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BOOK REVIEW: HOW TO CREATE A LOW COST ESCAPE ROOM: FOR CAMPS, YOUTH GROUPS AND COMMUNITY CENTERS BY CURT “MOOSE” JACKSON

July 12, 2019 design,escape rooms,reviews

Content:
Layout & Flow: 
Figures & Graphics:
Price Value:
Overall ETR Rating: 4.3 stars
Amazon Rating: 4.3 stars

Bibliographic Summary:

  • Title: How to Create a Low Cost Escape Room: For Camps, Youth Groups and Community Centers, Summer camp programming series
    Author: Curt Jackson
  • Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016
  • ISBN: 1537690388, 9781537690384
    Length: 68 pages
  • Amazon Price: $19.95

Summary

This book is designed for creating a temporary escape room for a summer camp, youth group or community center.  In this book you’ll find a lot of different ideas for puzzles, clues and challenges, theme and story ideas, a list of low cost props, ways to supervise and give hints to groups, and even a sample game that you can use right away Escape Rooms (or Puzzle Rooms) can be a great team-building experience.  And while you could design an elaborate set-up that cost thousands of dollars, you can also do it for just a couple of hundred dollars or less.

This book is very concise while containing pertinent and complete information on creating an escape room for camps, youth groups, and community centers.  Our team members Ace and Amy love this book and have used it as a blueprint for designing and creating a temporary escape room for a United Way fundraiser.  The front and back cover are well-designed to communicate the content of the book and the book chapters are organized very well.  With 68 pages, this book is a quick read, but loaded with information.

Book Content

We gave this book 5 stars for book content.  The book is concise while being informative.

We like the content provided on the front and back cover.  On the back cover for example, you can find a summary of what is contained in this book:

  • A lot of different ideas on puzzles, clues, and challenges
  • Theme and story ideas
  • A list of supplies and where to get them
  • Ways to supervise and give hints to groups
  • A sample game that you can use right away

    The content of the book lived up to the information provided on the front and back cover.  Curt provides the reader with everything they need to know to create this type of room.

    Layout and Flow

    We gave this book 5 stars for layout and flow.  On Amazon, you can peek into the book and see the following items in the table of contents:

    • What is an Escape Room
    • Choosing a Theme and Storyline
    • Introduction
    • The Room
    • Puzzles and Clues
    • Props
    • Puzzle Organization and Flow
    • The Camp Director Has Been Kidnapped
      • Game Play
      • The Props
      • The Set-up
    • Print-outs for the Game
    • Resources

    Curt does an excellent job of explaining and providing plenty of examples of puzzles, clues, and props.  Then he follows up with and example that brings it all together.

    Figures & Graphics

    We gave this book 4.5 stars for figures and graphics.  Overall, Curt did a great job with the figures and graphics.  They are used to effectively support and communicate the types of puzzles and clues.  I particularly liked the figures to explain and illustrate puzzle organization and flow.  Our only nitpick is that they are all in gray-scale.  While color graphics would have been nice, we recognize that it makes sense in terms of limiting the cost to produce the book, and this did not significantly reduce our review score.

    Price Value

    We gave this book 2.5 stars for the price value.  For evaluation of the price value, we look at the cost per page and compare it with books provided in this area (escape rooms) and for books outside this subject matter area.  Using the Amazon retail price of $19.95 and 68 pages, this cost per page for this book is $0.29/page.  This is relatively expensive for a paperback.  Paperbacks associated with escape rooms run around $0.11/page, while other subject areas run around $0.07/page.

    Conclusion

    The average of the ratings for content, layout and flow, figures and graphics, and price value is 4.3 stars. For us, this is a great reference book that clearly walks the reader through the process of creating a room.  If you are looking to set up and host an escape room for a camp, youth group, community center, or a party, this book is a must.

    Amazon Rating: 4.3 stars

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