As per worldwide experts and researchers, 2021-22 has been the pinnacle of technology and digital advancement in this new decade. During these years, we have learned to transform our physical world into the structure of a more modernized space on various virtual platforms. Numerous innovative and technical elements and gadgets have come up with better developments that are changing the face of several industries. And we can see their influence in our daily lives as well.
Amidst this, augmented and virtual reality are fast catching up in the world of immersive technology. With constant developments and new improvements in AR and VR, they are making an influential impact on different sectors and franchises, be it breakout escape rooms, virtual teaching, online retail store shopping, healthcare, etc. And if there’s one area where these technologies have made the most progress and impact, it is the virtual games and escape rooms.
The idea behind augmented and virtual reality in escape rooms was to make the user experience more immersive and give them something unique and fun to enjoy. You can discover so many original and out-of-the-box scenarios where you can have an adventurous and thrilling time with your family and friends. For a decade, these escape rooms have been a constant source of entertainment. It is a great activity to build bonds and spend quality time with others. And with the addition of AR and VR technology, the breakout puzzle gaming experience is only getting better now.
50+ Application of VR in Healthcare | Use of Virtual Reality in Healthcare
Discover escape rooms with Augmented Reality
Augmented reality can enhance the physical elements of our real-world and give more depth to the dimensions around us. We accomplish AR through various digital sound, visual, and other sensory-stimulating tech and gizmos. As a result, such scientifically improved techniques come in handy in making the escape rooms immersive and more realistic for the audience.
When it comes to interlinking the game puzzles hidden in the escape room with technical elements, AR-enhanced gadgets can come in handy. It makes the overall setting more engaging and fun to play in. Devices like smartphones or tablets can help you uncover hidden clues and secret hints to a tricky riddle. And it makes it easier for you to add more immersive scenarios, depth to the dimensions of the environment, and engaging challenges in the escape game.
Top 10 Augmented Reality App Development Company in USA 2022
The augmented reality technology also adds to your gaming experience and helps you combine your logic and creativity in a new and distinctive way to dig in through the mystery. You can easily conquer time and bond with your friends and family within the stipulated time (usually 60-minutes) and conquer victory.
Another aspect that makes AR a perfect match for escape rooms is its flexibility. You don’t have to rely on putting on helmets or any specific glasses to experience it. The surrounding setup is such that you can freely interact and feel it for your own by finding yourself as one of the leading elements. It makes discovering the enigmatic paths, doorways, or staircases in the puzzle room a thrilling adventure.
When was Augmented Reality Invented
But it isn’t only limited to redefining the elements and visual aspects of the challenges presented in an escape room. By including AR technology in the puzzles of various themes of these breakout games, you can open a box of opportunities for combining science, innovation, and creativity in one place. It becomes a place for the people to interact and let go of their stress in a newly fashioned environment. They can recharge themselves and give their mental muscles some healthy exercise through these mood uplifting games. And this fully immersive setting also helps the players experience everything with a heightened sense in the escape room whose world is visually magical and different from their monotonous reality.
Virtual Reality and escape room games
Virtual reality is a form of stimulating experience generated by computers. You may or may not call it similar to a real-life environment depending on the design of the simulated reality. The objects and scenes created appear authentic and make the user feel they are witnessing the entire surrounding in a fully immersive format. We perceive VR through VR-enriched helmets and headsets.
A promising future of video games, VR doubles the gaming experience in escape rooms, be it physical or online. By simply using a headset or a VR-enhanced helmet, you can enter a new dimension of special effects and stunning panoramic visuals. There are so many breathtaking and unique possibilities and scenarios that you can unlock by using virtual reality in an escape room.
You can create extraordinary fictional worlds and add out-of-the-box- twists in the adventurous atmosphere of an escape room activity. It could be fantasy, steampunk, horror, sci-fi, and many more. The possibilities for exploring using VR tech are limitless.
How AR technology can help in Architecture Development 2022
Another advantage of virtual reality fused with the elements and objects of escape rooms is the emotional and energetic investment of the audience. The magical and surreal effects help create an atmosphere of bonding, thrill, enjoyment, and familial experience for people of every age group. And it adds an extra touch of recreation and exploration in the puzzle themes of the breakout games. Thus, despite the game revolving around the same principle of finding and solving clues to escape in the given time (60-minutes), you can create room for discovering so many creative and entertaining sides to it. You can take the game in a new direction and participate in countless prospects, both genuine and virtual, in VR-equipped escape rooms.
Advantages of augmented and virtual reality in online escape rooms
As you can observe, the inclusion of AR and VR has made escape rooms a trending event in the entertainment and technology industry. But that’s not the only aspect they have helped this concept flourish. There are plenty of other directions where it has proven to be a sure hit. And one of them has been online escape rooms.
After the pandemic struck us down and we were forced to stay in our houses, most of us turned towards virtual and online forms of recreation to connect with others and spend some time relaxing. It was then that many people discovered the beauty of virtual escape rooms. These games are just as fun as the physical escape rooms, and all that varies is you hunt for the puzzles and solve clues online with your team on Zoom meetings.
Depending on your choice, you can either play individually or with your group of friends and family. There are many themes to choose from in online escape games. And you can further heighten your experiences using AR and VR. They add more depth and detail to your game and make puzzle hunting and solving more fun and adventurous.
Thus, you can experience great fun and immersive effects with numerous opportunities in online escape games even by sitting at home and playing anytime and anywhere. The various advantages of augmented and virtual reality play a crucial role in transforming this franchise and taking it to new success heights. Let us look at some of these factors and benefits:
- It has made virtual escape rooms a lucrative business opportunity for business people, marketers, and investors.
- You can utilize the space more efficiently for hiding the puzzles when compared to physical and traditional escape rooms.
- It can accommodate many players in one round.
- It provides more variations and genres of experiences than a physical escape room.
- And since it is a budding concept in the market, it will attract more audiences due to their curiosity and subsequently increase ROI shortly.
Some ideas for implementing AR and VR in escape rooms
Below are some ideas through which you can include AR and VR in virtual escape rooms:
1. You can add a brief game tutorial similar to a trailer in the beginning. The participants can go through it once before they begin the game to get the hang of what they should be expecting once they are inside.
2. By focusing on the background of the escape room, you can bring out the minutest details of the puzzle theme and thoroughly engross the audience.
3. It makes it easier for you to add new difficulty levels as players solve the puzzles and finish challenges. The change in pacing will keep them hooked until the end.
4. You can introduce a fictional character of your own to answer the doubts of the participants in the game. It will help maintain the mystery and away from the real-world atmosphere in the gameplay.
5. You can let your audience play various avatars in immersive form. It helps set the chronicles of the storytelling and allows everyone on the team to dive deeper into the lore of the escape game.
6. Through AR and VR, you can even set hidden passages and secret messages that players will find once they proceed to higher levels. By decoding them, they can get a step closer to the answer.
7. You can reward them with encouraging messages and cheerful music whenever they find answers to a tricky puzzle or when they win the game. It will create a favorable and delightful atmosphere for the participants and cheer them to move ahead in the game.
8. Defeating the final boss (the ultimate big baddie who threatens the world with their evil power) further gives an extra layering of exhilaration to the people. And by including opponents that one can defeat easily, you can help enhance the gaming and immersive experience of the people by making them feel satisfied and euphoric in their victory.
Concluding words
The concept of escape rooms isn’t a new one. But the implementation of augmented and virtual reality in these live-action games is. We are still exploring the vast domain of AR and VR tech, and there is so much more left for us to learn. The overall setting of an escape room heavily relies on the puzzles, themes, storytelling, and atmospheric scenario.
And you can highlight these elements by using augmented and virtual reality gadgets and devices. Not only do they bring out the cinematic effects and the fleshed-out challenges in a more theatrical style, but they also allow the player to become a part of their surroundings and learn to better interact with the objects around them. Therefore, you can sit back and enjoy moments that are otherwise not possible in the physical world.
And while it is still open to several changes and introductions, we are sure that AR and VR will further play a vital role in redefining the standards and experiences in the escape room industry. You can bet that the genre of video gaming and escape rooms will change for the better once we can disclose the full potential of augmented and virtual reality technology and gadgets.