Congratulations 2016 Skeleton Key Award Winners

Congratulations 2016 Skeleton Key Award Winners

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Congratulations to all of the 2016 Skeleton Key Award winners!

The following games are all incredibly fun and unique in their own ways. Below you can see them listed by the category in which they shine especially bright.

Overall:

13thgate

13thgateescape2

60out

Immersion:

wizardsandwires

paniq

enigma

Innovation:

crossroadsaward

basement

puzzah

Family Fun:

epic

1st Gen:

escapemyroom

quicksand

escapezone

Creativity:

exitgame

mazerooms

Competition Room:

denverescape

Set Design:

escapology

ESCAPE ROOMS – Puzzah! Tick Tock – Colorado

Puzzah! Tick Tock

So I’ll admit up front that I may be a bit biased in this review since I absolutely loved this room as it felt like it was made for me. I played alone and took third place on the leaderboard. I studied music so I related to the theme. Also the puzzles played to my strengths with logic puzzles and such. 

I loved the story of a mad composer hiding an explosive device and you must crack his puzzles to find the device and disarm it. It is a heavy audio and music based room. The hints and some of the puzzles are actually given through the speakers, so if you have difficulty with audio puzzles this may not be a room for you. I happen to love audio and music related puzzles. 

I am also fascinated by the unique way this game guides players along. The gamemaster doesn’t even need to watch the game because the hints are automated. Everything works together to tell the story. It’s very clever and unlike anything I’ve seen. 

The game itself takes place in a fairly small room. I would recommend playing a different game at this location if you have a large group. They have several games at the location and to my understanding they all use the same hint system automated technology. 

The Stanley Hotel

The Stanley HotelMy husband & I stayed at the Stanley for our anniversary this year. First of all, I thought it was the hotel from The Shining movie. I was incorrect. It is the hotel that the movie was based on. There was a newly planted shrubbery maze in the front because they didn’t actually have a labyrinth like the movie but decided to add one recently. They do however claim to be haunted. Unfortunately our ghost tour was rescheduled earlier in the day because they claimed they weren’t having the evening your that we booked (even though we saw it walking by after our tour ended) so the tour wasn’t particularly creepy. It also screwed up our evening schedule because they changed our booking which made it a bit more difficult to enjoy. We ended up exploring on our own for quite a while and still no sign of anything paranormal. We were booked in a room in the Lodge, not the main hotel. Supposedly there are pets that haunt the Lodge. I kept hoping a ghost cat would curl up on my pillow and purr me to sleep, but no luck. The room was nice, aside from the lack of air conditioning. Oddly there is a giant TV in the room that plays The Shining 24/7, but they don’t have AC because that would be too modern. Overall The Stanley feels like an incredibly expensive tourist trap. I would highly recommend visiting and even taking a tour of the place if you are interested in going because the history and building are fascinating, but I wouldn’t recommend staying there. 

COLORADO ESCAPE ROOM LIST

Below is a list of the Escape Rooms I’ve played roughly in order of MY favorite to least favorite by city. Note: I especially enjoy horror, paranormal & magic themed escape rooms and recently realized I don’t enjoy physical puzzles like moving furniture or fishing for keys very much, so my preferences may be different than yours. Feel free to tweet me questions. 

DENVER

Denver Escape Room: Pipeworks (now called Puzzle Effect)

Epic Escape Game: Conspiracy Theory

Conundrum Escape Rooms: Mystic Chamber

EscapeWorks Denver: Egyptian Tomb

 

R.I.P. these games are no longer around

Epic Escape Game: Pikes Peak or Bust: Colorado’s Gold Rush

Epic Escape Game: The Grand Theatre Presents: The Mustache Thief

Epic Escape Game: Dorm of the Dead (original)

Epic Escape Game: Sweet Dreams

Q The Live Escape Experience: The Asylum

Puzzah! Kazam!

Puzzah! Tick Tock

EscapeWorks Denver: The Big Game