Creating Escape Room Video Games with Wyatt Bushnell and Mike Salyh
Dec 5, 2022
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Mike Salyh and Wyatt Bushnell, Co-Founders of Coin Crew Games, discuss developing Escape Academy, translating physical escape rooms into a video game, their early experiences with games, starting their own company, the inclusive nature of their game, and upcoming updates for Escape Academy. They also share their love for kebabs.
Escape Academy offers a multiplayer twist on the classic escape room experience, allowing players to work together to solve puzzles and escape from various rooms.
The developers of Escape Academy aimed to replicate the cooperative nature of escape rooms in the digital format, creating a multiplayer experience that fosters communication, shared experiences, and teamwork.
In developing Escape Academy, the team faced the challenge of finding the right balance between interactivity and streamlining the gameplay experience, ultimately crafting a game that captures the essence of an escape room while adapting it for a digital multiplayer environment.
Deep dives
Escape Academy: A Multiplayer Twist on the classic escape room experience
Escape Academy is a digital escape room game that offers a multiplayer twist on the classic escape room experience. Players work together to solve puzzles and escape from various rooms within a school setting. The game maintains the cooperative nature of escape rooms, encouraging players to communicate and strategize as they progress through the challenges. The developers aimed to create a game that can be enjoyed by a wide range of players, including those who may not have access to physical escape rooms. By incorporating humor and engaging puzzles, Escape Academy offers a memorable and entertaining multiplayer experience.
Designing for Multiplayer Engagement and Conversation
Escape Academy was designed with multiplayer engagement in mind. The developers wanted to create an experience where players could actively participate and communicate with each other. The game features puzzles that foster conversation, requiring players to work together to find solutions. The multiplayer aspect also adds an element of shared experiences, allowing players to build memories together. The developers were inspired by the cooperative nature of escape rooms and aimed to replicate that sense of teamwork in the digital format. This multiplayer approach provides opportunities for social interaction and enhances the overall enjoyment of the game.
Balancing Interactivity and Streamlining the Experience
One of the challenges faced by the developers was finding the right balance between interactivity and streamlining the gameplay experience. In real-life escape rooms, players can interact with various objects in the room, but in digital form, the team had to make decisions about what players could interact with and what would be considered flavor text or red herrings. They wanted to ensure that interactions were meaningful and integral to the puzzles. Additionally, they opted for a soft co-op approach, emphasizing conversation and teamwork over specific player actions, which allowed for a smoother and more engaging multiplayer experience. Through careful design choices, they crafted a game that captured the essence of an escape room while adapting it for a digital multiplayer environment.
Escape Academy: An Exciting Escape Room Video Game
Escape Academy is a multi-player adventure escape room video game that offers a thrilling experience for both single-player and co-op gameplay. The game features a dozen handcrafted levels that provide intense time pressure, puzzle-solving challenges, and a focus on communication. With the option to play locally or online, players can enjoy the excitement and intricacies of real-world escape rooms from the comfort of their own couch. The recent DLC release adds five more levels to explore, and the developers have announced future expansion packs to further enhance the game.
The Journey of Escape Academy: From Development to Publishing
Escape Academy is the first game developed by Coin Crew and published by iMake Bit, in collaboration with Skybound. The partnership brought together their strengths in different areas, with iMake Bit taking care of marketing and talking to first parties, and Skybound providing production support, localization, and QA. The collaboration allowed the developers to benefit from the expertise and transparent communication provided by their publishing partners. The success of Escape Academy has paved the way for future plans, including a major free update in early 2023 and another expansion pack called 'Escape from the Past', showcasing the team's commitment to developing and expanding the game.
Trent Kusters chats with Mike Salyh and Wyatt Bushnell, Co-Founders of Coin Crew Games. Together they discuss their debut title, Escape Academy; how both of their game development journies began; developing for location-based games and the lessons learned from the arcade; and transferring the real-life escape room experience into a video game while also building a unifying narrative. Listen to the full episode here or watch this episode on our Youtube channel.
This episode is sponsored by CleanSpeak. For more information, visit CleanSpeak.com/gaming.
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