Finding the Props

Finding the right props for an escape room can be challenging, but it is also one of the most enjoyable parts of the job. Searching through online auctions to find just the right piece to make an escape room feel immersive takes time, which makes it that much more rewarding when you finally find the perfect item. Add to that the experience of trying to beat other buyers by bidding the right amount, and you get a thrilling experience!

One of my favorite buys for our rooms was an old copper diver’s helmet. It’s in great condition and looks amazing! The helmet is such a cool addition to set the theme for our 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea escape room which takes place in a submarine deep in the ocean. People love it!

Copper Diver’s Helmet in 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea

We once picked up a sarcophagus from Chicago. This thing is massive and looks like it came straight from Egypt. It was an excellent find for our Knight in the Museum escape room. Keeping an eye out for these kinds of props online requires persistence and patience but it always pays off!

Sarcophagus in Knight in the Museum 2: Knight’s Revenge

Often times, if we cannot find just the right prop our team builds and decorates the props needed for creative, one-of-a-kind puzzles like our Ark of the Covenant. Our team is focused on providing a truly immersive experience that will keep you and your friends and family entertained and challenged!

Ark of the Covenant in Knight in the Museum 2: Knight’s Revenge

The Wall of Fame

Wall of Fame in House of Conundrum’s lobby

Solving one of our escape rooms is by no means easy, even with a few hints. Unlike many other escape rooms, we make sure to design our rooms so it is possible to complete them without any hints. So, when somebody does it without any help and in a record amount of time, you know it’s quite an accomplishment! We prominently display the House of Conundrum Wall of Fame in our lobby where we show off all the groups who have had the brain power to figure out all the puzzles in a room with the fastest times and without any hints. Some of these people solved the rooms so fast you might mistake the time they had left with how long it actually took them! So far, the fastest group of all time has made it in and out in less than 20 minutes!

Are you ready to bring your family, friends, teammates or co-workers to take on the challenge to join the

House of Conundrum Wall of Fame?

Here are some pointers observed by Omaha’s best gamemasters to achieve success: 

Have a strategy:  Consider everyone in the group’s strengths and how they can best be used to solve the puzzles/challenges presented in the escape room.  Who is good with word, logic, math or tactile puzzles?  House of Conundrum’s rooms have a variety of puzzles so everyone has something to contribute to the team’s success.

Practice good communications:  Make sure everyone is communicating what they have discovered and where they are struggling with a puzzle.  Actively listen for what others have found to determine if you have the missing piece of information.

Practice great teamwork skills: Working together is critical to efficiently work through the puzzles and challenges presented in an escape room.  Discounting other players’ ideas may shut down the path to success.  Remember, collaboration is the key to solving the challenge before you.

Good luck!

Picking the Themes

House of Conundrum escape rooms take you to places and time periods you could only ever experience through books and movies — whether it’s a sinking submarine in the 1800’s, a spaceship in need of repair, or a sinister winery, our immersive escape rooms will immediately draw you in to the challenge before you! Because of the wide variety of themes, people always ask where these exotic ideas come from. You would think we do hours of research to find crazy themes to do, but the answer is actually much simpler: we just draw from subjects in which my team and I are interested. We consider if we were doing an escape room, where would we want to go? Then, we design a room to make that happen!

Personally, as a young boy, I always loved reading comic books and hearing adventurous stories about explorers, detectives, or even history. We draw from those experiences and our imagination when we create our escape rooms and puzzles. Most of the rooms have been heavily influenced by stories we love which means stepping into each room is like stepping into those stories! Ever wanted to be knighted and slay a dragon? We’ve got the ultimate experience for you in Fate of the Fairy Tales!

Our wide variety of themes with 10 escape rooms to choose from and the best gamemasters in Omaha provide an interesting and memorable experience for everybody. Our adventurous themes will capture your imagination and throw you into a fun story that you won’t soon forget!

Making the Puzzles

When it comes to escape rooms, an important part of the game is puzzles. You can have a room that makes you feel like you’re in another world, but if you don’t have fun, challenging, and creative puzzles to solve, then all of your decorations and props will be pointless! Immersiveness alone does not make a good escape room.

The best puzzles force you to make observations, put things together, and think in a different way in order to find the solution. The answer is almost never immediately apparent, but if you think about the different possibilities, you can usually find it staring you right in the face! Coming up with engaging riddles and puzzles for people to solve is always a joy, and it’s even more fun to see people figure them out!

Finding a balance between challenging and easy is also important. When you solve a good puzzle, you should think “How did I not get that sooner?”, rather than “How was I ever supposed to get that?” That glorious “Aha!” moment can be the most satisfying feeling after spending so much time and effort trying to figure a puzzle out. That’s the reason escape rooms are so fun, and that’s why it’s important to make escape rooms that are both immersive AND puzzling!