Escape rooms were a hit from the moment they appeared. But with the pandemic and lockdowns, this corporate game format evolved and took on a new shape: the online escape room. The concept has become so popular that it now features in company team building programmes. An online escape room is one of the best ways to strengthen team cohesion and improve remote communication, creating real group momentum. Are you or your management team looking for playful, collective activities to bring your people closer together? This format is made for you.
The online escape room: how the game works
Escape rooms have been a firm favourite since the year 2000. The format has been a huge success and still enjoys a strong reputation today. To take part, every employee has to be ready for a genuine adventure, solving puzzles to work through the challenges and find the way out.
Classic escape rooms were played in dedicated venues. Today, the online escape room is gaining ground too. Players dive into an immersive adventure, while teamwork takes centre stage. The concept remains the same: build cohesion between team members so they can collaborate and quickly solve the puzzles that unlock the exit.
Escape games come in a wide range of versions. You can play with family or friends. With lockdown, the escape room spirit reached companies too. During remote team building, thecorporate escape room really comes into its own. Fancy giving it a go? Take a look at Arcane Experience’s ready-to-play games.
How does an online escape room work?
In a physical escape room, players move through several decorated spaces built around the story. In an online escape room, the adventure unfolds in a virtual space. The principle is much the same: build team spirit to escape a room you’re locked in, against the clock. A session can last 20 to 30 minutes. In a physical escape room, a game usually runs for around 60 minutes.
Whatever the format, teamwork is always needed to find the way out by cracking the puzzles. In teams of several players, from 50 to 200 people, participants have to cooperate and draw on their logic, their powers of observation and their deductive thinking. That’s how the team solves the puzzles and escapes the online escape room in time.
The aim of the game and the difficulty of the missions depend above all on the designer’s imagination. That said, online escape games most often revolve around hunting a murderer or tracking down treasure. Space expeditions and prison breaks also make great themes for an online escape room.
Corporate escape room: putting collaboration and team spirit first
Online escape rooms can sit at the heart of your corporate events. A virtual escape session offers employees a genuine moment of relaxation and entertainment . Better still, the scenarios mirror situations your people face at work. Team cooperation, even under pressure and against a tight deadline: that’s exactly what an online escape room is about.
By choosing an escape session for virtual team building, your company strengthens team cohesion and mutual support. It brings the whole team together for the occasion, and the escape room spirit helps them see just how strong the collective can be. Through the hunt for clues, every activity in an online escape room works to reinforce team cohesion.
The corporate escape room as a way to build connections
Working together to get out: that’s the key to a successful online escape room session. And because games take place outside the usual work setting, away from the office, communication between team members changes — it becomes far more relaxed. Building a certain rapport between team members naturally improves collaboration.
Taking part in an online escape room gives employees a far more playful way to communicate. Online, hierarchy no longer applies. Everyone is on the same level and has to cooperate to succeed.
During an online escape room, players only discover the story at the very start of the session. Nobody knows what to expect until then. Cohesion becomes essential to rise to the challenge. If there’s one winning strategy in a corporate escape room, it’s knowing how to draw on the different skills within the group.
A stronger sense of belonging through online escape rooms
If the corporate escape room has one major benefit, it’s showing just how effective collective work can be. To reach the end of the game, every player has to collaborate, share what they’ve found and put their skills to use. This collective activity brings people together and motivates them, in a playful working atmosphere.
The result: a stronger sense of belonging to the company. Everyone in the group is placed centre stage. That undeniably boosts motivation to speak up and contribute more to the collective. After all, the aim of the game is a shared goal: coming together to escape and find the solution.
It’s also a chance to see each other in a new light. Relationships form and connections grow stronger. As the team analyses clues and searches for solutions, everyone gets to see things from someone else’s point of view. Beyond bringing teams together around a common project, the event gives productivity a real lift.
Online escape rooms for companies now come in versions designed precisely to optimise team cohesion. Arcane Experience offers bespoke design of online escape rooms for remote team building. A corporate escape room can be played on a smartphone, a tablet or a computer.
