Starter Kit. Idea 89 of 500. Cluster 4
Escape rooms and puzzle experiences built on local history
The mechanism, from the book
An app that tells people what is happening tonight converts a day visit into a 2-night stay.
The first step
Design one puzzle game around a local legend or historical event and set it up in a spare room for one weekend. Invite groups of friends and colleagues in Colombo to play at a trial price, and time them. Groups who finish and book again, or bring others, prove it works.
- Who pays first
- Groups of friends, colleagues and families looking for a new evening out, and visitors on rainy days.
- What leaves today
- Escape rooms are a paid format anyone can copy; local history is the puzzle nobody elsewhere can.
Ask first
- the local council (Municipal Council, Urban Council or Pradeshiya Sabha). Ask what fire and safety approval a room for paying groups needs.
- Department of the Registrar of Companies. Ask how to register a small entertainment business.
Check before you spend
That the rooms have safe exits and fire protection, that the history used is accurate, and what insurance covers players.
Find out these three numbers
- What will a group pay for an hour in an escape room?
- What does building one room cost?
- How many groups a week would book in this town?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.