Episodes

  • S10E7 - The Best Escape Room in the World: Jonathan Driscoll and Sacha St. Denis of Escaparium

    S10E7 - The Best Escape Room in the World: Jonathan Driscoll and Sacha St. Denis of Escaparium
    Nov 18 2025
    " We're evolving the [escape room] experience towards something that's more theatrical, with puzzling, gaming, and immersive art all together." Magnifico is currently (as of November 2025) the top escape room in the world, as voted on by experienced escape room enthusiasts. For 2.5 hours, we were transported to another world where magic is real and anything is possible. This game was a culmination of Escaparium's signature style: epically sized and meticulously built sets with large-scale puzzles that involve the whole team, and meaningful stories told through both gameplay and theatrical moments featuring live actors. Jonathan Driscoll and Sacha St. Denis are the owners and driving force behind Escaparium, in Laval, Canada (just outside of Montreal). Since their previous appearance on REPOD, they've cemented their spot as one of the top companies in world. Last year, in 2024, they captured the #1 and #3 spots on the TERPECA rankings, with their games Magnifico and Forgotten Cathedral, respectively. Wardrobe for Sale ranked at #14, and Lost Island of the Voodoo Queen ranked at #37 in the world. It's clearly not a fluke. Escaparium is consistently creating world-class games, year after year, and when they're not busy opening new games, they're renovating and remodeling old experiences. Rain Corp. has been given a make-over into Ctrl Alt Reboot. They are also overhauling their lobby once again, creating an immersive bar experience featuring a crashed space ship. Jonathan and Sacha joined us to talk about their new games, what's driving them, and where they're getting inspiration. My biggest takeaway from this conversation was that they are very involved in the escape room community and industry. They are constantly traveling and playing games. They attend every convention. For them, it's always about the details. If even one small detail inspires their next idea, Jonathan says it's gold. That's the mindset they instill in their whole team as well. Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and COGS. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community. 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 AftershowThe Spoilers ClubEarly 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. 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. COGS COGS by Clockwork Dog is an easy to use software/ hardware platform for running interactive events, including escape rooms, and other immersive experiences. They have plug & play hardware that seamlessly integrates with their software so you can create a show with lighting and sound cues without having to write a single line of code. Map all kinds of inputs to outputs by building up simple logic steps which determine what you want to happen and when. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners can get the COGS Starter Set for only $130 + free shipping to the USA. This bundle is usually valued at $257. You can learn more and purchase your Starter Set at cogs.show. Use code REPOD at checkout. Production Credits Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law ...
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • S10E6 - Play as Learning: Breakout EDU with Adam Bellow

    S10E6 - Play as Learning: Breakout EDU with Adam Bellow
    Nov 11 2025
    "Bringing the escape room to the classroom." I might be just a teeny bit obsessed with disguising learning as play, and being tricked into learning. There is a joy to figuring things out for yourself, and iterating on past knowledge to further your skills. Besides the fun of solving puzzles, there is also a real sense of collaboration and the payoff from combining observation skills with critical thinking. Enter educator Adam Bellow. He saw the potential in escape rooms to hone the soft skills of team-building, communication, and problem solving. So he created his company, Breakout EDU, to bring escape rooms to the classroom. This comes in the form of a kit that includes multiple locks, cipher wheels, and black lights, and other props. Then on the Breakout EDU platform, teachers can choose from thousands of games, resetting the Breakout EDU kit to fit the game format. Adam joins us on Reality Escape Pod to talk about creating escape rooms for kids, especially in an academic setting. The Breakout EDU games all adhere to an academic curriculum, and also incorporate their "4 Cs" - communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. I really enjoyed learning about the "4 C" cards that students use to explore different concepts after the game. These cards ask follow-up questions like "How would this game work if you didn't play verbally?" Even as an adult, playing escape rooms has helped me learn to be a better team player. I'm glad that school kids today have this opportunity too. To learn more, visit the Breakout EDU website or check out the resources below. Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and COGS. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community. 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 AftershowThe Spoilers ClubEarly 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. 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. COGS COGS by Clockwork Dog is an easy to use software/ hardware platform for running interactive events, including escape rooms, and other immersive experiences. They have plug & play hardware that seamlessly integrates with their software so you can create a show with lighting and sound cues without having to write a single line of code. Map all kinds of inputs to outputs by building up simple logic steps which determine what you want to happen and when. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners can get the COGS Starter Set for only $130 + free shipping to the USA. This bundle is usually valued at $257. You can learn more and purchase your Starter Set at cogs.show. Use code REPOD at checkout. 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
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • S10E5 - Ambitious and Unhinged: Stephen & Stevie Kristof of 60 to Escape

    S10E5 - Ambitious and Unhinged: Stephen & Stevie Kristof of 60 to Escape
    Nov 4 2025
    "Quietly ambitious and a bit unhinged." Somewhere in the Midwest, a talented young couple is quietly building an escape room empire. Their company, 60 to Escape, has over 12 different escape rooms across 3 locations, a puzzle-filled mini-golf experience, and a haunt so extensive and scenic that it was used as the set for a horror movie called Haunt Season on Amazon Prime. Stephen Kristof literally has entertainment in his blood. His parents owned a family entertainment center, and he grew up bouncing around mini-golf, go carts, and fixing the arcade machines. Growing up, Stephen always wanted to work at a haunt, but he was too young. So at the ripe young age of thirteen, he presented his parents with business plan for opening up his own haunt, and his first venture was born. In the course of running the haunt, they brought in a talented young SFX makeup artist named Stevie Calabrese (now Stevie Kristof). During haunt season, she manages four other artists as they get eighty performers into costumes and makeup in under two hours. Stephen and Stevie met, fell in love, and became "The Steves." They now run their immersive entertainment ventures together, crafting and creating much of it themselves, along with their team of talented folks. If either of them look familiar, you may have seen them on a reality show. Stephen was a contestant on Season 1 of Holey Moley, a zany mini-golf reality competition show, and Stevie was a contestant on Season 9 of Face Off, a special effects makeup reality competition show. I really enjoyed hearing them talk about their commitment to the customer experience, and their dedication to production value and creativity. Their company 60 to Escape was part of the Escape Immerse Explore tour in the Chicago area in 2025. Full Show Notes Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and COGS. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community. 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 AftershowThe Spoilers ClubEarly 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. 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. COGS COGS by Clockwork Dog is an easy to use software/ hardware platform for running interactive events, including escape rooms, and other immersive experiences. They have plug & play hardware that seamlessly integrates with their software so you can create a show with lighting and sound cues without having to write a single line of code. Map all kinds of inputs to outputs by building up simple logic steps which determine what you want to happen and when. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners can get the COGS Starter Set for only $130 + free shipping to the USA. This bundle is usually valued at $257. You can learn more and purchase your Starter Set at cogs.show. Use code REPOD at checkout. 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
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • S10E4 - The Worlds Largest Trivia Contest with Jim "The Oz" Oliva

    S10E4 - The Worlds Largest Trivia Contest with Jim "The Oz" Oliva
    Oct 28 2025
    "  Think of it as a wild Midwestern version of the MIT mystery hunt  for a slightly different crowd where people drink quite a bit more." For three whole days, over 10,000 trivia challengers descend on the tiny town of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, for The World's Largest Trivia Contest. The contest runs on the local college radio station at the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point for 54 hours straight, asking eight questions per hour. Teams have only the length of two radio songs to call in their answer. Yup, that's right. You call into the radio, old school style. It's a madcap frenzy of teams frantically searching through bins of catalogued items spanning from cereal boxes to DVD covers, or racking their brains to remember an obscure cartoon reference. For 43 years Jim “Oz” Oliva was ringmaster of this trivia circus. He wrote most of the questions and organized the contest. Jim revels in finding the most obscure bits of trivia to throw at his players. In response, teams have amassed entire rooms filled with snack packaging, atlases, and the booklets from CDs, among other items. With the advent of the internet, Jim had to change how he formatted the questions to stay ahead of searchable keywords. You can hear the glee in Jim’s voice when he talks about all the techniques he devised to outmaneuver trivia players. He even had to hold onto all of the garbage from the question writing room otherwise players have been known to go through the trash, attempting to gain an edge over the competition. Jim is blunt, funny, and mischievous. I really enjoyed hearing all his stories from his many years of running this crazy trivia contest and learning about the wild culture surrounding it. In our Bonus Aftershow, REA contributers Heather Burns and Theresa Piazza join us to share their perspective on the trivia contest. Heather has been involved in the trivia contest for over 20 years, and Theresa joined Heather for the first time last year. It was wild to hear all about how they prepare for three crazy days of trivia with a revolving door of team members marshalling to rifle through bins of material and sleeping in shifts. I hope you enjoy this episode about The World’s Largest Trivia Contest. Full Show Notes Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and COGS. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community. 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 AftershowThe Spoilers ClubEarly 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. 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. COGS COGS by Clockwork Dog is an easy to use software/ hardware platform for running interactive events, including escape rooms, and other immersive experiences. They have plug & play hardware that seamlessly integrates with their software so you can create a show with lighting and sound cues without having to write a single line of code. Map all kinds of inputs to outputs by building up simple logic steps which determine what you want to happen and when. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD ...
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • S10E3 - Will & Kim Rutherford, Escape Artist Greenville

    S10E3 - Will & Kim Rutherford, Escape Artist Greenville
    Oct 21 2025
    "With a performer, players can make their own stories." Will and Kim Rutherford met at a summer pool party while in college. Kim recruited Will to help her win a floaty race across the pool. Alas, they lost. " I thought the floaty race was for fun and apparently it was for, I don't know, life bragging rights or something," says Will. Since then, the couple have gone on to many other creative adventures, including creating home haunts. Will even proposed to Kim on Halloween while they were both still in their costumes. So when Will and Kim played their first escape room, they immediately thought it could be like a permanent home haunt experience that they didn’t have to tear down and put up every year. They jumped in with both feet, and although they made a lot of mistakes along the way, Escape Artist Greenville was born. Today they have the second highest ranked escape room in the USA (Castle Fluffendor). They’ve also created a three-hour experience that combines three of their top escape rooms into one narratively cohesive saga called The Chimera Corp Saga. REA reviewer Matthew Stein calls it “a masterpiece of episodic storytelling.” Will and Kim join us on REPOD to talk about the thought process behind their compelling games. I especially appreciated hearing about how they’re escape room enthusiasts themselves, and regularly travel the world playing games and seeking inspiration. They tell us, “we are trying to go to the most diverse, immersive experiences that we can and seek out things that actually are a little outside of our comfort zone.” The Rutherfords have also recently joined the team at Keepers of Balance and helped them launch their first project, the epic Temple of Light, which recently won a Golden Lock award. Will and Kim have a boundless enthusiasm for the escape room industry, and I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I did. Full Show Notes Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and COGS. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community. 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 AftershowThe Spoilers ClubEarly 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. 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. COGS COGS by Clockwork Dog is an easy to use software/ hardware platform for running interactive events, including escape rooms, and other immersive experiences. They have plug & play hardware that seamlessly integrates with their software so you can create a show with lighting and sound cues without having to write a single line of code. Map all kinds of inputs to outputs by building up simple logic steps which determine what you want to happen and when. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners can get the COGS Starter Set for only $130 + free shipping to the USA. This bundle is usually valued at $257. You can learn more and purchase your Starter Set at cogs.show. Use code REPOD at checkout. Production Credits Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law Produced by Theresa Piazza Supported by Lisa Spira Edited by ...
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • S10E2 - Exploring Stephen Sondheim's Deep Relationship with Puzzles (ft. Barry Joseph)

    S10E2 - Exploring Stephen Sondheim's Deep Relationship with Puzzles (ft. Barry Joseph)
    Oct 14 2025
    "The Shakespeare of our time." Stephen Sondheim practically reinvented musicals with his flair for theatrical storytelling through his lyrics and music. A lesser known fact is that Sondheim also played a huge role in the puzzling world. Before he was famous for musicals like West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, and Sundays in the Park with George, Sondheim was the first puzzle editor for New York Magazine in the 1960s. Sondheim's obsession with puzzles and games lasted his whole life. He discovered escape rooms while in his 80s, and played many of them! Sondheim famously said "art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos," and the same could very much be said for puzzles. Barry Joseph joins us on REPOD to talk about his new book, Matching Minds with Sondheim, which dives into Sondheim's love of puzzles and games. The types of puzzles spanned everything from crosswords, to treasure hunts, jigsaw puzzles, and parlour games. Little known fact—Stephen Sondheim is credited with bringing British style cryptic crosswords to the USA! He also commissioned custom jigsaw puzzles as opening night gifts for the cast and crew of his Broadway shows. As prolific as Sondheim was with his musicals, he was equally invested in his puzzles and games. Guest Barry Joseph digs deep into all the different ways Sondheim incorporated puzzles into his creative work and daily life. If you found this topic interesting, be sure to get his book, Matching Minds with Sondheim and check out his podcast of the same name. I'd recommend starting with the two podcast episodes that featured our very own David and Lisa Spira: Escape Room Episode (ft. Lisa & David), Jigsaw Puzzles Episode (ft. David). Full Show Notes Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and COGS. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community. 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 AftershowThe Spoilers ClubEarly 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. 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. COGS COGS by Clockwork Dog is an easy to use software/ hardware platform for running interactive events, including escape rooms, and other immersive experiences. They have plug & play hardware that seamlessly integrates with their software so you can create a show with lighting and sound cues without having to write a single line of code. Map all kinds of inputs to outputs by building up simple logic steps which determine what you want to happen and when. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners can get the COGS Starter Set for only $130 + free shipping to the USA. This bundle is usually valued at $257. You can learn more and purchase your Starter Set at cogs.show. Use code REPOD at checkout. 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
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • S10E1 - Will Shortz, The Puzzle Master

    S10E1 - Will Shortz, The Puzzle Master
    Oct 7 2025
    "Will Shortz has probably done more to elevate public consciousness of puzzles than any other individual in history." For decades, the name Will Shortz has been synonymous with puzzles. Will Shortz is the crossword editor of The New York Times, the puzzle master on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, and the only person in the world with a college degree in “enigmatology,” the study of puzzles. inspired my most famous quote from the show—"Well Jeff, I'm good at Sudoku!" (You should check out the accompanying Bonus Aftershow on Patreon for the full story.) He has inspired David and me in our creative endeavors, like our new podcast PG's Playhouse, and he has inspired many of our past guests too. We talk about how crosswords have evolved to reflect pop culture, the impact of mini puzzles, and why wordplay connects people in ways you might not expect. Will Shortz was an absolute delight to interview, and as you can imagine, he was chock full of stories. I especially enjoyed hearing about how he landed a job at Games Magazine. Will also shares his philosophy on creating puzzles:  What I think I'm very good at is creating clues that are going to entertain people. I always think of the audience. I always think of who's going to be solving. I like to push people to their limit. I want people to break through in the end and to be able to solve the puzzle because that's where they get the satisfaction. That's my goal.  His closing thoughts to us were "I want to make the world a little better for being here." Will Shortz has certainly done so for all of us who love puzzles. Full Show Notes Episode Sponsors We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG's Playhouse, Buzzshot, and COGS. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community. 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 AftershowThe Spoilers ClubEarly 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. 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. COGS COGS by Clockwork Dog is an easy to use software/ hardware platform for running interactive events, including escape rooms, and other immersive experiences. They have plug & play hardware that seamlessly integrates with their software so you can create a show with lighting and sound cues without having to write a single line of code. Map all kinds of inputs to outputs by building up simple logic steps which determine what you want to happen and when. Special Offer for REPOD Listeners: REPOD listeners can get the COGS Starter Set for only $130 + free shipping to the USA. This bundle is usually valued at $257. You can learn more and purchase your Starter Set at cogs.show. Use code REPOD at checkout. 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
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • From The Vault: The Nightmare of Eveline Shadow Part 1, Entered & Logiclocks

    From The Vault: The Nightmare of Eveline Shadow Part 1, Entered & Logiclocks
    Sep 16 2025

    The Nightmare of Eveline Shadow was a haunting experience where guests stepped into the nightmarish writings of a horror novelist. They had to navigate a hotel filled with nightmares, while being guided by the narrator’s prompts and scripts.

    The closure of hotels during the pandemic quarantine era created a golden opportunity for a trio of talented creators from the Benelux region. Alexander Gierholz of Logiclocks, Jeroen van Hasselt of Entered, and Meggy Pepelanova came together to create a unique horror experience set in an entire empty wing of a hotel. Alas, they experienced their own nightmare when lockdown regulations became even more restricted. They had to put their experience on hold, and then suddenly regulations lifted entirely, and the hotel began to resume normal operations. Their window for hosting The Nightmare of Eveline Shadow at an empty hotel vanished, and we’re left with only handful of photos and this Spoilers Club series as evidence of its existence.

    To listen to Part 2, and the rest of the Spoilers Club category, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/roomescapeartist

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    COGS by Clockwork Dog is an easy to use software/ hardware platform for running interactive events, including escape rooms, and other immersive experiences. They have plug & play hardware that seamlessly integrates with their software so you can create a show with lighting and sound cues without having to write a single line of code. Map all kinds of inputs to outputs by building up simple logic steps which determine what you want to happen and when.

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    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
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    59 mins