The Escape Arcade Interview

Since opening their first escape room nearly a decade ago, Dmitri and Nargiza have built Enigma Quests into one of London’s most acclaimed activities. With the brand new Escape Arcade opening at their Holborn location, alongside 3 new escape rooms, they sat down to talk about these amazing new experiences.

What’s your best elevator pitch for the Escape Arcade?

Dmitri: The arcade is 30 immersive, replayable mini-games, that combine classic arcade challenges with escape room puzzles and room designs. We wanted to keep the team aspect of escape rooms but add a dedicated scoring system across the rooms.

What’s so exciting about the Escape Arcade?

Nargiza: Escape Arcade merges the freedom of an arcade with the immersiveness and puzzle design of escape rooms. We wanted to take the best of both worlds to open up escape rooms to a wider audience, for people who wouldn’t be enticed by an hour within a traditional escape room and would prefer a less guided experience.

We’ve created an experience that players have more control over, with an inbuilt scoring system to make it much more competitive. We think we can bring something really different to the competitive socialising industry, where it’s not just about repeating the same activities, and where there’s a much more immersive surrounding.

Over the years we’ve come up with so many ideas for new escape rooms, so this was also a great creative outlet for us to create 30 mini-games without having to create 30 full escape rooms!

Who came up with all the ideas for the games?

Dmitri: We came up with the overall idea and the concept and logistics of it, things like the scoring. But then we collaborated with the design team at Tandem Set and Scenery, who are building the games, brainstorming around ideas and implementation. Sometimes we’d go to them and say, “We want a puzzle that tests this skill,” and then we’d talk about how we could implement that. The concepts all came from us but we needed to make sure that they made sense practically.

That variety of skills was really important. There are other competitive socialising experiences where only one skill is tested across the entire venue, which means you’re either good or you aren’t. Whereas in the arcade everyone is on an equal playing field because there are so many different challenges available that you are bound to find something where you’re better than other players, and it kind of balances out the scores a little bit more and gives everyone a feeling of being good at something.

How many room ideas did you come up with?

Dmitri: We had a list of about 50 originally. Some of them we are probably going to come back to at a later date, some of them were not developed, and some of them were just too crazy. But yeah, we ended up with a list of about 50 concepts that we had to shortlist down to 30. We used a skill matrix to help with this, so we could map out the different challenges of each game and ensure a great level of variety.

How did you come up with the idea for the Escape Arcade?

Nargiza: We’ve always travelled to play escape rooms, and before the pandemic, we played a concept that was similar in some ways, but all of the challenges were physical, and you could see into each game from the outside, so there wasn’t the immersive element. So from that experience maybe 5 or 6 years ago the nugget of the idea started developing.

How many escape rooms have you played?

Nargiza: We lost count after 500!

Dmitri: Some people are very organised, we just go and play. But yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s about 500 to 600.

Which ones stand out from that 500?

Nargiza: One of the creepiest ones we played was in Moscow about six years ago. Our start time was 11 pm, and we had to go to an abandoned car park and enter this van, which also looked abandoned. We go inside the van, the door shuts from the outside, and the van drives us to a location where a masked man took us into the escape room.

Dmitri: One that stuck out to me was where we were in this giant room, with furniture so massive you couldn’t climb it, to make us feel like we were toddlers.

How does the Escape Arcade compare to your traditional escape rooms?

Dmitri: A difference is that the time constraints are a lot more forward, at about 5 minutes per game, and it’s a lot more score-focused than escape rooms. It’s infinitely replayable, while escape rooms can only be played once.

Nargiza: The biggest similarity is the immersion offered to teams, taking them to a completely new world, even if it’s only for 5 minutes. Teamwork is another similarity, which sets us apart from other competitive socialising experiences, as you work together in small groups, which can be amazing for team building. 

Can any of the games be played alone?

Nargiza: Yes, we are currently testing this. All teams will be given a map on arrival, which will have a little symbol indicating if a game can be played alone. If you wanted to have a go as a lone player it’s tricky but doable for many of the games, which is great as we’ve had lots of past inquiries about whether it’s possible to play as a solo player, so we’re pleased to be able to offer that finally.

Do you have a favourite game?

Nargiza: I love Whispering Woods and The Library. I’m partial to books. I would say my favourite physical game is Staying Alive, which is the disco room.

Dmitri: I would say Area 51. I think what’s great about the arcade, is after you play the games enough times, maybe your favourite is going to change.

What do you think is the most challenging game?

Dmitri: The Library.

Nargiza: 21.

You spoke about scoring earlier, how is that going to work?

Dmitri: All teams have a wristband which unlocks the doors to the games, and also tracks their scores across games. We’re working on standardizing scores across each game, meaning that we can give total scores across the arcade, and have a daily and all-time leaderboard for teams. 

Every player will also be able to access their scores through an app, including scores on individual games if they want to compare. And when they come back, even as part of a different team, their scores will all be displayed together on the app, so they’ll be able to try the same games again, or make sure they’re playing entirely new ones.

Should we talk about the new on-site bar?

Nargiza: We’re installing it right now! We’re really excited to have commissioned a highly respected cocktail designer to come up with 8 cocktails built around the experiences at our new venue. It’s also important to us to price everything at a reasonable level, so players won’t be paying more than an average London bar. All staff members behind the bar are going to be fully trained in cocktail preparation.

Dmitri: On top of that we’re going to have classic cocktails as well as beer and craft ales. We’re also going to be able to offer a low or no-alcohol option for most of the themed cocktails, which we know is important for lots of our players.

You’re also launching 3 new escape rooms, could you tell me about them?

Nargiza: They’re opening 3 weeks later than the Escape Arcade. It takes a lot more time to fine-tune escape rooms and train staff members, and we want to make sure that the Arcade opens in a perfect state, so we’ve given ourselves that leeway. 

Dmitri: Two of them are sequels to current games and the third is a completely new offering, a time travel escape room.

Are there new elements in these rooms you’re excited about?

Dmitri: I don’t want to spoil it, but there’s one section in Billion Pound Heist where every single person who goes through testing gets absolutely ridiculously excited. The room as a whole is going to give players a massive adrenaline rush. 

Nargiza: In World of Witchcraft and Wizardry every single thing is magical. So doors open by themselves, and objects move. Our motto was no padlocks, no cliche design elements. We want to push the whole concept of escape rooms to the next level, where players will be wowed by every new element they come across.

Dmitri: I’m really excited to see people play Inventor’s Odyssey Through Time, which takes players backwards and forwards in time within the same room. It’s inspired by some of our favourite films like Back to the Future and I think people are going to love it.

How does it feel to be coming up on the 10th anniversary of Enigma Quests?

Nargiza: We’re gonna claim the whole of 2025 as an anniversary year and be celebrating every day of that year! But in reality, we have been in this industry since its conception in the UK and it feels like a massive privilege. We’ve seen the growth, the peak, and the start of the balancing of the industry. There have been challenging times with some venues closing down, alongside great partnerships and friendships formed across the UK and abroad. To go from the conception to where the industry is now, knowing it’s going to survive and thrive for many years to come is amazing … I’ve gotten really poetic!

What are some of your favourite memories from the last decade?

Nargiza: We had to spend the night in the venue once. Basements are the best locations for escape rooms because there aren’t any windows, but having spoken to many escape room owners, I see that everyone has problems with them. There was one time when we were flooded with water, biblical proportions, and we had to stay the night scooping up the water, or there wouldn’t have been any escape rooms in the morning.

In terms of more positive memories, one of my favourite things that just keeps coming back is creating so many memories for all our customers over the years. It never gets old to make someone’s day with a great game.

What is the future of Enigma Quests?

Dmitri: While our objective is to grow and expand into new venues, new experiences, and new games, we want to avoid expanding at an unsustainable rate where we lose quality or creativity. We have this great attention to detail in all of our rooms backed up by our passionate team, delivering the best experiences possible for our customers. We are really excited for everyone to experience what we’ve created in our new venue, and already getting inspired by our brilliant players to continue coming up with new ideas, so watch this space!