Cipher Seeker Opens in Waldwick!

IF YOU GO:
Cipher Seeker Room Escape Challenge
Book Room Challenges online at www.cipherseeker.com.
Rooms: Graveyard Inlet, Defcon1, Framed.
Cost: $30 per person - games last one hour.
Players 14 and under must be accompanied by an adult.
Corporate packages and private parties available.
168 Franklin Tpke., Suite 104
Waldwick (Located in the Odyssey Athletic Center complex)
More info: info@cipherseeker.com, 201-251-CLUE.

Toni Califano wasn't sure what to expect when she recently visited the Cipher Seeker Room Escape Challenge in Waldwick. "I was very nervous," said Califano, a Rochelle Park resident. "I went in really not knowing anything about room escapes at all."

Room escapes are a growing nationwide activity in which participants are "trapped" in a themed room and must find the answer to a question that allows them to exit. Players have a finite time frame - one hour at Cipher Seeker - to find clues, decipher codes and solve analytical puzzles that lead to their being able to unlock items that hold more clues and ultimately escape the room.

Califano, who participated in Cipher Seeker's Graveyard Inlet Room Challenge with her husband, 15-year-old-son and 19 year old daughter on a recent Friday night, said she was thrilled with the experience and, like many visitors to the new business, was eager to return to test her deductive reasoning skills in one of Cipher Seeker's other two rooms.

"We had a blast doing it," Califano said. "We can't wait to come back and try the murder mystery room. It was also a great family night out. It's different and stimulating. The hour goes by so fast. We wished we had more time."

Califano's reaction is exactly what Cipher Seeker founder Chris Bartlett wants to hear. The Waldwick resident opened the business in January on Franklin Turnpike in the Odyssey Athletic Center complex.

In addition to the Graveyard Inlet room, in which competitors must escape from the lighthouse keeper's quarters before the Absescon Lighthouse tour guide catches them in a restricted area, Cipher Seeker includes two additional rooms.

There's Defcon1, in which competitors must find clues to stop the launch of a series of missiles, and Framed, where the players have been framed for murder and must search the crime scene for clues in order to prove their innocence.

Every object in a room can be a clue, whether it's a picture on the wall or a piece of paper in the corner. "You have to open yourself to all possibilities because you don't know where the next clue is going to be," Bartlett said. "You literally cannot leave any stone unturned."

Alan Mansueto of Ridgewood, a veteran room escape player, said the main appeal of the challenge for him is that the rooms put players in situations that are larger than life. "If you've ever watched a thriller film where the characters have to solve a mystery and wondered, 'what would I do' or thought, 'I can do this,' now you have the chance," Manuseto said.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, Mansueto read carefully through a lighthouse keeper's journal in the Graveyard Inlet room and examined maps for clues. His team did not solve the room within an hour but Mansueto said he was still thrilled with the experience.

"There's a big adrenaline rush when you figure out a clue," he said. "You want to top yourself each time you try a new room."

While it helps to have a proclivity toward analytical reasoning and some mathematical acumen to solve room escapes, Bartlett said no one should be scared off thinking they would have no chance at succeeding.

"I don't think it has to be too hard for anyone," he said. "The ideal puzzles are not too difficult but not too easy. Players may not always succeed in escaping, but they still have fun.

"A good team will have a mixture of book smarts and street smarts in order to be successful," Bartlett continued. "I've had 11 year olds that have been able to help their family escape and I've had 70 year olds who equally enjoyed the challenge. Everyone can contribute something to the game."

Kathy Famulare found teamwork was key in her team beating the clock in the Defcon1 room with a minute to spare. "We all had different skills to contribute," said Famulare, of Ridgefield Park. "It was a real team building experience. We were talking about it the entire ride home."

Players 14 and under must be accompanied by adults. Bartlett said it depends on each person whether they are suited for Cipher Seeker. "I tell parents that they know their kid best," he said. "Kids should have the attention span to stick with the activity for the 60 minutes."

From a control room, Bartlett watches the action on a video screen and can send clues that appear on a monitor inside the room when a team appears stuck or moving in the wrong direction. "You dont want people to be stuck for very long and you don't want them to give up or get annoyed," he said.

The ideal number of players is four or more, Bartlett said. "It depends on how big the room is and how many puzzles there are," he said. "But the puzzles are not linear, you can do several at the same time. So the more people you have the more opportunity you have to spread out."

Room escapes evolved from computer games in the mid-2000s to real-life adventures that began about 5 years ago. Today there are hundreds of room escape challenges throughout the country, including about half a dozen in New Jersey.

Locally, there are rooms in Hackensack, Montclair and Wayne. Bartlett discovered escape rooms while watching an episode of the television show, "The Big Bang Theory," in which the characters tried a room. After doing five escape rooms, he decided last summer to open his own room escape business.

"I've been building electronics and using computers since I was 8-years-old," said Bartlett, 42. "I just thought that I could really do this. It became a full-time job designing the rooms and creating the puzzles," said Bartlett, who previously worked in Information Technology.

Califano was in awe of the time and effort needed to create and design an escape room. "It's unbelievable," she said. "The people who invent these things are incredible to be able to think in that fashion."

Bartlett said creativity is key to creating a great room escape experience. "It's about coming up with puzzles that are interesting and challenging without being impossible," he said. "That's the hardest part. It's way easier to make a puzzle that can't be solved than one that can."