Where are the Best Party and Event Venues in Boise?

To some, planning a party is exhausting. The price for all the supplies starts to add up, and you’re wondering how many people you can invite. Also the pressure of how to make a party fresh and exciting starts to linger on the mind. Well if you need an idea to have some social or work fun in Boise, have you thought of Clockwise Escape Room Boise?

Yes, an escape room birthday party or team building event is the way to go. Having a party at an escape room would mean that everyone gets to go on an adventure to solve puzzles and feel a sense of adrenaline as the timer starts to run out.

So to back up a bit, an escape room is essentially an adventure in which you get locked in a themed room (Asylum, Vegas Suite, Steampunk Dimension, etc) and you have a set mission to complete in an allotted time. Now to complete this mission, you will be tasked with completing puzzles and riddles to solve that will help you win, or find a way out.

And as fun as all that sounds, you can choose for your party to go big or small. Want a party of 15 people? Just divide the number of players into different themed rooms that would all start at the same time. Want to go small and only invite your 4 or 5 people? Perfect, you can all play an adventure together.

Clockwise Escape Room Boise is here to offer fun to all cities in Ada County and the Treasure Valley. Whether you are looking for things to do in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Eagle, Caldwell, or Kuna Clockwise is here to provide an immersive source of entertainment.

First Time Escape Room Experience

Escape rooms are immersive gaming experiences that have been popping up all around the globe. If you’re in Idaho and are looking for things to do in Boise or an escape room near me, you should check out Clockwise Escape Room Boise located downtown. There are many people who have never played an escape game, so here are some things to know before trying out this immersive experience.

First and foremost, what is an escape room? In short, it’s an adventure game in which players solve puzzles and other challenges to complete a mission and escape from a room. Imagine if you’re Indiana Jones without the danger. And if you’re too young to get the reference, imagine Alice trying to find your way out of Wonderland. But with that said here are some things you should know.

What if I feel claustrophobic in an escape room?

When most people think of escape rooms, they think of tiny rooms or potentially dark and small corners where there isn’t any mobility or escape for the whole hour. Well, if you ever need to leave a room, the front door is always open for you to leave and enter as you need. The escape rooms can be the size of your bedroom or even a 1 bedroom house. Sometimes you may be “locked in one room, but sometimes your escape room experience contains many secret doors and rooms to get out.

Put on your thinking cap!

You won’t be able to just walk through the experience to find a way out. You will need to solve some puzzles first.

Puzzles come in many shapes in sizes.

Some puzzles involve math, memory, visual illusions, or even finding hidden clues. But most importantly teamwork will cause a better success rate.

Will I win my first escape room?

You will probably lose. Since it’s your first time, you don’t know what to expect. The game master may give you clues to help, but just know everyone struggles their first time, even rocket scientists. (Really)

Should I challenge myself?

Don’t start on an intermediate difficulty. If it’s your first room, try out the beginner room first and work your way up. You wouldn’t do trigonometry before algebra would you?

What should I wear to an escape room?

Dress comfortably. No open-toed shoes unless you really want to wear them. You may be crawling at some point, but more importantly, what would you wear if you wanted to play detective and scour a room for clues for an hour?

Play with people you know. Communication is a big part of solving puzzles, so it’s better to play with people you’re comfortable with… So if you’re considering a first date in Boise, we’d recommend a few ice breakers beforehand.

Now that you’ve read through the list of things you should know it is time to play a game. Bring your office out for some team building activities or bond with friends and family! Clockwise has the best escape rooms in Boise and is here to serve the Treasure Valley area (check them out here). Delivering new things to do in the cities of Ada County including Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Eagle, and Caldwell.

Are Escape Rooms Good for Team Building?

We all know that escape games are great for friends and families. You play together, bond, and have a super fun time feeling like you’ve achieved something together. For these same reasons, escape room team building is a great option to entertain your employees on their next outing. Escape games present your team with challenges they have to overcome together. It forces players to communicate as a team, cooperate to solve puzzles, and bond by succeeding together. If you have a new team, it’s a great way to get everyone to get to know each other out of the office environment. Walls come down, people make fast friends, learn each other’s work style and personalities. No other team-building experience engages people quite as well as escape rooms and you’ll really see their personalities come out. Who’s the leader? Who gets along with others? Who thinks outside of the box? And how do they all work together?

Escape rooms are also a unique team-building activity and a new type of entertainment that everyone has been wanting to try. Many workers get bored of the same old office outings. Happy hour, bowling, and trust falls can only be done so many times without becoming monotonous and repetitive. So freshen up your next company get together with a new, fun activity that will have your employees and colleagues raving for weeks afterward. Check out this video from CBS This Morning that speaks about why Escape Rooms are perfect for team-building events.

Also, escape rooms are an affordable team outing so you won’t blow out the company budget. The cost is cheaper per person than taking the team out for lunch or dinner. You also won’t have to plan a trip to another city or travel far. There are probably many escape rooms within walking distance or a quick uber ride from your office.

What do Escape Rooms Teach You?

An escape room team-building experience will teach you about yourself and your colleagues. What are their strengths and weaknesses? How do they analyze problems? How well do they communicate and work together with others? Are they a good leader? All of this is valuable information to allow your team to get to know each other, appreciate differences and work successfully together on future projects. Getting answers to these questions about new or existing employees is like striking gold for any HR department. That’s why many companies have begun to use escape rooms during On-Boarding weeks for new employees or even during the interview process! A new employee may not be able to prove to you their work style in an interview, but observing them in an escape room experience will reveal a lot. You’ll see how they really think, how well they get along with others and how committed they are to succeeding. At our company, playing our escape rooms is a part of the hiring process, and the escape game becomes their final interview where we are truly able to see how they really work through tasks with coworkers in a stressful challenge.

To read more on using escape rooms as a hiring tool check out this article from our friends at the Society for Human Resource Management.

Here are 6 Reasons Why You Should Consider Escape Room Team Building

If you’re thinking about taking part in a team building escape room, there are plenty of reasons why you should consider doing so. The following offers a closer look at six of the top reasons why an escape room may be the perfect team building exercise.

1. Focus on Communication

For any team to be successful, communication is key. Whether you are about to start working on a long-term project or have a meeting scheduled for next week, it’s important that team members understand how to effectively communicate with one another. Without proper communication, one team member may be completing a task that doesn’t mesh well with the project as a whole. When you play an escape room game, communication is essential for success.

Even though the stakes in this game are low, the intensity is high. If you want to get out of the room in time, team members must communicate with one another to identify clues and determine how these clues help to solve the numerous puzzles situated throughout the game. Keep in mind that proper communication will allow you and the other members of your team to finish the game quickly since each member won’t need to waste time doing the same puzzle.

2. Identify Any Strengths and Weaknesses

Likely the most beneficial aspect of playing a team-building escape room is that the game will reveal the various strengths and weaknesses that each team member has. It’s far better to gain this knowledge now as opposed to learning that your team has poor communication skills during the middle of a time-sensitive project.

During the escape room, you’ll find that there are five types of players, which include spotters, tinkerers, orchestrators, brains, and communicators. Communicators are great listeners and understand how to push everyone towards a common goal. As for tinkerers, these individuals are great at solving puzzles because of their ability to think outside of the box. You need each type of person in your team to succeed.

3. Build Trust Between Team Members

If performed correctly, an escape room should be able to build trust between team members. You should learn if you and the rest of your team members are able to work effectively and efficiently. It’s possible that two team members are at their best when working together to accomplish goals. Playing a team-building escape room now can help you build trust between team members that can pay dividends for future projects.

4. Share Your Experiences and Memories With One Another

Escape rooms are fun, challenging, and rewarding adventures that practically everyone enjoys. One of the best aspects of taking part in a team-building escape room is that your team will be able to share their experiences and memories of the escape room in months and years to come. These experiences can create lasting bonds.

5. Learn More About Each other

It can be difficult to get to know someone while at the office. When you’re not working, you likely have a routine that doesn’t involve your coworkers. Escape rooms put everyone out of their comfort zone, which can tell you a lot about your fellow team members. It’s possible that a different environment will bring out a personality in a team member that you didn’t know existed, which could benefit the team later on down the road.

6. Find Out What It’s Like to Win and Lose Together

Losing is never fun. However, when you lose as a team, you share the same experience and the same consequences with other team members. The same is true when you win. The elation that you feel is an emotion felt by everyone. It’s oftentimes important for team members to know what it’s like to be involved in something where the overall outcome is more important than an individual task.

Clockwise Escape Room Team Building?

Now that we know escape rooms are good for corporate team building, how can you host your next office outing? Here at Clockwise Escape Room Boise, we offer you our escape games and game lounge for the exclusive use of the entire venue. We can assist with catering food and beverage for your next escape event and host groups of up to 30 people. We also have a ton of other attractions around us so you can plan a day filled with activities. Check out our events page to review all options.

Come visit Clockwise Escape Room Boise for your next team-building event!

What types of puzzles are in an escape room?

Escape games are often described as rooms filled with puzzles and challenges, but people still question, what kind of puzzles are they? There are many of types of escape room puzzles out there that appeal to different players. Here’s a list of the main puzzle categories.

Escape Room Puzzle Types

– Deciphering codes to reveal a clue.
– Math, science or other academic related problems solved by common knowledge.
– Find clues in text or pictures by being observant.
– Riddles or play on words that require out of the box thinking.
– Hidden items in obscure places found by searching and inspecting the room closely.
– Retrieve out of reach items by using clever, non standard strategies.
– Physically putting together items to solve a puzzle.
– Team puzzles that require more than one person to solve.

Not all players think the same. Some people are more analytic, observant, or out of the box thinkers. Everyone has a strength that they can bring to an escape room team and a good escape room designer should use a variety of different puzzle types. This ensures that all player personality and brain types are engaged and have puzzles that they will enjoy.

You can’t just have a bunch of sudoku style math problems. I’m horrible at math, but great at putting together physical puzzles and thinking outside of the box. Most players have their different puzzle preferences and a good game designer should appeal to all. To have a well balanced escape room you should have puzzles that appeal to all different kinds of brain types.

What makes a good escape room puzzle?

You can judge the quality of an escape room puzzle by how you felt when you solved it. Was it what you expected it to be? Was is a challenge? Were you thrilled when you solved it? Escape room puzzles of any type should engage and challenge a player, even better, throw in a surprise that they were not expecting. Make the player think outside of the box, force them to strategize and cooperate with teammates.

But be careful that you do not make a puzzle too vague or too far of a stretch of thinking to make a connection on how to solve it. A puzzle is not just good because it is difficult to solve, it must also make sense. Make sure there are enough clues in the game that guide the player towards to right solution. Don’t give away the answer, but make sure their mind follows the path you want in order to solve the puzzle correctly.

Lastly, immersion is key to any successful escape room design and all puzzles in the game should match the theme of that game. ie: you shouldn’t have an electrical panel puzzle in a Wizard themed game. A bad puzzle design can break the immersion in the game, taking players out of the storyline. So in summary, make sure the puzzle is a challenge, does not have an obvious solution, but is not too far of a stretch of logic. Lastly, stay in the storyline, keep the players immersed and do not have puzzles that break that immersion.

For more in depth details on these puzzle types and more check out this blog from our friends at Escape Room Tips:

To learn more on escape room design, check out our blog 5 Types of Escape Rooms Explained

To experience the diverse world of escape room puzzles visit us at Clockwise Escape Room in Boise, Idaho! We make sure to include puzzles for all different brain types so everyone will feel engaged and be able to showcase their strengths. Book your escape experience here.

What other types of escape room puzzle are there? Leave us a note and we’ll add to the list!

Live Escape Rooms are bringing immersive gaming to the next level.

If you like quest or escape style video games, you’re going to LOVE live escape rooms. The concept of in person, live escape games came from the increasing popularity of online escape room video games. Escape rooms have proven that the fun of these seek and find, puzzle games can be enjoyed through a monitor AND in the physical world. If you think about it, what could be more interactive, more first person, than real life itself?

Escape Rooms make the gaming world a reality by physically and sensorially immersing you in a different time and place. The narrative stories and presented challenges take you further down the path to another world. You can touch and feel the maps, puzzles and props. Your eyes are tantalized by the true to theme set design and other senses heightened through creative use of sound and scent. The fantasy world is brought to life through the ultimate first person gaming experience, escape rooms!

For a truly immersive gaming experience come visit Clockwise in Boise, Idaho and try our live escape games. Party in Vegas is a hilarious experience for you and your friends or try The Asylum filled with mystery, thrills and suspense!

For additional insights and comments on Escape Rooms and Gamers being a perfect match, check out these links: from nytimes.com and ign.com

Are you a gamer who plays both online games and live escape rooms? Tell us what you think about escape room video games vs live games.

The 5 Types of Escape Rooms Explained:

There are many types of escape room formats that game designers keep in mind when creating new escape rooms. Below are the main 5 Types of Escape Rooms explained in detail:

Linear Escape Room Games :

These formats have puzzles and challenges that progress in a line one after the other with one starting point leading to one end point. Players will start these types of games focusing on one puzzle at a time. This puzzle progression allows for a very focused storyline as each puzzle can represent a new twist or turn in the game’s story. This format is great for small teams of 4 or less as the team is small enough to work on one puzzle at a time together. If the group gets too large in a linear format game then some players may feel left out or find they have nothing to do in the game.

Non-Linear Escape Room Games:

These formats have multiple tracks of puzzles going on side by side with multiple starting points leading to one end point. These different puzzle tracks often come together at the end to solve the final puzzle to escape the room. Generally, each puzzle track will unfold one aspect of the game’s storyline. As each track is completed, multiple aspects of the story become clear, leading the team to solving the final mystery of the game. Nonlinear games are great for large groups of 4+ so players can split into smaller groups to divide and conquer challenges while keeping everyone engaged. In this format, all players will feel engaged with enough activities to be shared amongst the group.

Mixed Linear/Non-Linear Escape Room Games:

This format is a hybrid of both linear and non linear games. Usually, these hybrid games may begin with multiple puzzle tracks where teams break into smaller groups, but streamlines to one track midway through the game to bring the team together again. This format is generally used in heavily story driven games where the game developer wants all players to focus on the storyline nearing the end of the game. Game designers have to be careful that the linear puzzle track has complicated enough puzzles so multiple players can still be engaged as they follow along.

Red Herrings Escape Games:

Are game formats with a lot of distractions, fake puzzles or distractor props and make you stray from progressing in the games. Games with too many red herrings can get frustrating for players as they distract from the proper course of the game. Often red herrings occur when a game designer inputs too much fluff into their storylines or too much decor in their game rooms. This results in players thinking they have found a “lead” that they need to follow to solve a puzzle, but in reality, it was just decor. Game storylines should be focused on the puzzle tracks and designers should be careful not to have items in their storyline or room decor that will distract from the puzzle tracks.

Scavenger Hunt Escape Games:

This format incorporates a lot of seeking and find challenges to solve puzzles. Items will be hidden in strange places and you’ll have to collect them to open a lock, or input a code, etc. Scavenger Hunt games are great for young children as the puzzles are generally not that difficult to solve with the main mission being finding hidden items. These games also work very well for large scale games that are outdoors and span across a large space, ie: downtown area, public park etc. In this large scale format, players will generally follow a map and cryptic instructions to successfully progress from one location to another, finding necessary items along the way. In addition to being called Scavenger Hunts, they also go by Treasure Hunts or Puzzle Hunts.

Our Types of Escape Rooms

At Clockwise our games incorporate a mixture of Linear/Non-Linear and Scavenger Hunt elements. Our rooms are built for 4-8 players. That sweet spot where the group size is small enough that you can all work together, but can also split off into smaller independent groups to divide and conquer challenges. We challenge our players in different ways, a variety of ways so there is something for every brain type and strength area. This keeps our players thrilled by the pace of the game, interacting with each other, and all equally engaged in the game.

Come check out our escape rooms in Boise, ID and let us know what you think of our game formats!

What is your favorite type of escape game format? How do you like to play the game?

There are 4 main secrets on how to create the best escape room and stay current in our competitive environment.

Clockwise is stepping up the game for escape enthusiasts in Boise, Idaho and here is how we create the best escape rooms. We know that escape rooms have to be #1 challenging #2 fun and #3 immersive and we’re hitting those marks, plus taking it to the next level by focusing in on 4 factors. Here are our 4 secrets to create the best escape room.

A Good Story:

Immersion in a theme all starts with a good story. And not just a good one, but a unique one thats intrigues people. We create whimsical stories set in various eras and environments that create excitement and increase the fun of the game. We also don’t just churn out the same old horror themes. We take the time to draft up well thought out narratives that  break old barriers. Why can’t an escape adventure be hilariously funny? Why can’t it be a political suspense? We push the limits and create truly new stories for our players to experience.

Increased puzzle variety and difficulty:

We’re bringing fresh ideas with new styles of puzzles that are diverse and challenging for all kinds of brain types. Brain teasers, visual, seek and find and physical hands on puzzles in order to appeal to every types of persons strengths. We keep the level of difficulty high so players truly feel challenged and work together as a team to overcome challenges. We find this combining of brain forces in teams creates bonds between people, which is awesome to see and makes the whole experience more fun.

Creative puzzle engineering:

We’re stepping up puzzle engineering and have been geeking out on electronics, sensors, audio, lighting, really anything that’s going to WOW our visitors. Some people think tech means flat screens everywhere, which can be cold and everyday stuff, but we think tech means the ability for increased immersion. No laminated paper puzzles here, which can take you out of the theme of the game. We use technical and mechanical methods to make you physically interact with our puzzles. Show you something you’ve never seen before and make you giddy with excitement.

Immersive room design:

We believe true immersion is engaging all of your senses in the theme of the game. So we pay attention to set design as well playing on sight, smell and sound. Professional design sets the stage and creates a new world for our players to escape in. We’re producing the ultimate first person gaming experience by creating a new, but real world of interactive challenges. Where you’re in the middle of a real life adventure and all elements of the room take you there.

Check out one of our escape rooms in Boise, ID and let us blow your mind. Our friends at Escape Room Artists wrote a great piece on this topic as well. Check out their full article here.

How else can we create the best escape room? Send us your thoughts!