Ex Machina

Ex Machina is an escape room game designed by me for release at Escape Rhode Island in 2016. The plot is that players are archaeologists that have uncovered a buried Victorian-era chamber littered with research notes, mechanical curios, and a mysterious locked vault.

Ex Machina was eventually installed at venues all over the country.

  • Escape Room
  • Experience Design
  • Interaction Design
  • Steampunk
  • Project Description
  • Up to this point in the escape room industry, the setting of most games looked like a "normal" room: The Office, The Gallery, The Study, etc. Ex Machina was my early attempt at fantastical immersion.
  • My Work
  • I served as the game architect and designed the overall plot and theming for Ex Machina. I also designed and installed a large number of the constituent puzzles, a selection of which is here.
Escape rooms are most fun when they make everyday objects feel like magic.

The combination of steampunk aesthetic and archaeological dig site gave a huge number of opportunities to make magic.

Read a review of Ex Machina
  • Type of WorkExperience design, game design, electronics, circuit design, coding
  • Tools UsedEagle, C++, Arduino, various shop tools
  • Period of WorkJanuary 2016 - March 2016
  • LocationProvidence, RI
Notable Work

Result

Ex Machina has been my flagship escape room game, and achieves a net promoter score of 86. It is currently installed in six escape room venues around the country.