REPOD Live! with DarkPark's Gijs Geers (s12e1)

This is also the first time we've released a podcast in full video. So even if you're typically an audio podcast listener, we highly recommend you watch the full video on Youtube (click the link above). Let us know if you enjoyed our live show, and if you'd like to attend one in the future. "Don't override your players' experience with your version of the story." Emotional, hilarious, and... sexy?! Our very first REPOD Live Show was full of unexpected turns involving McDonald's drive thrus, a romance that blossomed amidst the most terrifying experience I've ever played, and some truly memorable moments. Oh, and it also had more references to sex than we've ever had on twelve seasons of this show. I guess that's what happens when you're recording live. We’ve been wanting to take Reality Escape Pod live for a long time. What better place to finally do it than at RECON, our own escape room convention? For this experiment, we needed the right guest. Gijs Geers of DarkPark Escape Rooms in the Netherlands was perfect for this live show. Gijs is an escape room creator, owner, and former magician who has experienced plenty of the industry’s highs and lows. What I appreciated most, though, was how candid Gijs was willing to be. He wasn't banging the drum of his self-importance. He got real with us. At times, he even became emotional, particularly when talking about the excitement and anxiety the TERPECAs bring. It made for a surprisingly personal conversation, especially considering it was all happening live on the RECON stage.   Full Show Notes   Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: Buzzshot Bookings, Ubisoft VR Escape Games, Immersif, and Patreon supporters like you. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.   Buzzshot Buzzshot is proud to announce their new "all-in-one" Booking System designed from the ground up for one type of business, escape rooms. Offering: Easy to use booking UI with no fees or hidden charges. Customer waiver capture Branded Team Photos Player Messaging Review Managment Automations Customer Surveys Broadcast Emails Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. FREE Trial Account with full features* including SMS messaging, and 'Buzzshot Bookings' trial upon request. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.   Ubisoft VR Escape Games Harness the power of VR Escape games to maximize your venue's potential. Deliver blockbuster adventures and impossible experiences, all brought to life in Ubisoft's most popular worlds, including Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, and more. Location based games optimized for entertainment venues Exclusively available only in escape room venues, VR arcades, and theme parks. Games can accommodate anywhere from 2-8 players No start up fees; you only pay when players play Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners get an extended free trial for an entire month of royalty-free operation. To hear more and claim your free offer, send a message via their contact page and be sure to use our code REPODxUBI26. Enter the code into the "description" field on the contact form.   Immersif Business Consulting Are you looking to unlock more revenue and streamline efficiency? Sam Wai is helping creatives and suppliers in the immersive industry earn more with specialist accounting and mentorship. Offering: Business Mentoring and Consulting: Growth focused Strategic Planning Actionable Advice Performance Intelligence Reports: Analysis of your game booking performance Learn how to optimize your marketing Customize your business based on player habits and booking preferences Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners get a free one hour Business Mentoring Call. This is a focused one-to-one session to help you work through a challenge, make a difficult decision or bring more structure to your next stage of growth. We’ll explore what’s holding the business back, weigh up your options, and agree on practical next steps. You’ll leave with clearer thinking, renewed confidence and a written summary to keep you moving forward. Book through immersif.co/REPOD or email Sam [email protected] and be sure to mention REPOD to claim your free business consultation.   Support Us On Patreon Today Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events. By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected. Access exclusive Patreon content such as: The Bonus Aftershow The Spoilers Club Early access to escape room Tour tickets and REA articles. Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.   Our Other Podcast PG's Playhouse If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes. Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.   Production Credits Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law Produced by Theresa Piazza & Sheena Vira Supported by Lisa Spira Edited by Steve Ewing Music by Ryan Elder Logo by Janine Pracht

In this unhinged bonus episode, David and Peih-Gee were joined by REPOD episode guests Errol and Manda. Together they laughed their way through conversations covering stories from the Cryptex Hunt to David's memory of playing his first escape room with Errol. They also talked about a variety of topics including voice acting and interesting things that people say to content creators. Also, we finally learn whether Errol achieved the abs that he threatened to develop.   Want to listen to the rest of the episode? Support us on Patreon. When you support Room Escape Artist on Patreon at $15 per month (or above), you get access to the Spoilers Club, our exclusive podcast where hosts David Spira and Peih-Gee Law chat in depth with creators about iconic escape rooms... spoilers and all! https://www.patreon.com/roomescapeartist

At the end of every season, Editor Steve Ewing assembles an episode built from his favorite moments from each episode.  Whether you have listened to the all of the episodes or just want to get a taste of Season 11, we hope that you enjoy this trip through the past 12 episodes of Reality Escape Pod.   Full Show Notes   Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and the Reality Escape Convention. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.   Buzzshot Buzzshot is Escape Room Software, Powering Business Growth, Player Marketing, and improving the Customer Experience. They offer an assortment of pre and post game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and streamlined review management for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and Morty. Buzzshot now has integration with the other REPOD sponsors: Morty and COGS. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.   Support Us On Patreon Today Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events. By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected. Access exclusive Patreon content such as: The Bonus Aftershow The Spoilers Club Early access to escape room Tour tickets and REA articles. Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.   PG's Playhouse If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes. Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.   Reality Escape Convention Our convention, RECON, will be in Laval, Quebec Canada on August 16th & 17th, 2026. RECON offers a curated collection of talks and experiences exploring the business and art of escape room and immersive game creation. All are welcome at this event that is crafted around professionals and aspiring professionals.   Production Credits Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law Produced by Theresa Piazza Supported by Lisa Spira Edited by Steve Ewing Music by Ryan Elder Logo by Janine Pracht

In this episode, David and Peih-Gee were joined by Nick Moran to talk about his first escape room, the iconic Lance of Longinus by Time Run. This game opened in 2014 and made a truly modern escape room masterpiece back in the days of padlocks and unhinged puzzle design. David, Nick, and Peih-Gee explore the flow of the game as well as its context, influence, and demise. Be warned... the last few minutes get mildly racy.     Want to listen to the rest of the episode? Support us on Patreon. When you support Room Escape Artist on Patreon at $15 per month (or above), you get access to the Spoilers Club, our exclusive podcast where hosts David Spira and Peih-Gee Law chat in depth with creators about iconic escape rooms... spoilers and all! https://www.patreon.com/roomescapeartist

This one is not safe for work. David made his improv comedy debut earlier this year on Good Morning From Hell, playing the roll of Jigsaw.  He spent a whole weekend preparing, and absolutely wrecked his voice for this one, and loved every second of the experience. Check out Good Morning From Hell, it's a hilarious show. 

 "Pick an immersive subgenre, and I think that it can be made better by the escape room model." For the Season 11 finale of Reality Escape Pod, we’re turning the spotlight inward. After years of writing reviews, producing podcasts, running RECON, hosting Tours, and building a community around immersive experiences, we asked our audience a simple question "What do you think?" Hundreds of you responded to the Room Escape Artist audience census, sharing how you engage with our work, what you want more of, and where we can improve. Lisa Spira, editor-in-chief of Room Escape Artist, data wizard, and David's wife, joins us on the podcast to for a deep dive into the census results. We received over 200 responses to our massive audience survey covering topics ranging from audience demographics and favorite content formats to the future of escape rooms, the rise of immersive experiences, community feedback, and some honest critiques. We gained perspective on what our audience enjoys, their awareness of REA content, and how they consume immersive experiences. Some results were truly surprising, including how many escape rooms the average participant plays per year. We also asked for your feedback, critiques, and worries. We addressed many of the criticisms with honest and candid replies about why some aspects of Room Escape Artist have changed over the years. We also acknowledged times when we got things wrong and explained the reasoning behind the editorial schedule and structure. I really enjoyed sharing this behind-the-scenes look at Room Escape Artist. I thought the most interesting parts of this episode were seeing how much thought goes into the choices behind the content we put out, why certain reviews get written, why some trends excite us, and how difficult it is to serve a global community with wildly different interests. This was a conversation about growth, and the future of Room Escape Artist, REPOD, and the escape room industry. When it comes to escape rooms, there is room for different kinds of play. We're seeing experiences that blur the lines between escape rooms, theater, games, and adventure. As David puts it, "The medium continues to evolve, and that’s exactly what makes it exciting." I couldn't agree more. Whether you found us through reviews, podcasts, RECON, Tours, or somewhere else entirely, we appreciate being part of your escape room journey. Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out the census and share feedback, and to those who support our community and continue listening.   Full Show Notes   Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and the Reality Escape Convention. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.   Buzzshot Buzzshot is Escape Room Software, Powering Business Growth, Player Marketing, and improving the Customer Experience. They offer an assortment of pre and post game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and streamlined review management for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and Morty. Buzzshot now has integration with the other REPOD sponsors: Morty and COGS. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.   Support Us On Patreon Today Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events. By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected. Access exclusive Patreon content such as: The Bonus Aftershow The Spoilers Club Early access to escape room Tour tickets and REA articles. Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.   PG's Playhouse If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes. Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.   Reality Escape Convention Our convention, RECON, will be in Laval, Quebec Canada on August 16th & 17th, 2026. RECON offers a curated collection of talks and experiences exploring the business and art of escape room and immersive game creation. All are welcome at this event that is crafted around professionals and aspiring professionals.   Production Credits Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law Produced by Theresa Piazza Supported by Lisa Spira Edited by Steve Ewing Music by Ryan Elder Logo by Janine Pracht

"The connection between the solver and the setter is really important." If you're a daily puzzle lover, your morning might start something like mine: pouring a cup of coffee and jumpstarting the brain with my favorite snack-sized games. Chief among those are the snappy games at LinkedIn, such as Queens, Zip, Tango, and Patches. The man behind this collection of puzzles powering LinkedIn's Games section is Thomas Snyder. Thomas Snyder is a three-time World Sudoku Champion, co-author of the foundational puzzle design book Puzzlecraft, and Principal Puzzle Master at LinkedIn Games. A Harvard trained chemist, Thomas is a scientist at heart. He has a methodical approach to puzzle solving and puzzle crafting that makes for satisfying logic puzzles. However, there's also a lot of artistry to the puzzles Thomas designs. Throughout the conversation, he emphasizes that each puzzle put out by LinkedIn is handcrafted. There is a playfulness and inventiveness to the layout and solve path. There's a dance between the puzzle creator and the solver. Thomas posts videos on LinkedIn of his solve path for the games, and he talks to us about the conversation that sparks. In fact, the whole reason behind the puzzle offerings at LinkedIn was to create opportunities for users to connect socially and bond over the games. I especially appreciated talking about puzzles that empathize with the solver and how to create approachable puzzles that can still delight expert players. LinkedIn just launched their newest game Wend, which is Thomas's take on a word search puzzle. We also played a game I wrote, which Thomas solved embarrassingly (for me) quickly, but we had fun, which is the whole point. If you enjoy zippy puzzle games, check out the LinkedIn Collection, and for even more fun games-on-the-go, listen to PG's Playhouse.   Full Show Notes     Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and the Reality Escape Convention. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.   Buzzshot Buzzshot is Escape Room Software, Powering Business Growth, Player Marketing, and improving the Customer Experience. They offer an assortment of pre and post game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and streamlined review management for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and Morty. Buzzshot now has integration with the other REPOD sponsors: Morty and COGS. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.   Support Us On Patreon Today Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events. By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected. Access exclusive Patreon content such as: The Bonus Aftershow The Spoilers Club Early access to escape room Tour tickets and REA articles. Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.   PG's Playhouse If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes. Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.   Reality Escape Convention Our convention, RECON, will be in Laval, Quebec Canada on August 16th & 17th, 2026. RECON offers a curated collection of talks and experiences exploring the business and art of escape room and immersive game creation. All are welcome at this event that is crafted around professionals and aspiring professionals.   Production Credits Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law Produced by Theresa Piazza Supported by Lisa Spira Edited by Steve Ewing Music by Ryan Elder Logo by Janine Pracht

" There are three defining characteristics of a Sauve Qui Peut game: an unusual underlying concept, commitment to the bit, and beautifully painted murals." They do things a little differently around here. That's been Steven Keller's personal design philosophy ever since he started making his first escape rooms at his company, Sauve Qui Peut, located in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec, Canada. If you've ever played games at this company, you'd know the house style is that there is no house style. Every game feels distinct and different, almost like they were designed by different people. And yet Steven is the mad genius behind it all. Steven is one of the most instinct-driven designers I've encountered in this industry. He designed his first three rooms within five months of having the idea, before he'd even signed a lease. He deliberately avoided playing other escape rooms early on so he wouldn't get influenced. However, he eventually abandoned this philosophy when he realized that Egyptian-themed rooms were not, in fact, his invention. What hasn't changed is his core approach: start with one really cool thing, build around it, and figure out the story last. Like I said, they do things a little differently around here. However, Steve doesn't do it alone. Shawn Mercier is Steven's right hand man, and he joins us also to give us the nuts and bolts perspective. He started as a gamemaster, began quietly fixing and improving mechanisms, and pretty soon made himself indispensable. Shawn introduced more sophisticated and reliable tech to Sauve Qui Peut's rooms. He helps keep everything running smoothly, all before he turned 26! We know, because he celebrated his birthday with us on the day of our recording. Together, Steve and Shawn are responsible for some of the most inventive and, yes, slightly unhinged escape room design in Quebec. I really appreciated hearing Steven talk about his design process. There's a madcap creative improv quality to it, and it's part of what makes their games so quirky and memorable. If you enjoyed this conversation and want to check out the games at Sauve Qui Peut, consider joining us on one of our future Escape, Immerse, Explore tours to the Montreal area.   Full Show Notes   Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and the Reality Escape Convention. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.   Buzzshot Buzzshot is Escape Room Software, Powering Business Growth, Player Marketing, and improving the Customer Experience. They offer an assortment of pre and post game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and streamlined review management for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and Morty. Buzzshot now has integration with the other REPOD sponsors: Morty and COGS. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.   Support Us On Patreon Today Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events. By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected. Access exclusive Patreon content such as: The Bonus Aftershow The Spoilers Club Early access to escape room Tour tickets and REA articles. Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.   PG's Playhouse If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes. Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.   Reality Escape Convention Our convention, RECON, will be in Laval, Quebec Canada on August 16th & 17th, 2026. RECON offers a curated collection of talks and experiences exploring the business and art of escape room and immersive game creation. All are welcome at this event that is crafted around professionals and aspiring professionals.   Production Credits Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law Produced by Theresa Piazza Supported by Lisa Spira Edited by Steve Ewing Music by Ryan Elder Logo by Janine Pracht

“We really wanted to make a game that would encourage creators to make more weird stuff.” Low budgets, tight spaces, and a DIY mentality. As it turns out, indie filmmaking and creating escape rooms have a lot in common. James Hamer-Morton & Charlie Bond of Deadlocked Escape Rooms in Reading, UK, know this better than anyone. They joined us on REPOD to talk about creating their quirky, puzzle-driven games. James and Charlie actually met as actors on the set of a film, and they’ve been partners in life and business ever since. David even wrote a post about one of their projects, Echoes of Darkness: A Star Wars Fan Film . These origins really honed their “do-it-yourself” ethos. As Charlie puts it, “It originally stems from a lack of funds. But also it’s enjoyable to do it yourself, and to learn a new skill in the process.” Where Deadlocked really shines though is in their creativity. Their games have quirky mechanics and stories. They’ve employed clever tricks to make the sets feel larger than they are. Relying on quick wits and creativity have allowed Deadlocked to stay nimble. During the pandemic, they created a wonderful virtual game called The Insiders that gave them global recognition in the escape room world. This led to them giving a talk at the very first RECON about Adapting Your Escape Room Business to New Mediums. James and Charlie have spent the better part of a decade building one of the UK’s most distinctive escape room companies. Deadlocked is currently ranked the #1 escape room in the UK, and their newest game, The Reading Witch, recently topped the TERPECA rankings for England. One of my favorite stories from this episode is about the time they were playing an escape room and they stopped mid-game to help the owners fix a broken prop. They are two of the most charismatic, creative, and relentlessly hands-on people in the business, and I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it.   Full Show Notes   Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and the Reality Escape Convention. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.   Buzzshot Buzzshot is Escape Room Software, Powering Business Growth, Player Marketing, and improving the Customer Experience. They offer an assortment of pre and post game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and streamlined review management for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and Morty. Buzzshot now has integration with the other REPOD sponsors: Morty and COGS. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.   Support Us On Patreon Today Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events. By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected. Access exclusive Patreon content such as: The Bonus Aftershow The Spoilers Club Early access to escape room Tour tickets and REA articles. Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.   PG's Playhouse If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes. Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.   Reality Escape Convention Our convention, RECON, will be in Laval, Quebec Canada on August 16th & 17th, 2026. RECON offers a curated collection of talks and experiences exploring the business and art of escape room and immersive game creation. All are welcome at this event that is crafted around professionals and aspiring professionals.   Production Credits Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law Produced by Theresa Piazza Supported by Lisa Spira Edited by Steve Ewing Music by Ryan Elder Logo by Janine Pracht

"We don't fear spoilers because a good room has more to offer than just the set that you saw in a photo. It must be something that you feel also." When most people think of an escape room, they think of puzzles, padlocks, with maybe a light narrative slapped on top. When Rémy Strobbe and the team at Live Cinema created Zone 51, however, they thought: okay, but what if instead of solving puzzles, you were inside a movie? Rémy is the co-founder and creative director of Live Cinema, based in Paris, France. He joins us on REPOD to talk about Zone 51, a jaw-dropping 120-minute experience set across 550 square meters, 25 rooms, 3 live performers , and a cinematic globe-spanning story. David calls it "one of  the most remarkable experiences that I have seen in the immersive world." Zone 51 begins the moment you walk through the door. Indeed, for those unaware, they might be convinced that they're here to watch an actual movie. As you can see, the set is absolutely gorgeous. Rémy talks candidly about the difficult journey to creating this game. Amongst their troubles, they had a construction partner go bankrupt mid-build and take €80,000 with them, and a pandemic that halted production for over a year. He also shares the secrets behind the tight pipelining schedule that makes this project financially feasible. I especially loved hearing Rémy talk about their philosophy on marketing and allowing players to record their games. Live Cinema leans into sharing striking visuals. As Rémy put it, a good experience has more to offer than just what you see in a photo. And those photos are spectacular. Zone 51 is currently bookable in French, with limited English sessions available by email. English availability is expected to expand by fall 2026 — which happens to align perfectly with the Escape Immerse Explore Paris Tour. Zone 51 (review coming soon) will be on the Tour, along with a few other games from the same creators at Lock Academy. If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining us on the Tour, if it hasn't already sold out!   Full Show Notes   Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and the Reality Escape Convention. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.   Buzzshot Buzzshot is Escape Room Software, Powering Business Growth, Player Marketing, and improving the Customer Experience. They offer an assortment of pre and post game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and streamlined review management for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and Morty. Buzzshot now has integration with the other REPOD sponsors: Morty and COGS. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.   Support Us On Patreon Today Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events. By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not just backing a blog — you're fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected. Access exclusive Patreon content such as: The Bonus Aftershow The Spoilers Club Early access to escape room Tour tickets and REA articles. Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.   PG's Playhouse If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG's Playhouse recreates a fun game night, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes. Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.   Reality Escape Convention Our convention, RECON, will be in Laval, Quebec Canada on August 16th & 17th, 2026. RECON offers a curated collection of talks and experiences exploring the business and art of escape room and immersive game creation. All are welcome at this event that is crafted around professionals and aspiring professionals.   Production Credits Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law Produced by Theresa Piazza Supported by Lisa Spira Edited by Steve Ewing Music by Ryan Elder Logo by Janine Pracht