cet.ac.il/StoryLine/SpaceQuest/story_html5.html escape room in iscence, in order to understand what are technological problems and solutions (for primary school students).

Jackie Van Nice
Hero

5 years ago05/03/18 at 2:53 am (UTC)

Escape at last! In my game you're out to escape a really bad birthday party. Demo: http://www.jackievannice.com/challenge_198_escape/story.html Blog post: http://www.jackievannice.com/?p=175073077

5 years ago05/03/18 at 12:12 pm (UTC)

Very cute demo Jackie, but I must admit I'm very slow on this Thursday morning!

5 years ago05/03/18 at 1:54 pm (UTC)

Thanks, Linda! I’m glad it was challenging, but hopefully not too frustrating. Thanks for trying it. :)

5 years ago05/03/18 at 1:08 pm (UTC)

Jackie, that was HARD! But I got it on the third or fourth try. Like Elizabeth Warren, I persisted!

5 years ago05/03/18 at 2:08 pm (UTC)

Woo-hoo! The sweet taste of birthday cake victory. Building this one was such a journey (overcoming all sorts of build and file issues that made for very slow going) that I wanted to add a little flat-design picture of her on the fridge.

5 years ago05/03/18 at 1:31 pm (UTC)

Rats. I'm travelling today but I can't wait to pull it up when I get settled. Looking forward to it!

5 years ago05/03/18 at 1:50 pm (UTC)

Thanks, Jodi! (You make a cameo in the blog post, by the way.) Happy travels! :)

5 years ago05/04/18 at 1:09 am (UTC)

So I guess dish liquid doesn't belong in the cake? Loved the visuals!

Patrick Thompson

5 years ago05/08/18 at 5:05 pm (UTC)

This was a game built for Compliance Week that covers some topics in our Code of Ethics. After hearing from others in our company that it was too difficult, I made some significant changes to try and make it easier. Let me know what you all think. http://thompsonp.com/samplework/Compliance%20Week%202018_v3%20-%20Storyline%20output/story_html5.html

almost 5 years ago06/08/18 at 4:17 pm (UTC)

Hey Patrick - Looks like this would be a great one to view, but it also looks like you are redoing your website. Any possibility of having a link to your Escape Room in the meantime - or once your new site is up? Thanks!

almost 5 years ago06/13/18 at 4:06 pm (UTC)

Thanks for fixing the link!

Alexander Salas

5 years ago05/09/18 at 3:09 pm (UTC)

Many thanks to the awesome David Anderson for show my escape room as an example. Here's my contribution for the second room and its own page. Tip: You can't enter room 2 without knowing room 1 ; ) https://stylelearn.com/elle-emmess-manor-xapi-project/ Demo:http://stylelearn.com/ellemmess2/story_html5.html

David Anderson
Author

5 years ago05/11/18 at 6:03 pm (UTC)

Hey everyone! Just a quick note to let you know this week's recap is current: https://community.articulate.com/articles/escape-the-room-adventure-games/

5 years ago05/11/18 at 6:06 pm (UTC)

Hi David! Did you see my entry?

5 years ago05/11/18 at 6:41 pm (UTC)

Or maybe you just didn’t like it? You can tell me the truth. :|

5 years ago05/14/18 at 11:49 am (UTC)

Good gravy! Sorry about that, Jackie:-/ I liked it. I really did. All good, now: https://community.articulate.com/articles/escape-the-room-adventure-games#JackieVanNice

5 years ago05/14/18 at 12:46 pm (UTC)

Haha! Thank you so much, David! I have noooooooooooooo idea how you continually keep up with 200 challenges x countless entries + a good number of broken links, but you do an amazing job of it and I am truly grateful for all you do. :)

Samuel Apata

5 years ago05/14/18 at 2:51 pm (UTC)

Almost, here's mine! https://360.articulate.com/review/content/55e07169-8862-419f-bc2c-21a9a7b9ae12/review Download: http://samuelapata.com/StorylineProjects/TheLastJedi.story

5 years ago05/22/18 at 11:46 am (UTC)

Nice addition of the "spot the difference" interaction! I have that as its own challenge later this summer.

5 years ago05/22/18 at 12:44 pm (UTC)

Nicely done, Samuel! I appreciated the opportunity to become a Jedi before my work even started today. It's all gravy from here. All of your interactions were very cool, and your "spot the difference" one is one I don't recall seeing before. Well done! I'm looking forward to David's spot-the-difference challenge now, too. :)

over 4 years ago02/03/19 at 8:28 pm (UTC)

Thanks Jackie!

David Anderson
Author

5 years ago05/22/18 at 11:45 am (UTC)

Hey everyone! The recap for this week's challenge is current: https://community.articulate.com/articles/escape-the-room-adventure-games/

Designing Escape the Room Puzzle Games in E-Learning #198

Challenge of the Week

Resources

Share Your E-Learning Work

Last Week’s Challenge:

New to the E-Learning Challenges?

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124 Comments