Premise
Quantum Time Heist is a live-action adventure game where a group of 3-8 people come together to time travel and resurrect a broken time machine.
Scientists at the Mallett Special Relativity Research Facility have unlocked the secrets to time travel and developed an official time machine using their discovery of Quantum Time Crystals. Guests are invited to be the first to test this new technology, but as we begin to travel back in time, the crystal malfunctions, explodes, and becomes lost. The crystal splits into three pieces that are now scattered through different points in history. The team is now obligated to go and recover these three fragments using prototype wristbands designed to last 120 minutes outside of the present. When found, each time crystal portion will transport travelers to the next time period.
The guests will travel to the start of the Great Depression, the Renaissance, and Ancient Egypt.
Using this experience, I want to create the unexpected by pushing the boundaries of escape rooms using the technologies available today. My goal was to create an atmosphere that seemed endless in each of the periods to make people believe that they are truly in a time frame outside of our own where nothing matters but here and now.
Preshow Room – Present Day
Guests enter the observation room where the Quantum Time Crystal is displayed on the table in one piece on a stand. On the table, there are projections of previously tested locations (1930, 1518, 30 BC), and guests are allowed to “choose their journey” based on these options. We start the machine, and the humming of the crystal begins to swell; the room smokes, sparks, and shakes. Something is going wrong. The machine fails and the room goes black. When the lights come back up, the crystal is no longer on the table. The scientists relocate the pieces and display them on a timeline. Guests are invited to go on this mission to retrieve the pieces. A satchel (used to keep the crystal pieces safe) and wristbands are distributed. Travelers touch their bands together to start the first jump to 1930. One of the doors in the room begins to glow and open up, revealing a warm glow and smell of popcorn.
Vaudeville Theater – May 16th, 1930 AD
Travelers enter a vast, art deco theater lobby; it’s now The Great Depression. The group must locate the crystal before the show being performed in the theater finishes. The piece is locked in the dressing room of a popular burlesque dancer who will be selling the crystal to financially support her shopping addiction. Jazz music is coming from the room next to them and sounds muffled/ distant. There is a bartender (live actor) maintaining the bar, serving authentic 1930s drinks for those who can legally do so. After exploring the lobby, they find the door to the backstage dressing room which is secured with three different locks. Once all of the puzzles are unlocked, they will open the backstage door and go into a hallway leading straight to the dressing room.
After exiting the lobby, we walk down a long brick corridor, we can hear the show being performed just behind the brick wall as we bypass the large vaudevillian theater. The music from the performance echoes inside the room. There are posters on the walls as well as questionable stains.
Through the hallway, travelers break into the dressing room. There are three dressing stations, one of which belongs to the arrogant lead performer. There are burlesque costumes, photos of the performer, flowers, and bright lights at her station specifically. She is the one hoarding the crystal. We see that the inside of a chest is glowing cyan.
After successfully retrieving the crystal particle, everyone touches their wristbands together. The lights go dim and the stage door begins to glow around the edges. It opens outward with a bright light that quickly dims as we enter the next period.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Studio – February 21st, 1517 AD
Travelers walk into the cold room and it smells like rain (petrichor) and wet cobblestone. It is gloomy and cool compared to the last period. No one is home so this is the perfect time to retrieve the crystal fragment. It is Leonardo Da Vinci’s workshop, where he has been putting his art aside to focus on studying this crystal and how he can use its principle powers to make his helicopter work.
Travelers will go through books and decode his drawings to figure out where he’s hidden the crystal piece, how to retrieve it, and move on to the next period.
Once they find the piece, it is not the door that serves as a portal but the Mona Lisa herself. The portrait turns into a doorway using technology developed by WDI.
Cleopatra’s Hidden Tomb – December 10th, 30 BC
We enter the antechamber of Cleopatra’s hidden tomb in ancient Egypt. It is torch-lit and smells of fire and dust. The crystal was offered to Cleopatra as a gift and is now laying with her as her soul travels into the afterlife. The goal is to find her burial chamber and snatch the crystal. In the Antechamber, there are puzzles hidden around.
Once the puzzles are solved, a heavy door is lifted and it releases a dense fog appearing to be dust onto the floor. You walk through and enter the catacombs of the tomb.
As they pass through the long narrow corridors, there is a pressure plate puzzle that needs to be solved located in order to unlock another heavy door.
After they solve this puzzle, the door lifts into a maze-like corridor. Travelers can turn left or right. On one side is a treasury room with lots of Egyptian and Roman artifacts. On the other side is the actual burial chamber of Cleopatra; the lid of the sarcophagus is glowing cyan from within. Inside is a mummy with the crystal tied around her neck.
Once it is yanked off, the tomb begins to shake and they have a few seconds to tap their wristbands together and escape. The wall behind the sarcophagus opens up into a void and travelers walkthrough to find the Quantum Time Crystal’s display stand. They must put it back together before time runs out.
Finale
The Void will be a 360° cyclorama made of scrim to give the experience some dimensionality. It will have a podium in the middle holding the piece that holds the crystal together. Travelers will have to put the crystal back together before the timer runs out. Dust/sparkle particle projections begin to fly around as the timer runs closer to 0:00. Wind effects and dramatic music will also be included. Once they successfully put the pieces back together, the timer stops and we begin traveling back to the present. The travelers revisit each time period they previously visited and more to create this illusion. They exit into the pre-show room where they entered and are now heroes!
ENSCAPE WALK THROUGH:gagepacettidesign.com/quantum-time-heist
PROCESS BOOK: GagePacetti.QuantumTimeHeist
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