Outfox escape room encourages teamwork

By Angela Holmes

angela@corridorbusiness.com

CORALVILLE—Who would you want to be with if you were locked in a room and needed to dechiper a series of clues to get out?

Outfox, a new ‘escape room’ in Coralville, allows participants to combine their skills with friends, family, coworkers or even strangers to try and find the exit before time runs out.

Attorney Carolyn Beyer, of Beyer Law Firm in Iowa City, opened the business over Labor Day weekend. She came up with the idea after she and her two daughters visited Mind Maze, an escape room in Prague during a vacation in the Czech Republic last Christmas.

The trio was locked in a jail cell, and while all three of them found clues, they still weren’t able to get out of the room in the allotted time.

 “We’re still talking about Prague [after returning],” Ms. Beyer said. “I thought, ‘why don’t we have these in the U.S.?’”

It turns out that the escape room concept is gaining in popularity in the United States. According to an April 2015 article in Newsweek, the live version of computer games like “Crimson Room” began in Japan in 2007, spread throughout Asia and reached Eastern Europe by 2011. Escape rooms made their way to the U.S. in 2012 and have become hot attractions in the past 18 months in larger cities like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Houston.

The closest one to the Corridor, Ms. Beyer said, is Escape Chambers in Des Moines, which also has locations in Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin.

Outfox features a room called the Lost Will, which puts participants in the study of their recently deceased relative, Daniel Black, who has left a will naming them as the beneficiaries of his large estate (one that includes an Iowa farm, naturally). Groups must find the will and escape the room in 60 minutes or less, or Mr. Black’s fourth wife will inherit every-thing.

The room has 10 puzzles, some of which consist of as many as eight steps are still determined to work together to break the code, Ms. Beyer said. A monitor is on hand with a walkie-talkie to give clues, but participants typically don’t like to ask for help.

“They want to figure it out themselves without much help,” Ms. Beyer said. 

She hasn’t seen a group argue with each other, but stresses that they can be ineffective if they don’t communicate.

“This isn’t competitive – the only thing you’re trying to beat is the room,” she said, adding that it is ideal for families, church groups or corporate team building. “Everyone has something to offer. It’s a fun, fresh way to get together.”

The room is family-oriented with no scary twists or turns, Ms. Beyer said, adding, “let the haunted houses do that.”

A minimum of two people are needed for a session, with a maximum of eight. Ms. Beyer said a group of six is optimal. The fee is $30 per person for an hour and can be booked at www.outfoxescaperoom.com.

Several groups from the University of Iowa have already given the room a try, including international and MBA students.

Something new

After practicing law for decades, Ms. Beyer wanted to try something new to diversify her income.

“A lawyer’s bill is based on time,” she said. “You don’t get paid unless you’re at your desk – that’s the way it works.”

While she plans to continue to practice law full-time, she wanted another investment that didn’t require her to be onsite at all times.

She was inspired by another lawyer she used to work for, who ran Go America convenience stores.

“Sometimes I think about him,” she said. “That was smart – he diversified. He didn’t have to sit there all the time. “

Her eventual goal is to franchise the company and rotate the rooms across different locations – similar to what the Des Moines-based Escape Chambers has done in the past year. She noted that Lincoln, Nebraska, a college town similar to Iowa City, already has three escape rooms.

Plans are in the works for a second room in the Coralville location – a laboratory called ‘Jurassic Iowa’ in which a mad scientist must save the state from dinosaurs on the loose.

Jurassic Iowa will be more playful and science-based than the Lost Will, which is gentlemanly and scholarly, Ms. Beyer said.

“I want to keep the creativity flowing,” she said.

Outfox Escape Room

2401 Coral Court, Ste. 3, Coralville

(319) 545-2100

www.outfoxescaperoom.com