DeepSummary
In this episode, David Spira and Peih-Gee Law interview Hilary Manning, the puzzle design expert on the TV show 'Create the Escape.' Hillary discusses the challenges of designing escape rooms and puzzles specifically for a television audience, striking a balance between puzzles that are fun to play and visually appealing to watch. She provides behind-the-scenes details on the production process, including the tight two-week timeline for building and filming each episode.
Hillary explains that the show allows kids to design escape rooms for their parents to play, with the kids winning if the parents fail to escape. She shares insights into the casting process, which focused on finding energetic and charismatic kids, and the collaborations between the kids, producers, and puzzle designers to develop the puzzles and storylines for each episode. She also touches on her experience working at real-life escape rooms like Beat the Bomb in Brooklyn.
The interview covers a wide range of topics related to escape room design, including incorporating visual elements, managing difficulty levels, and balancing immersion with practicality. Hillary also discusses her passion for cosplay and her future projects, including designing a virtual reality escape room experience.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The TV show 'Create the Escape' allowed kids to design and build escape rooms for their parents to play, creating a unique competitive dynamic.
- Designing puzzles and escape rooms for television requires balancing elements that are visually appealing and engaging to watch with puzzles that are still fun and challenging to play.
- The production process for each episode of 'Create the Escape' involved a tight two-week timeline for building and filming the escape rooms.
- Hilary Manning drew from her experience working at real-life escape rooms like Beat the Bomb to help mentor the kids and oversee the puzzle design process on the show.
- Cosplay and costume design are major passions for Hilary Manning, and she brings that creativity to her escape room and puzzle design work.
- Managing the competitive dynamic between the kids and parents on the show required occasional incentives or 'bribery' to encourage the kids to appear excited even when their parents succeeded.
- Hilary Manning is currently working on designing a virtual reality escape room experience, with plans to push the boundaries of what's possible in that medium.
- The casting process for 'Create the Escape' focused on finding energetic and charismatic kids, primarily from the Atlanta area where the show was filmed.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “Listen, if you can't do it in real life, that's what I want to do in VR.“ by Hilary Manning
- “The amount of bribery that went into getting kids to look excited when their parents win, let me tell you, there were more than one. Like, oh, if you smile for the camera, we'll get you an iPad.“ by Hilary Manning
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Episode Information
Reality Escape Pod - Escape Rooms & Immersive Games
David Spira & Peih-Gee Law
3/22/22
In Season 3, episode 6 of REPOD, we chat with Hillary Manning, the puzzle design expert on Create The Escape. Create the Escape is a fun kids show where in each episode, kids design an escape room for their parents to play and hopefully escape. Hillary has previously worked at escape rooms like Beat the Bomb and Escape The Room as a puzzle designer and gamemaster.
Hillary walks us through the challenges of designing escape rooms for a television audience, and creating puzzles that are both fun to play and visually pleasing with a large scale. She takes us behind the scenes of how the show is produced, and what it takes to get cast on the show. It's especially exciting to hear about how much input the kids have on designing the puzzles and helping build the room. I think this show will be a great introduction for more families to learn about escape rooms. Hillary is a fun, energetic host on the show, and she brings the same great energy to this podcast episode.
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Episode Sponsors
Thank you to our sponsors:
- Morty - A free app for discovering, planning, tracking, and reviewing your escape rooms and other immersive social outings.
- Virtual Escape Games - Specializes in virtual team building adventures for teams anywhere around the globe, 24/7.
Our escape room and immersive gaming convention, will be an incredible event for creators and consumers of the games we love. We hope to see you in Boston. Learn More about RECON.
Production Credits
Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Lisa Spira
Edited by Steve Ewing of Stand Inside Media
Music by Ryan Elder
Logo by Janine Pracht