Real Zero Escape: Trust on Trial opens April 15 presented by SCRAP Entertainment and Aksys Games.
On Friday, April 15, the Nonary Game comes to life as SCRAP Entertainment and Aksys Games opens Real Zero Escape: Trust On Trial. Envisioned as a real life escape room, Real Zero Escape: Trust On Trial takes elements from the Zero Escape Series and puts you and eight friends (or strangers) in a race against the clock to uncover clues, solve puzzles and escape…or die.* Real Zero Escape: Trust On Trial will open up inside SCRAP Entertainment’s location in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, CA.
We got together with Doc Preuss, producer at SCRAP Entertainment to tell us more about Real Zero Escape: Trust On Trial.
Real Zero Escape: Trust On Trial is your first licenced escape room in the U.S. How did this come to be? Did you approach Aksys Games or did they approach you?
We approached Aksys Games last year about working together, and they were excited by the idea. By that point, the third Zero Escape game, Zero Time Dilemma, had been announced, so the timing lined up really well.
How was it working with them? Were there any restrictions imposed or were you given free reign?
Both Aksys Games and Spike Chunsoft have been very supportive all throughout development. We’ve checked in with them to make sure we’re doing justice to the series, but we have been given a lot of freedom.
What was it about the Zero Escape series that made you want to take this on as your next escape room?
A number of SCRAP staff members are big fans of the series, and for some of us it was our introduction to the escape genre. It just made sense to come full circle and develop an escape room based on it.
In both released volumes, 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors and Virtue’s Last Reward, the characters must participate in the Nonary Game, a game where 9 people must put their lives on the line in order to escape through the door marked with the number 9. Does your game play similarly to the Nonary Game or more like a standard escape room? If players do play the Nonary Game, is there a version of the game it is based on?
There are elements from both games that fans will recognize, but saying much more than that would be spoilers. One challenge of timed escape rooms is that it’s difficult to convey a complex story, so in that regard we had to keep some things much simpler than the Zero Escape games.
How does your escape room fit into the world of Zero Escape? Are there any shared story elements or maybe characters from the game like Zero or Clover, who is featured on your promotional poster?
You may see or hear about characters and events from the games, but they’re largely easter eggs for fans. We want to make sure that people who haven’t played can be brought up to speed quickly and still become immersed in the challenge that we created. We consider this a “side story” of the Zero Escape universe, and once you play you’ll understand what we mean!
How hard was it to come up with the perfect escape room that blends what makes both Zero Escape and SCRAP Entertainment great?
It’s definitely a challenge, but the games gave us an amazing array of characters, visuals, and story arcs to pull from. We excel in puzzle design and a constant focus on player experience, which is being joined with the rich content already existing in the games.
If the Real Zero Escape escape room does well, is there any possibility of opening another one up elsewhere?
We hope so! We’ll be watching the Los Angeles room very closely, so please support it by coming to play. If you’re not in the area, keep sharing our posts and telling your friends so that we can spread the love.
Have you noticed any general trends for the different locations where SCRAP has held escape rooms, for example, Japanese players and international players approaching the games differently, maybe because of different levels of familiarity with room escape video games?
Interestingly, we don’t see many cultural differences across games. Occasionally there are language hiccups, which our staff are trained to deal with. The bigger factor tends to be experience with actual live escape rooms. There can be times when people who have played a lot of rooms come in with certain expectations and miss something, and then a first-time player approaches it with a blank slate and figures it out!
Have SCRAP ever thought about taking their experience and expertise in escape rooms and bring them to a different medium like board games for example?
We already do the event-style games, such as the upcoming Escape from the Magic Show in LA, which will have a real magician and tied-up players! The event games have proven very popular, with participation from 100-2000 per game. We also have some projects in the works that you’ll be able to purchase and enjoy on your own time. We hope to announce more about those very soon.
What would your dream escape room be?
Working with Zero Escape was one of my dreams, so now I guess I have to pick a new one. I love doing collaborations and have a few in mind that would make for really amazing experiences.
Do you have any tips for anyone that might be embarking on their first escape room experience?
Test every idea, keep talking to your teammates, and as long as you had fun, it doesn’t matter if you escaped or not!
Anything else you would like to say?
Thank you to everyone who continues to support SCRAP in every city that we bring Real Escape Games to! We wouldn’t be here without you.
For more information on Real Zero Escape: Trust On Trial: check out the official webpage.
For more information on SCRAP Entertainment: click here.
For more information on the Zero Escape series: visit http://zero-escape.com/
Check out our review on SCRAP Entertainment’s current escape room: Escape From the Time Travel Lab.
Also, our review on Zero Escape Vol.1: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors.
*Ok, maybe you won’t actually die. Maybe.