The origins

ROOM escape games actually started out as a computer game genre, usually referred to as “escape the room” games, where players use items from their virtual surroundings to, well, escape a room.

In 2007, a company called Scrap Entertainment started organising real-world versions of these games in Japan, calling them “real escape games”. The games were held in schools, abandoned hospitals and stadiums, making them even more dramatic.

Since then, room escape games have spread across the globe to places like the United States (where Scrap Entertainment organised one aboard an abandoned ship) and Europe, eventually reaching Malaysia last year.