Interactive escape room opens in Troy
TROY, N.Y.>> The city’s first escape room is now open and operating, offering guests an interactive entertainment experience of a real live detective story right in the heart of downtown Troy.
Enigmatic Escapes, presented by Lime Shirt Studios, L.L.C opened its doors on Friday in the Troy Atrium on the second floor, Suite 2770.
Escape rooms are an interactive entertainment experience where a group of people are challenged to investigate a room, discover puzzles and obstacles, and overcome those challenges before the clock
runs out. They are often compared with being in a real-life detective story.
Stephen Kohler and Veronica Melnick, the two Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute game studies grads behind this endeavor, first visited an escape room in New York City in September of 2015.
Since then, they’ve been working on creating their own.
Currently Lime Shirt Studios has one room available at the Troy location, which is set in the year 1893. Players are summoned to Professor James Prosper’s study on an important mission to solve regarding the professor’s disappearance. They are given an hour to search the study and recover the professors will, otherwise the professor’s business partner will take over his patents and inventions.
Before starting this venture, their first business, Kohler and Melnick frequently offered Live Action Role Playing games for their friends and fellow RPI students. They continued their efforts programming weekend long events, orientations and short games, which all helped them create the fun story and puzzles that guests can now experience in downtown Troy.
At Enigmatic Escapes, Kohler and Melnick hope to attract college students, young tech professionals and anyone with an curious spirit to their new escape room. This setting is arranged for two to eight players and can be enjoyed by friends, as an interactive family outing, or corporate team building exercise.
The cost to play is $29 per person. Student discounts are offered with a student ID.
Rooms can be reserved individually or shared between groups.
Enigmatic Escapes celebrated its grand opening with the city and Downtown Troy Business Improvement District on Tuesday afternoon with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
Katie Hammon, executive director of the BID thanked Kohler and Melnick for locating their business in downtown Troy, “and putting so much effort into this, because it looks like you guys have done a lot of work to this space, and really put some thought into how it’s going to run, and how it’s going to run in the future as well,” she said.
Troy Mayor Patrick Madden also thanked the entrepreneurs for investing in the city. “This is fascinating to me,” said Madden, who had never heard of the concept before. “It sounds interesting. It’s unique. It’s what Troy is all about, unique things that are happening. Things that you can’t find in other places.”
He continued, “These sorts of businesses are what bring people into Troy, and that’s important to us.”
Enigmatic Escapes is one of just a few escape room businesses in the Capital Region.
“They’re getting slowly but surely more and more popular,” Melnick said. “It’s a fun activity.”
Looking ahead, Enigmatic Escapes would like to offer a second escape room with a different story, and possibly even open another location in the area.
For more information about Enigmatic Escapes, or to book an experience, visit www. limeshirtstudios.com.
“These sorts of businesses are what bring people into Troy, and that’s important to us.” — Patrick Madden, Troy Mayor