Modern Fables Escape Rooms
Bridging Creativity and Immersion in Physical Spaces
Introduction
In a city brimming with cultural experiences, I saw an opportunity to develop the escape room scene with a more immersive story-first approach. My journey began in 2016 with an idea to go beyond traditional puzzle-centric escape rooms, inspired by my passion for immersive theatre coupled with my experience in children’s theatre and museums. I set up Modern Fables with the aim of being more creative than my competitors while completely transporting visitors to another realm.
As Creative Director and Brand Strategist I aimed to fill a gap in the market: transform the escape room experience from a mere themed puzzle-solving activity into a creatively unique, deeply immersive narrative adventure. This was to be supported by technology to heighten the feeling of being somewhere exciting and magical.
After hard-won success with my initial single-game venue, I decided to expand Modern Fables to a larger three-game site in a more prestigious location. This would enable repeat bookings and a tripling of capacity.
The Modern Fables Escape Rooms
Market Analysis
The London escape room scene was bustling with approximately 25 companies, among them early leaders like Hint Hunt and Escape Hunt, setting the stage for a competitive arena. Despite the burgeoning number of offerings, a closer look revealed a trend: technology used to impress rather than augment, and puzzles shoehorned into themes at the expense of narrative engagement. My analysis pointed towards an untapped potential for a story-first approach, leveraging the rising popularity of immersive entertainment across the city.
Audience Analysis
With limited resources, identifying our main audience was a challenge. To do this, I informally interviewed our customers as well as staff at escape room venues I visited and made good use of Google Analytics data: I manged to identify a group dubbed ‘London Explorers’. This demographic of 24-35 year-old professionals, predominantly women, craved unique, shareable experiences that transcended the mundane. Their journey often began with a nod from cultural gatekeepers or word-of-mouth recommendations. This underscored the importance of a strong, engaging brand narrative that could capture the imagination while having an exciting experience to match.
Strategy
The strategy was crafted to redefine the escape room experience, anchoring it in immersive storytelling and sensory engagement. Recognising our audience’s appetite for depth and authenticity, we set out to weave intricate narratives that would envelop players, transforming a visit to “Modern Fables” into a journey to another realm. This approach was supported by three pillars:
Sensory Engagement
Utilisation of soundscapes, fragrances, and tactile experiences to enhance immersion.
Narrative Integration
Commitment to stories that resonate, drawing from a diverse cultural well to ensure novelty and intrigue.
Customer-Centric Service
Streamlined interactions from booking to gameplay, tailored to the needs of our busy, socially connected explorers.
Execution
Bringing Stories to Life
Narrative and Set Design
I embarked on creating escape rooms where the narrative was central. Each game was a testament to this philosophy, offering players a rich tapestry of interwoven plots and puzzles that demanded not just intellectual engagement but emotional investment.
Our games were Hypersomnia, an 80s sci-fi-inspired journey to parallel universes; The Oracles, a rewriting of historical conspiracy theories drawing on archeological explorer themes; and The Escapist, an eerie investigation inspired by HP Lovecraft in a modern setting. All three stories were connected to inspire customers to come back for more.
Sensory Integration for Enhanced Realism
In Hypersomnia, , the main ‘control room’ scent utilised a mix of ‘Hospital’ to give a feel of clinical cleanliness but also a hint of ‘Factory’ to give an industrial edge.
The soundscape was layered to sound like a complex digital machine at work: as each puzzle to fix the machine was completed, a new layer was added to the soundscape. This gave players a sense they were building towards something while also immersing them in a strange digital-industrial atmosphere when combined with the scent and ‘dirtied sci-fi’ set design.
Operational Excellence and Customer Focus
Actor-led Journeys
Replacing traditional staff with actors, we blurred the lines between reality and fiction, making every interaction a step deeper into our stories.
Seamless Customer Interaction
From flexible booking to personalised service, operational details were honed to ensure that every aspect of the ‘Modern Fables experience’ felt as thoughtfully crafted as the stories themselves.
Technological Integration and Artistic Branding
Purposeful Technology Use
Technology at Modern Fables served the narrative rather than trying to impress, enhancing the magic without overshadowing the story. Our puzzles, integrated into the storyline, offered a seamless blend of traditional mechanisms and innovative tech solutions.
Artistic and Mysterious Branding
The visual identity of Modern Fables spoke of sophistication and intrigue, marrying Edwardian fairytale aesthetics with modern design elements. This branding strategy was not just a visual choice but a narrative device, priming visitors for the unique experiences that awaited them.
Marketing and Engagement
Our marketing efforts were strategically aligned with our target audience’s preferences, emphasising partnerships with cultural influencers and platforms. Special offers and campaigns were designed to intrigue and attract the ‘London Explorers’, leveraging reviews, location, and pricing to communicate value and exclusivity.
Brand Identity and Messaging
The Modern Fables brand was a story in itself, an invitation to “Escape to Another World.” Through careful branding, from our logo to our tagline, we conveyed the essence of our approach: immersive, narrative-driven adventures that promised not just entertainment but a journey to the extraordinary.
Again, with limited resources, this provided another challenge. My friend, the talented Imogen Barraclough created the logo to my brief and a member of the team suggested the use of marbling visuals (which you can see have stuck!). It was then up to me to translate this into the necessary visual identity (while learning how to use Photoshop!).
Results
After moving to our new venue, our initial aim was to get Modern Fables fully booked every Saturday. We managed this within a couple of months with an additional 25% increase in bookings on Sundays. Customer reviews were overwhelmingly positive.
Customer Reviews
"Amazing place, the immersion starts the moment you enter the building! Great puzzles and and engaging storyline. We even had the game customised to the birthday girl and got a highlights card which was hilarious. Such a great place. This is how escape rooms should be done."
"I got to try their new adventure Hypersomnia in the new Hackney location, and it's absolutely brilliant! Great storyline, well made props, and even the hint system fits into the surroundings and is fully immersive. Staff were super friendly and engaged as well, overall a fantastic experience, can't recommend them enough!"
"The whole experience was amazing. It was immersive from start to finish and was such good fun. The clues and story made sense and the puzzles had variety. Having been to other escape rooms since, this one is unbeatable, a lot of the others are not as immersive, staff are rude and hurry you along and the stories dont make sense.. Best escape room I have ever been to and well worth the money.. 10/10 . Cant recommend enough."
"My second time playing a Modern Fables escape room-- I did Hypersomnia with a group of 4 early 2019, and back yesterday with a group of 6 for the Escapist. Four of the girls had never played before and they are HOOKED. Great immersive games-- I love the hosts that gets us immersed in the storyline, really good addition to escape rooms! Good puzzles, good set up, just wish we could go on for longer!! Highly recommend-- support independent business!!"
"Imaginative and interactive escape room! Two of us did the sci-fi adventure and made it out with 5 mins to spare, despite one of us having never done an escape room before! The use of tech in the rooms is brilliant and makes it more immersive than a regular escape room. Will be returning 🙂 Thanks!"
"We've visited a bunch of Escape Rooms and Modern Fables' focus on immersion and narrative was really refreshing. Some of the puzzles were pretty clever without getting too tricky. The host was really nice. Would recommend!"
