Cool Off With the Coolest Entertainment in the City! Six State of the Art Escape Rooms are the Best Bonding Experience Ever!!

For anyone who wants to participate in a mind blowing phenomenon that is an escape room, do not pass go do not collect, go directly to one of these remarkable adventures. If you love games and solving mysteries you will be in heaven when you visit any of these havens right here in our hometown. I suggest you try them all.

You don’t have to be Houdini, Sherlock Holmes or Colombo. You simply require a bit of brains and brawn. You're guaranteed to have a blast and you’ll bond in a special way that’s beyond compare and without parallel, while experiencing a one-in-a-million superb unsurpassable sensation.
You don’t have to join a reality show like Survivor, Big Brother or travel the world via Amazing Race. You win the prize when you find (or don’t find) your way out of these wonderful creations, feeling exhilarated to the max.

Visiting the escape site of your choice is better than sitting in a movie, or attending a top rated theatrical or musical production because you interact with each other, which is priceless nowadays. Skills that have become archiac, with the loss of group activity attendance and the advent of masses sitting alone in their rooms engrossed on the internet/cell phones/cable TV/Netflix bingeing, rise to the forefront.
You are instantly immersed in a fantasy beyond belief with challenges that will boost your esteem and confidence levels ten fold. Gaining these qualities, as well as courage and inner strength, are all worth more than a million bucks!
Each of these venues are matchless & consummate in a class of their own. I have the ultimate praise for their creativity and commitment to the genre. I hope they inspire a huge surge in the field. We desperately need this kind of communal activity that is unrivaled and transcendent, especially in the chaos discord and splitting of society as it is today.
Not only is this a wonderfully rare way to bring together families friends lovers cohorts coworkers neighbors, but it’s an occasion to meet new friends on a positive memorable level. It’s the same kind of feeling you get when you’re at a sports event or concert where everyone is rooting for the same team and on the same page. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if more folks valued a unity of purpose?!
In these scenarios, you have a group of people focused on a sole aim and desire. It takes a village and trust is the magic word. Can you imagine a planet where everyone joined forces to accomplish a combined objective, plan, or dream?
Instead of cut throat competition, back stabbing, talking trash, putting the other person down to build themselves up, attacking, fighting, abusing, war upon war, (at home and around the world), here’s the ultimate chance to spend an hour in heaven at a sanctuary where the whole group has a similar design, aspiration, target, i.e. looking for the key (literally and figuratively) to the holy grail, the next clue to reach your end goal.
Along the way to that brass ring, your spirit and soul will soar during these second to none happenings. You will grow inches and feet by leaps and bounds, inside and out, when you inadvertently discover you have all the answers within, that you can solve anything you’re confronted with.
More important, success doesn’t depend on your bank account, a fancy car, designer duds, or your position or status in the community. Here, in the awe striking escape/maze rooms, you’re all for one and one for all. Your win is my win, your intention is my intention, your victory is my victory. Where else in the universe does a shred of camaraderie like this exist?
I give kudos individually to each and every one of these companies for their hard work and dedication in putting together such superlative spots of sanctum in the middle of the hustle and bustle of our City of Angels. You definitely had me at hello.
I highly recommend contacting mazerooms.com (310) 595-2881 because they have a fantastic location in our own backyard at 14429 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks!!! Plus the piece de resistance: you get a foto taken while you're inside the room, just like the one above of yours truly, the puzzle master at work!
Another spectacular not to be missed establishment is thebasementla.com, 12909 Foothill Blvd., Sylmar, 91342 (866) 993-7227, distinct because they feature LIVE actors, as well as an exceptionally energized and welcoming staff!!
Below you will find: Interviews with the Creators/Owners/Managers of Four Top Notch Escape Locales that the Patch is Privileged to Exclusively Acquire! Please feel free to visit their websites for further details and to make reservations.
PanIQ Room Hollywood, 3393 Barham Blvd, Los Angeles, 90068 (323) 380-6271 paniqescaperoom.com Johanna Strausz, Marketing Manager

Debs: Where do you think the idea for maze/escape rooms first come about?
Johanna (Joh): The original escape rooms - the ones that we call an escape room today - were launched in Budapest in early 2011. Escape rooms have spread like wildfire accross Budapest in the early 2010's and it quickly become the number one tourist attraction in the Hungarian capital.
Debs: How, when, and why did your organization become involved, i.e. its history?
Joh: The first PanIQ Room opened its doors in March 2012 in Hungary, and it belongs to some of the first escape rooms in the world. Entering the US market in 2014, PanIQ Room Hollywood opened with two themes, and after the great success of the first unit, PanIQ Room started to expand quickly opening new units in several US cities and we are constantly working on opening in new cities.
We think that the American audience is very open to this concept and we strive to introduce the "flow" feeling to more and more people throughout the world as a fantastic yet unique way of entertainment.
Debs: What’s special and unique abour your escape rooms?
Joh: We come from the escape room paradise: we are proud to be an original escape room chain that is actually coming from and operated from Hungary. The carefree feeling of play that originates from the famous Hungarian virtue is present in all of our rooms.
We are the first licensed franchise in the industry: In 2017 PanIQ Escape Rooms officially became one of the the first licenced escape room franchise in the world.
We are here to offer you a creative adventure: You'll find yourself solving a whole bunch of creative movement/mind excercises while you are under continous time pressure! Best way to train your creative mind!
Role players, electrical engineers, computer programmers, physicists, screenwriters, chemists and magicians also take part in the designing and manufacturing of the games. Most of the games are custom made in Hungary and Europe.
In PanIQ Room the games are ideally designed for 4-6 players, you don’t have to play with random people.
PanIQ Room is corporate friendly: We are proud to say that among others, the employees of the Cheesecake Factory, Google, Oracle, Red Bull, L'oreal or HP have already chosen the PanIQ escape room experience as a team building exercise.
We like to be close to everyone: We are open from Monday to Sunday, from (10AM till midnight). Easy and convinient approach of our units is a key factor.
Debs: What’s the most challenging and/or rewarding part of running this sort of business?
Joh: The most rewarding is the positive feedback, when people experience and love what we do is the best feeling ever. I think the most challanging part is to always be up-to-date with games (follow the new trends and technical developments).
Also, for us is to manage it all from Hungary.
Debs: Why do you think this kind of entertainment has become the latest trend?
Joh: Because it makes you to do something real. We are living in a digital world, to do something tangible like this with your friends is really unique. Not to mention companies, due to the nature of the game it's like the perfect team building event.
Debs: What can we look forward to in the near future regarding your events?
Joh: This year the brand will open new units in Dallas, Houston, New York, the Silicon Valley and - in cooperation with a laser tag arena, Hard Knocks - in Nashville!
Escape Hotel Hollywood 6633 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028 (323) 848-4954 www.escapehotelhollywood.com Ivan Leon Uribe, Creators and Game Designer:
Debs: How do you come up with the ideas of the rooms, i.e. what/who inspires you?
Ivan: To select the theme it all has to start from something that makes sense financially, meaning, a theme that by its nature would potentially catch the curiosity of the people, and of course, it must be something we are excited about or have some kind of personal attachment to.
Debs: How long does it take to put together and design each game?

Ivan: This is the most uncertain part of the process... there have been games planned in as fast as 2 hours, with props and puzzles, and games that take months to put together on paper... always along the way while building, ideas will be implemented or change, then the development varies depending on how much space you have to cover, and how complicated the programming or building of the props can be.
Debs: What are the challenges and rewards of the process?
Ivan: Challenges start from the second you start thinking on a theme. There are so many amazing and exciting things. There is also the space limitation. Even when we are on a 15.000 sq ft facility, 11 games require space, and then you have to work with what you have…there are ideas that can be amazing, but then you also have to keep in mind that thousands of people will use that prop or puzzle in a month and that it needs to be reliable. Unfortunately sometimes that results in cutting back on "beauty development". Then there is the challenge of actually making the things work as planned, a lot of times we have to source from different engineers to develop something custom made or put a lot of hours on research and development so we can get props doing what we want them to do.
The rewards go all along the way: when a graphic design looks good, when a prop works as planned, and when someone comes out of a game having a great time and a big smile on the face... that’s the pay off for all the work and time invested in the games.
Debs: What’s your background and what attracted you to this industry?
Ivan: I worked in advertising for several years, as my partners have... we are also filmmakers with experience on commercials, music videos, short films, tv shows etc.We are all very much into the story telling which brought us to the business and the concept of escape rooms. We see it as a new industry that will not stop on a seasonal trend, but will be something that comes to stay and evolves with technology, very much like filmmaking did over a century ago. There is also the business opportunity we saw behind it, and the intention to be not just pioneers, but the best in the industry.There is still a lot of work to do, and escape rooms, in general, are very new. We all are just experimenting and tapping the very surface of the possibilities this amazing kind of entertainment can offer to creators and users.
Debs: What do you recommend to aspiring creators/designers?
Don't forget... If you can think it, It can be done.
Countdown Live Escape Games 2284 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, 90007 (747)333-8886 www.CountdownEscape.com Brian Corbitt, Owner:
Debs: Where do you think the idea for maze/escape rooms first come about?
Brian Corbitt (BC): While some say escape rooms originated in Asia or Eastern Europe, it is very hard to truly pin down where the inspiration came from for the first business. Interactive attractions have been evolving long before any “official” escape room had opened. Carnival fun houses, haunted houses, and even major theme parks have all tried to incorporate guest interaction in a variety of ways. Granted, their puzzle element was not as established, but there were still fun things that would only happen if a guest did something in particular to trigger it. The Indiana Jones Ride at Disneyland had some of the first interactions I remembered and it wasn’t even on the ride, but in the queue line.
Debs: How, when, and why did your organization become involved, i.e. its history?
BC: Countdown Live Escape Games started in Las Vegas, NV. Later that year, it opened a second location in Los Angeles. From there, we have worked with major studios like Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures and Legendary Pictures to open promotional escape rooms. We are also the creators of the SoCal Escape Room Owners and Managers group that brought together all the companies to unify our industry into a cohesive group that will host mixers, joint marketing, and much more.
Debs: What’s special and unique about your escape rooms?
BC: Countdown LA is one of the few rooms that is always trying to innovate the industry. We are constantly upgrading our games and looking for new ways to create amazing attractions. Collaborations are next on our list as we hope to branch out into immersive theater and possibly more IP related themed games.
Debs: What’s the most challenging and/or rewarding part of running this sort of business?
BC: The most challenging part of running a business as a sole owner is having to do EVERYTHING. And anything you don’t know how to do, well, you better learn it quick. Southern California has over 160 escape room companies now and many are still on the way. Standing out from the rest is becoming more and more difficult. In our industry, we must help other escape rooms through testing and suggestions to ensure games are of quality that will create more interest in escape rooms. Bad experiences can turn off potential customers and possibly hurt the industry as a whole. The best feeling I can possibly have is to see a group with less that 5 minutes on the clock, scrambling, panicking to solve the final clue and barely making it out with seconds to spare. That rush is what our customers are paying for. They were able to overcome the obstacles we threw at them and escape the room.
Debs: Why do you think this kind of entertainment has become the latest trend?
BC: People have always been searching for entertainment whether it be the classic mini golf, laser tag, or even to the larger attractions and theme parks. Escape rooms have given the populace an opportunity to create their own experiences and entertainment for people to enjoy. Because of the lack of corporate oversight, escape rooms really reflect their owners and designers. I was originally a set designer for the Haunted House industry working for large attractions like Knott’s Scary Farm in Buena Park, CA and Fright Dome in Las Vegas, NV. My rooms have to be beautiful to really set the mood and transport you away from the fact that you are still just in a regular room. Some of the top rooms, like the Basement in Sylmar or Crossroads in Anaheim, are also former haunted house people. It seemed like a natural evolution for many of us to cross over into escape rooms. Other owners are former coders or from the video game industry. Exit Games, in Monterey Park, is a perfect example of a designer that uses their past skills in tech to create some of the most unique puzzles around. Every escape room you visit will more than likely be a unique creation to that company, which creates endless unique experiences for people to enjoy.
Debs: What can we look forward to in the near future regarding your events?
BC: Here at Countdown Escape LA, we are always looking for new experiences to create. Nothing is ever finished in my book. Secret projects in the works include pop up experiences such as our April fools day event, Mrs. Jezebels Tea Party. We are also collaborating with Serial Killer Speed Dating to unleash a completely new kind of singles party. Collaboration is really the next step for many escape rooms as we need to evolve and innovate experiences that cater to the demand of Los Angeles’s insatiable thirst for all things immersive.
Debs: Anything else you’d like the public to know?
BC: In parting, I want the public to know that most escape rooms are not corporate behemoths. We are individuals, couples, and groups of friends that decided to step away from the norm and explore our passions. We are human beings, not faceless brands and logos. And because of that we are not perfect, but we still try to make our games the best they can be for you to step away from reality for an hour and yell at your friend for not telling you he found a key.
The Bunker Experience 20 N Raymond Ave, Pasadena, 91103 www.thebunkerexperience.comthebunkerexperience@gmail.com Bea Egeto, Creator/Co-owner:
Debs: Where do you think the idea for maze/escape rooms first come about?
Bea:There are many claims to who opened the first official escape rooms, some claim it's Japanese some claim it started in Budapest, Hungary. My first introduction to escape games, came in the form of the video games, Escape The Room. I was fascinated with this idea and found myself quickly consuming all forms/types of these video games that I could find. As for mazes, my thought is they originated from the Halloween haunts people would create in their homes to make this holiday more immersive outside of the traditional decorations. This evolved into an exploration that led to the now-well-known phenomenon of a maze.
Debs: How, when, and why did your organization become involved, i.e. its history?
Bea: My background is in web production, I was producing scripted web content for a digital entertainment company that led me to web story telling. I created a choose-your-own-adventure story that I wanted to make into a full-on interactive story experience, where the audience is part of the story. Once I first visited a local escape room, an immediate "aha" moment gave me the idea of extending the story into a physical adventure game.
Debs: What’s special and unique abour your escape rooms?
Bea: The Bunker Experience is exactly that, an experience. I wanted to not only give a 4-walled room full of puzzles and games, but I wanted to tell a story with fun video game-esque elements. We are using live actors to set up the story for our participants, once they complete their mission they have to escape through a haunting maze, which we call our "Security Tunnel" in our story. Everything is story related, the moment you walk through our door you are in the story and you are part of the story as well. Each room, what we call Chapters, is taking you further into the story, as you complete Chapter 1, the next part is Chapter 2 that continues where Chapter 1 left off. Our focus is to create a full environment where the true "choose-your-own-adventure" idea comes to life.
Debs: What’s the most challenging and/or rewarding part of running this sort of business?
Bea: The challenge for us is to still introduce this idea of story immersion, some guests have to adapt to this interactive environment, but for the most part people are really pleasantly surprised that they are part of the story and everything is story driven. Our biggest fan base so far are the youngsters since they can see and feel the similarity to a video game environment. We do get a lot of great companies who do want to give their employees a different style of team building activity, and once they go through our experience and we see their adrenalin filled expressions of pure fun, it is truly a satisfaction that is hard to describe. Our entire team wants to make sure everyone has a great time when they walk through our door and when we know we've achieved this goal we are truly humbled to have this opportunity.
Debs: Why do you think this kind of entertainment has become the latest trend?
Bea: I do see entertainment going in the direction of physical experience. VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality) and so on, are becoming more and more popular. I do love this new form of story telling because it can not get any more interactive than to put the audience physically in the story.
Debs: What can we look forward to in the near future regarding your events?
Bea: We are continuing our Chapters, next up is Chapter 3, which will be a thrilling adventure continuation of the previous Chapters. Best part is you don't need to do the previous chapters to complete the game, though it does give you more story related info to do them all. We are also going to launch a special Halloween experience, which will combine all chapters into a haunting 90 minute experience.
Debs: Anything else you’d like the public to know?
Bea: We’d like to let the public know that our adventure game is different than most, and it fits all ages. We are fun for teens, adults and companies alike where we can customize the experience to fit everyone's scare threshold as well as their ability.