Combine logic, intuition, common sense, fun, and just a bit of fear, and you have the escape- room experience\u2014an activity that grew in popularity over 9000% in the few years prior to 2020, when the pandemic essentially shut the world down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Makes sense, right? One would have to be physically in the room in order to escape it. Or would s\/he?<\/span><\/p>\n

Escape This Podcast<\/span><\/i> is the creative love child of Dani Siller and Bill Sunderland, a husband-and-wife duo who have effectively brought their mutual love of games to the podcasting medium. Dani is the game master, puzzle creator, and host, while Bill is the producer, handling the backend of not only <\/span>Escape This Podcast<\/span><\/i>, but of their second fiction podcast, as well\u2014<\/span>Solve This Murder.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Now, <\/span>Escape This Podcast<\/span><\/i> is <\/span>not <\/span><\/i>your normal game-based show. The entire premise is to escape the virtual room\u2014one you can\u2019t see, but picture in your mind\u2019s eye as Dani describes it to you. As a player, you must rely on a keen ear, sense of detail, and equally vivid imagination.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Dani is the ultimate creator:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span><\/i>I have to write the story before creating the puzzles\u2014that\u2019s really my strength. The puzzles, which are the storytelling medium, come dead last. There has to be a coherent story from start to finish. Like, why would someone be stuck in this room? Sometimes, it\u2019s that some crazy person trapped you in there. But we\u2019ve been leaning away from that a little more, and into<\/span><\/i> \u2018What can you get out of this room? What might be hidden in this room that somehow makes your being here make sense?\u2019 <\/span>It all has to fit. You can’t just stick an elephant in the middle of a bedroom, because it doesn’t belong. But you definitely need a bed, right? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cFor someone to truly imagine that s\/he is living in it in order to play the game, I have to decipher which objects would be in the room based on the plot. <\/span><\/i>It’s absolutely not arbitrary. Once I\u2019ve done that, then I can have a little fun with it. Like in that bedroom, I can add some posters to the wall. And I get to be creative with that. <\/span><\/i>So, I start with the logic, and then mess around with it a bit later.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Dani inventories the objects in the room as she goes along, making sure she describes them in written detail, so she can then communicate them to her listeners via audio. Working backward from the escape, Dani makes sure she has designed a clear path to that escape, in a way that listeners won\u2019t generally realize, at first.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span><\/i>Right at the start, you come up with your end point\u2014what object in the room do people need in order to finish? What\u2019s the last thing they\u2019ll need to do? Let’s say there’s a cupboard in the room. Obviously, you can either open it right away, or there can be some sort of obstacle preventing that. Perhaps it’s locked. Then, you have to figure out other objects to add to the room that could be key to unlocking it.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI draw arrows from one object to another based on those relationships. Then, I start linking things together to determine the obstacles. Finally, I can sit back and go,<\/span><\/i> \u2018Alright\u2026 what plan can I make to overcome the obstacles? How am I going to do this? What is the actual puzzle?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to handling the backend of the podcast, Bill is also the game tester. But rarely does he help Dani with the actual puzzles.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cThere was a moment in our third season when I was really stuck. I went to Bill and said,<\/span><\/i> \u2018I don’t know what happens\u2026 where I can go from here.\u2019 <\/span>And he said,<\/span><\/i> \u2018Put a donkey in the room,\u2019\u201d laughs Dani.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn’t even know what the room was, at the time. So now, I don’t come to him for any help with that stuff until the first draft is written. Then, we play through it together. Bill is incredible at figuring out what works and what doesn’t, and with coming up with constructive solutions to those problems. So, things don’t tend to change a huge amount, but his input is so valuable.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

For listeners solving the puzzle, notetaking is an important piece of the process. In fact, Dani encourages their audience to post their diagrams and notes to social media. As Dani explains, <\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/i>I just like seeing how other people get to the solution\u2026 how they visualize it. I love when people draw it out and share it!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

With over 200 episodes to date, it seems Dani\u2019s imagination is unlimited\u2014and even celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris have noticed and made guest appearances.<\/span><\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re a fan of escape rooms, <\/span>Escape This Podcast<\/span><\/i> is a must-have experience you can begin today!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

April 2022 Issue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Combine logic, intuition, common sense, fun, and just a bit of fear, and you have the escape- room experience\u2014an activity that grew in popularity over 9000% in the few years prior to 2020, when the pandemic essentially shut the world down.\u00a0 Makes sense, right? One would have to be physically in the room in order to escape it. Or would s\/he? Escape This Podcast is the creative love child of Dani Siller and Bill Sunderland, a husband-and-wife duo who have effectively brought their mutual love of games to the podcasting medium. Dani is the game master, puzzle creator, and host,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":12478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[2998,2997,2996,721,3001,3000,2999,1068],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n