BANGOR, Maine — A Bangor business is offering to shut you in a room with co-workers, friends or strangers and let you puzzle your way out using cryptic clues scattered around the room.
The owners hope most of their customers fail.
Bangor Escape Rooms has moved into a former furniture store and dance studio at 1528 Hammond St. For the past 12 days, the four owners have been working late into the night to build four elaborate puzzle rooms from which customers will try to escape.
Similar businesses have been springing up across the country in recent years, including several in southern Maine.
Four friends — Chris Ford, siblings Bev and Adam Weaver, and Jim Weston — have quit their day jobs and pumped their resources into starting Bangor Escape Rooms. After finding a Facebook advertisement for an escape room in Vermont, Bev Weaver and Ford decided to try it. They attempted to escape more puzzle rooms, including some in Maine, and convinced Adam Weaver and Weston to try them as well. That sparked the decision to get together to launch the first one in the Bangor area.
“It’s incredibly addictive,” Ford said Wednesday as he and his fellow co-owners took a break from renovations to show off one room nearly completed. “People are going to get hooked.”
Escape rooms work like this: A group of friends or several small groups of strangers — two to eight people, according to the company’s website — sign up to tackle a puzzle room. Staffers lead them in, explain the basics, the theme and backstory of the room, and then shut a door. A screen on the wall starts counting down from 60 minutes. Before the clock hits zero, the group’s goal is to figure out how to escape.
A series of clues and tools hidden throughout the room will help the group figure out how to get out. The cost to participate for each person will be $25.
There are two doors in the rooms. One will be locked, and require a key or combination to open. The other will remain unlocked, allowing participants to leave to use the restroom or take a break if they begin to feel claustrophobic. If someone leaves, however, the clock keeps ticking. Employees will monitor each room through a surveillance camera and audio feed to the room.
If the clock hits zero, the group loses and is ushered out. Members of teams that manage to escape will receive keychains or some other piece of commemorative memorabilia, according to Adam Weaver. Victorious teams also will be recognized on the company’s Facebook page.
The first room to be available, likely in the next couple weeks, will be “Grandma Ethel’s Private Office.”
The story behind the room is that your wealthy, recently deceased grandmother left you a huge inheritance, but the rest of the family is furious and on their way to the house to prevent you from finding it. The wood-paneled room is filled with old trunks, suitcases, maps, books and knickknacks gathered during Ethel’s world travels.
If a group gets stuck, participants can make the unanimous decision to ask for a hint from the control room. That hint will flash on the video screen in the room.
Each room has its own story and difficulty level. Ethel’s office will be the easiest.
“The Launch Control Room” will be the most difficult. The backstory is that you’re a CIA agent in a missile control room trying to figure out how to stop a scheduled nuclear launch.
Another challenge takes place in a haunted locker room. The other room, which is expected to open shortly after Ethel’s office, is called “Gambling Gone Wrong.”
For the easier rooms, the owners hope at least 70 percent of groups fail. In the missile control room, at least 95 percent of groups should fail the first time.
The owners say they plan to change things up in the rooms every few months, or more often if people start figuring out the solutions too easily.
“When groups start doing too well, we’ll know the word is out and it’s time to make changes to the rooms,” Weston said.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.