The Ladder
Produced by Hatch Escapes
Experienced in Los Angeles ~ April 2024
The Experience & How it Works:
It’s an escape room! The host sends you through a door and then it’s up to you to find a way to make it through to the next. This escape “room” is actually a series of rooms — one leading to the next. Along the way you have the opportunity to complete scored games and puzzles.
Why it’s Interesting, IMHO:
It’s an escape room with a strong narrative and game elements besides the implied “escape” game. Your score will give you the ability to make certain choices (e.g., raise a family, hire a secretary) and the “super-tough and fully optional” puzzles will grant you access to new parts of the story.
Initial Impression & Critical Discussion:
This was a very fun experience. The group collectively selects and becomes a character and then, sensibly, progressing through the experience requires “teams work” — yes, that “s” is intentional. Some escape rooms require people to work together. Because this one has multiple tasks and games that need to be accomplished in each room — all of which require collaboration — the escape room works best when you have multiple groups collaborating within themselves, each with a clear objective. While it’s possible to jump between them, it may be less effective and it can feel a bit less satisfying as it lessens the sense of accomplishment and mastery that comes from following through on a task from start to finish.
HOT TIPS:
- Read Carefully. Just because a game is out of order, doesn’t mean the console is.
- Dress Appropriately. You might want a sweater, but you don’t need a jacket. It feels a little chilly on the way in, but in our experience it warmed up. At least two of us “corporate professionals” had outerwear tied around our waists.
- Join Willingly. Heed their advice and put at least three people on the puzzles. Really. Do it. It makes all the difference.
- Contribute Doggedly. Just because you don’t think you’re good at something at first, doesn’t mean you won’t come up with a crucial suggestion at some point in that “decade.” In this experience, every member of the team truly is valuable.
- Lay Confidently. There’s a table you can put your personal belongings on while you play. It’s inside the door of your specific experience and the managers assured us no one else would enter the door while we were playing. All of our belongings and valuables were there when we finished.
Experiential Viewpoint Expression (E.V.E.):
Embodied, 1st person visual, 1st person narrative, participant, mortal.
Interestingly, even though this game allows us to travel through time at a faster pace than humans are generally able to, the players don’t have control over how long they spend in a decade. If you solve the puzzle quickly, the decade doesn’t end any sooner, you just have more time to play games — and earn “money” — before the decade ends.
Story Anchor:
When Stab Backner challenges your ability to climb the corporate ladder, YOU (a team of humans acting as a single character you’ve all selected) work your @$$ off to make money, and then You learn that someone at the company is up to no good.
Pillars of Game:
Voluntary Participation — check!
Goal — check! In fact, this experience has multiple goals: to solve a puzzle in each decade and to earn money by playing the presented games.
Rules — check! Each puzzle and game has its own rules.
Feedback — check! Each puzzle and game gives feedback in a different way. However, generally, when you solve one element of the puzzle it will present to you to the next thing you need to do. When you play a game, there are ways you will learn whether or not you’ve done it correctly (e.g., a buzzer goes off, lights flash or change color).
Conclusion: This experience has multiple games, and even the puzzles are technically a type of game.
Who Should Experience This?
Lovers of escape rooms, stories, puzzles, games. Those who wax nostalgic for any of the last several decades, from the ’50s to the ’90s. Anyone looking to have a good time working together with friends or strangers.
