It began on a cold day in January 2017 when a newly married couple went to try something no one had heard of before: an escape room. They meandered behind an old building and along some back-alley sidewalks until they found a paper sign with an arrow drawn above the words escape room. They were skeptical about what they were getting into, but hey… it was only an hour. Turns out that hour sparked a vision. How cool was it to unscrew the bottom of an old phone and have a key fall out? Words written in black light on a wall, a flashlight with no battery… it was unlike anything they’d ever done.

Determined to do it themselves, they set on a mission to open up an escape room of their own. It turned out that opening an escape room was much like playing one. There were countless doors to be unlocked before their mission could begin. First things first, finding a place to rent. They would soon learn that landlords and towns officials would think you were crazy when you told them what your plans were for the space you were trying to rent. Fire marshals cringed because they assumed you would be locking people in rooms which was far from the truth.

Finally after almost 8 months of searching and pitching their ideas, they found a great landlord and town that embraced them. They learned that you should be very diligent about the landlord and the town. Don’t waste your time in a town that wants to burry you in red tape, there will always be a town that will see your vision, you just have to find it. Rocky Hill Connecticut was the town that embraced them. Over the next four months they worked with the town, contractors, fire marshals, the landlord, electricians and electricians as they put up walls, installed flooring, and created their first escape room. They spent countless hours learning out of the box carpentry, computer programing, prop making and game design that had to withstand hundreds of hours of player use. This all became real with the first of there vision: Curse of the Golden Touch.

Opening day did come with a slight hitch, with everything freshly painted and ready for customers, a loud crash echoed through the building. A frantic husband came running through the front door—someone had hit the gas instead of the brake and driven straight into the lobby. Instead of the 60 customers they expected, they had the fire department shoveling piles of glass from the front window. A minor set back but no customers were injured and it got everyone talking. A little later than expected they opened November of 2018.

What would the next rooms be? Well, a local theater decided to get rid of all their movie seats so how cool would it be to make a movie theater in our house? That was the intent before the escape room but years later, the chairs were still sitting in the garage. What better way to clean out your garage than to design an escape room that uses those chairs. That is how the second escape room design was born.

The timeline now moves to 2020. Things are going great and a friend who also owns and escape room had decided to pursue other things and we make an offer to buy her rooms. The deal closes for Complexity in Farmington. The lease is signed and then 14 days later Covid hits and they are forced to close for the next 99 days.