Which Escape Game Suits Your Team? 7 Formats Compared

"We'd like one of those escape things" – we hear that sentence almost every week. The problem: "escape game" is no longer a single format, it's a whole family. We run seven of them, and they differ considerably – in setting, group size, how much walking is involved and price. Here's the overview I usually give over the phone.

The quick overview

If you're short on time, this table answers 80% of the questions. All prices are starting prices per person.

The two big families

Before looking at individual formats, it helps to sort them roughly. Our escape games fall into two groups, and choosing between those two usually settles half the decision:

• Mobile escape games – you're on the move. Escape the City, Escape the Forest, the Crime Challenge and, in winter, Rettet Weihnachten are played outdoors, with teams moving through the city or the woods. You don't need a room, but you do need sensible footwear.
• Indoor formats – you stay in one place. Beat the Box, Beat the Red Box and Virus Infection need a space with tables – a canteen, meeting room or hall. So you do need a venue, but you are weather-independent and can play with very large groups.

The simplest rule of thumb: Do you have a hall, canteen or meeting room? Then the indoor formats are the obvious choice. Do you want to get out and use the city or the forest as your backdrop? Then go mobile.

Escape the City and Escape the Forest: same mechanics, two backdrops

These two are often confused – understandably, because the sequence is identical. The difference is the backdrop: city centre in one case, forest in the other.

In both, the story revolves around a toxic cloud escaping from a secret laboratory. You take on the role of scientists and have to produce an antidote as quickly as possible. After the briefing at the meeting point, we split you into small teams of five to seven people, each team receives its material – and off you go on your own. A game app guides you through the story and handles navigation; at each station there's a puzzle, a piece of information or another part of the mission.

Our trainers are reachable by phone throughout and actively help via the chat function in the app. They give hints, but they don't solve puzzles – the moment of insight should stay with your team. At the end everyone meets back at the starting point, we evaluate the results, the best team receives a winner's trophy, and then it's time for group photos.

Choose the city if you're starting centrally, people are arriving from different directions, or you're going out to eat afterwards. Choose the forest if you genuinely want to get away from the office environment, with a bit more quiet and nature around you. What a forest mission actually looks like is described in a separate deep dive.

Crime Challenge: the format for story lovers

The Crime Challenge is also mobile and played outdoors in the city – but the tone is different. Instead of a lab disaster there's a criminal case, and you are the investigators. If your people enjoy piecing evidence together and arguing about theories, this suits them better than the antidote mission.

A practical side effect: at 39.95 € per person it's the most affordable of the three mobile formats. If the budget is tight but you still want to be outside, this is often the answer. And since you're moving through the city anyway, it combines well with exploring the place – a real bonus for guests who don't know the city.

Beat the Box: the classic with the aluminium cases

Beat the Box is our most-booked indoor escape format, for one simple reason: it works almost anywhere. All it needs is a space with tables. A canteen, a meeting room, a hall, at a pinch outdoors under a marquee.

The setup: mysterious aluminium boxes, a ticking clock, and small teams cracking puzzles to get at the codes. Two hours, a clear structure, tension right up to the final second.

What many people don't know, and what sets us apart from other providers: there isn't just one scenario. The standard is a hacker attack on the company, but we also run a bank robbery, an espionage mission and others. If your team has played the format before, or you want a particular mood, just say so – it's fairly easy for us to arrange.

Virus Infection: the same idea, indoors

Virus Infection is essentially what Escape the Forest is outdoors – only inside. A virus is spreading, your teams look for the antidote, solve tasks and protect themselves from "infection". The same kind of puzzling, the same teamwork, just without the woods and without an eye on the forecast.

The difference lies less in the experience than in the practicalities – and those speak for themselves: two hours, up to 500 people, and at 35.95 € per person our most affordable escape format. It starts at 20 participants, so it isn't designed for small groups.

Who it suits: you want a proper escape game, but it's November, your group is large, or there simply is no suitable patch of woodland nearby. Then you get the same principle in a hall or canteen – predictable, independent of the weather, and nobody has to pack sturdy shoes.

For Christmas: Beat the Red Box and Rettet Weihnachten

Beat the Red Box is the Christmas version of Beat the Box: same key figures, same two hours, but its own story. Of all people, Santa Claus appears to have stolen every present, and your team has to open the boxes, decode the clues, assemble the abort code and stop the countdown. It runs from November to January, takes place indoors and scales to 500 people.

Rettet Weihnachten ("Save Christmas") is its mobile counterpart – a full escape game, just outdoors in winter. The Christmas village is in a state of emergency: the elves have disappeared, toy production has stopped, and your team has to bring the magic back. It is played with a tablet, a small black case and a few paper documents. 2–3 hours, 10 to 200 people, from 39.95 € per person.

Choosing between the two comes down to the same question as above: if you have a room and want a safe bet, take the Red Box. If you want to get out into the wintery city, Rettet Weihnachten is the one – all the more so because it is being relaunched in our own game app this season, which makes it considerably more interactive. If you want less escape game and more Christmas market stroll, have a look at the Christmas Rallye.

A word on the scenarios

Each of these games comes with a fixed scenario: the toxic cloud in Escape the City and Escape the Forest, the criminal case in the Crime Challenge, the Christmas village in Rettet Weihnachten. It isn't a modular kit but a fully worked-out game – which is precisely why it works. The one exception is Beat the Box, where you can choose between several storylines.

But the fixed scenario is not a technical limit – it is simply the standard. I designed the games myself, and by now everything runs on our own game app, which gives us access to what others have to buy in. Anyone licensing a third-party rally app takes what is in it and nothing else. With us, adaptation works on three levels:

• Rewriting the story around your theme. The game stays as it is but is set in your context – your industry, your product, a company anniversary.
• Swapping or changing individual puzzles and stations. Useful if your team has played the format before, or if certain tasks suit your group better.
• Building an entirely new theme. More involved, but entirely possible – this means a game created specifically for you.

To be straight about it: almost anything is feasible. The limit isn't the technology, it's lead time and budget. Adapting a story is quick; a new theme takes time and costs accordingly. Tell us what you have in mind and I'll tell you what it realistically involves.

Deciding by group size

The most common stumbling block. Not every format scales equally well:

• Up to 30 people: all seven formats work – here it comes down to taste. The only exception: Virus Infection starts at 20.
• 30 to 80 people: everything still works, but the mobile formats really come into their own. Teams spread out and nothing feels crowded.
• Over 200 people: now Beat the Box, Beat the Red Box and Virus Infection remain – the others are at their limit at 200 participants.

Team size within the event is largely fixed, by the way: five to seven people per team works best for the mobile escape games, four to six for the box formats. Bigger teams don't mean more fun – they just mean two people watching instead of playing.

Three questions that get you to the right format faster

• Do you have a room? If yes, the indoor formats are a natural fit and you're weather-independent. If not, it'll be mobile – and rain is no obstacle, that's what ponchos are for.
• Should the group get moving? Anyone who has spent the whole day in meetings gains more from the city or the forest than from another two hours at a table.
• How fit is the group, honestly? The mobile formats mean several kilometres on foot over two to three hours. It's not a sport, but if people struggle with walking, they'll get more out of an indoor format.

Conclusion

There is no "best" escape game – only the one that fits your group, your venue and your day. In short: Beat the Box if you have a room and want a safe bet. Escape the City or Forest if you want to get outside. Crime Challenge if story and budget matter. Virus Infection if you want the same experience indoors – affordable and fine for large groups. Beat the Red Box or Rettet Weihnachten if Christmas is coming up – the former indoors, the latter outdoors.

And if you can't decide: call us or drop us a line with your group size, city and preferred date. Two minutes on the phone is usually enough to settle it. What it all costs is set out transparently in "What does a team event really cost?".

– René