What’s a HERG?
(and how do I design one?)
March 2019 — I really enjoy escape rooms. And not just for the chance to flaunt otherwise-useless puzzle-solving skills — the evolution of the game itself has been fascinating to me.
I’ve seen them go from being a purely digital product (old-school point-and-click classics) back in the early 00’s, to physical manifestations that began cropping up about ten years since (“Real Escape Game” made its way to San Francisco from Japan in 2012). And, even more recently, there have been attempts to bring the escape-room experience back to the comforts of the home, but still involving physical elements. This latest iteration is probably an attempt to capitalize on the rising popularity of board games and board game nights as a social activity.
A classic “escape-the-room” game, circa 2001.
A “real” escape room, circa 2012.
I’ve tried two of the most popular brands of these hybrid escape room games (I’ll call them HERGs, goofily, for short) and been impressed by the way their respective designers attempt to translate the experience into an entirely user-guided experience, occasionally aided only by a companion mobile app.
It dawned on me that escape rooms, especially HERGs, are REALLY great design exercises!
Unlock!, a popular brand of HERG. The simplicity of the deck of cards hides a complicated design challenge.
Not only does the designer have various constraints to work around, but he/she has to do so while still taking advantage of what the user can do in the physical realm of the home AND in the digital realm of the mobile app. There’s so much possibility!…for both success and failure, that is.
Some constraints just off the top of my head:
There is a limited third-party voice of authority. Usually a physical escape room is manned by an employee/staff member. That staff member keeps an eye on progress, can answer any questions customers might have mid-experience, and is usually also the hint-giver. Even the early 00’s version of escape rooms, being fully digital, can easily do all these things just by being programmed that way. HERGs, however, can only be run by the user. EXIT uses a progressive hint-card system that the user has to arrange prior to playing. Unlock! simply built the hint system into its companion app. Since EXIT also has an app, I’m not sure why they don’t just go this route and avoid extraneous player setup, but I’ve noticed that the EXIT brand tries to contain as much of the game as possible within the game box, and avoids using the app (which might even be optional).
There is no automatic feedback to knowing whether a solution is right/wrong. In digital escape rooms, combining the right items or entering the correct code results in a door or previously-locked box opening; in physical escape rooms, the user gets feedback that’s just as immediate and obvious — a door physically opens up, or a bulb lights up. In a HERG, the feedback isn’t nearly as obvious. The user needs to be able to input the solution somehow, and then also check if the solution is correct. EXIT has solutions that all come in the form of a combination, which the player inputs via a “code wheel.” If the combination is correct, a number will generally appear in the window of the wheel, which then corresponds with a card that tells the player how to progress. Not the most frictionless experience, but certainly creative, and it doesn’t rely on the app as an easy crutch.
Unlock!, which has no game board or booklet but is comprised mostly of a deck of cards, also employs a user-check method — the player derives a number as a solution, which he/she then searches for within the deck of cards to check if it leads to more directions that progress the game. Some puzzles rely on the app as the input method instead, which turns solution-checking into low-effort digital feedback. Unlock! takes away the extra “code wheel” step, but it’s still not a perfect solution. There have still been times when I’ve stumbled on the “right” answer by accident and ended up at a part of the story I shouldn’t be at yet. I’d like to see a HERG that tackles this problem differently.
EXIT’s “code wheel” and corresponding answer card.
Unlock!’s numbered card deck and mobile companion app.
There are limited physical elements that can provide users with a “wow!” moment. One of the biggest advantages physical escape rooms have is the visceral feeling players get when they encounter something cool in person. For example, a new area of the room is unlocked, and there’s a path of stepping stones over a moat of “acid” (this was a real escape room scenario I encountered — the “acid” was just a light projection effect). I still remember this particular instance because of that “wow” factor, and I think it’s important to not forget or diminish that feeling when creating a HERG. It’s much harder to contain something cool within a deck of cards or a game box, and even more difficult when you remember that the player has to NOT see it when they first open the game, because otherwise that would spoil the big reveal. EXIT and Unlock! both do things out of their ordinary setup that get close to these moments. Without being spoiler-y, sometimes it involves doing things that the game didn’t specifically mention that players can or are “allowed” to do. This can be frustrating for the player if it didn’t feel like it should be a plausible solution, but it also provides the wow factor that “following the rules” wouldn’t be able to. In other words, HERGs have to really think outside the box to get players to think outside the box.
How do you distill the drama of a mystery-murder-on-the-train…
…into a small game box?
I think these are just the basic constraints. One question that I always get from people that I introduce HERGs to, though, is “can you replay the game?” Well, in the case of EXIT, you actually destroy game elements as you progress. You technically can replay Unlock!, although I don’t see the challenge in that. Some folks think of this as gimmicky, but I don’t see how this is any different from doing a physical escape room — you’d still be replaying the same puzzles either way. The real challenge would be to design a modular HERG that can piece together in various ways to create different puzzles. I don’t know that this is possible without creating a lot more elements that come in the game box, or creating a layer of gameplay that doesn’t currently exist in ANY form of escape room, but it’s something to mull over.
Next personal design challenge: create your best version of a HERG?