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Reality Escape Pod – Escape Rooms & Immersive Games — Games
Reality Escape Pod – Escape Rooms & Immersive Games

A Room Escape Artist Production

In a world gone digital, doing things in person is strangely revolutionary.

Reality Escape Pod is an interview podcast diving deep with people who make the world’s best immersive games and experiences: ARGs, puzzle hunts, tabletop games, theme parks, and of course, escape rooms. Our aim is to bring together different segments of the gaming world to share ideas between them.

Hosts David Spira & Peih-Gee Law explore immersive gaming from all angles with a unique blend of curiosity, joy, and a deep appreciation of craft. Each episode explores the guest’s philosophy, design approach, and humanity.

About the hosts:

David Spira is an experience designer, co-founder of RoomEscapeArtist.com and Reality Escape Convention. He is the escape room industry’s most prolific leader. In 2014 he applied his professional skills as a digital experience designer to the burgeoning industry of escape rooms, and more than a decade later he has built a community for its creators and consumers.

Peih-Gee Law is most well known for being a fan favorite contestant on the reality show Survivor, where she played first in Survivor China in 2007, and again in a returning All-Star season Survivor Second Chance. In 2025, she launched PG’s Playhouse, a fun podcast with brainteasers, puzzles, and trivia. She is also on the official story team for Neotropolis, an annual 5 day immersive cyberpunk festival, where she creates narrative driven gameplay and experiences for thousands of attendees.

Copyright: © Copyright 2021 Room Escape Artist

Latest Episodes:

REPOD S4E6 – Blacklights and Blindsides: Dino Paulo, Survivor South Africa and owner of Hinthunt Africa Nov 07, 2022

Show notes

In Season 4, episode 6, we chat with Dino Paulo, owner of escape room company Hinthunt Africa, located in Cape Town, South Africa. Dino also happens to be the winner of the reality show Survivor South Africa: Return of the Outcasts. In his first season, Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island, Dino was voted out early on. However, he established enough of a presence to return for an all-star returnee season, eventually winning the title of Sole Survivor.

This turnaround from downtrodden underdog to eventual winner is echoed in his experience as an escape room owner. Dino candidly shares the story of an early business partner who committed financial malfeasance, lessons learned, and how ousting the ex-partner was a bit like blindsiding someone in Survivor. He shares some of the difficulties in working with an escape room franchise. We also spend some time exploring the differences between American and South African Survivor.

Dino is a charming guest and extremely self-effacing despite his impressive achievements. He speaks from the heart, is guided by an analytical brain, and radiates boundless enthusiasm. It's easy to see how he won Survivor (and our hearts).

Episode Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors:

Morty - A free app for discovering, planning, tracking, and reviewing your escape rooms and other immersive social outings.
Escape Tales - Escape Tales is an acclaimed series of tabletop escape room games— each featuring a unique blend of mind-bending puzzles masterfully woven into thought-provoking, robust narratives. Use code “roomescapeartist” for 25% off all Escape Tales products and Books of Rituals on Board & Dice.
Buzzshot - ‘Customer Satisfaction Software’ for your escape room business. Streamline your marketing and grow your escape room business with pre- and post-game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and integrated review management. Use code REPOD2022 in the dropdown list when booking a demo for 20% off your first three months.

Reality Escape Convention - RECON

Our escape room and immersive gaming convention, will be an incredible event for creators and consumers of the games we love. We hope to see you in Boston. Learn More about RECON.

Production Credits

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing of Stand Inside Media

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht

S4E5 – Epic Proportions: Jonathan Driscoll and Sacha St.Denis, owners of Escaparium, Canada Oct 31, 2022

Show notes

In Season 4, episode 5 of Reality Escape Pod, we headed to Canada to chat with Jonathan Driscoll and Sacha St.Denis, owners of Escaparium escape games, Nuit de Terreur haunted attraction, L'Atelier resto-pub game cafe, and Ezkapaz immersive experiences. As you can tell from their list of businesses, Jonathan and Sacha have big ambitions. Not only do they have over 30 escape rooms under the Escaparium brand, they have recently expanded into a haunted attraction with escape room elements, a game cafe integrated into their Laval location, and an immersive experience at a local speakeasy bar.

It's not just the number of experiences that are epically sized. Their flagship games Rain Corp., Wardrobe for Sale, and The Lost Island of the Voodoo Queen are jaw-droppingly enormous, filled with endearing characters, immersive puzzles, and touching storylines that actually made me cry. When setting out to build a haunt, Jonathan and Sasha didn't want a generic maze. Instead, they created a haunted attraction that's part maze, with mini-escape room elements and private immersive interactions.

It's no easy feat juggling so many different projects. Jonathan and Sacha are supportive leaders and are extremely appreciative of their large creative team. The owners of Escaparium have managed to stay humble and are receptive to constructive feedback, while maintaining their ambitious aspirations. Escaparium is an immersive gaming brand of epic proportions. It's hard to put into words how massive their games are, and that's why I highly encourage you to visit their locations in Montreal.

Episode Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors:

Morty - A free app for discovering, planning, tracking, and reviewing your escape rooms and other immersive social outings.
World Escape Room Championship - A global competition for escape room players. It is being held virtually, for free. The elimination round is on November 5, 2022. Each member of the winning team will receive a Nintendo Switch Lite.
Buzzshot - ‘Customer Satisfaction Software’ for your escape room business. Streamline your marketing and grow your escape room business with pre- and post-game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and integrated review management. Use code REPOD2022 in the dropdown list when booking a demo for 20% off your first three months.

Reality Escape Convention - RECON

Our escape room and immersive gaming convention, will be an incredible event for creators and consumers of the games we love. We hope to see you in Boston. Learn More about RECON.

Production Credits

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing of Stand Inside Media

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht

S4E4 – Holistic Game Design: Alexander Gierholz, creator of Amsterdam Catacombs, Netherlands Oct 24, 2022

Show notes

In Season 4, Episode 4, we head over to The Netherlands for a chat with Alexander Gierholz of Logic Locks, creator of The Amsterdam Catacombs, which has won numerous accolades including a Golden Lock Award and a TERPECA. In a country rich with globally top-rated escape rooms, The Catacombs stands out for its commitment to immersion, stunning location and incredible ending. The Netherlands has a vibrant escape room scene, due in part to Alexander's efforts with events like Up The Game, a global escape room conference he co-founded in 2017.

Coming from a psychology background, and having taught experience design and gamification, Alexander approaches game design with a unique holistic philosophy. He thinks deeply about creating experiences that pull from different disciplines which resonate with the audience in a meaningful way. This conversation about escape rooms, gameplay, and creating a community changed the way I think about game design, and I know you'll find it as fascinating as we did.

Episode Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors:

Morty - A free app for discovering, planning, tracking, and reviewing your escape rooms and other immersive social outings.
World Escape Room Championship - A global competition for escape room players. It is being held virtually, for free. The elimination round is on November 5, 2022. Each member of the winning team will receive a Nintendo Switch Lite.
Buzzshot - ‘Customer Satisfaction Software’ for your escape room business. Streamline your marketing and grow your escape room business with pre- and post-game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and integrated review management. Use code REPOD2022 in the dropdown list when booking a demo for 20% off your first three months.

Reality Escape Convention - RECON

Our escape room and immersive gaming convention, will be an incredible event for creators and consumers of the games we love. We hope to see you in Boston. Learn More about RECON.

Production Credits

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing of Stand Inside Media

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht

S4E3 – The Doctor & The Alchemist: Creative Game Mechanics with Leanne Yong and Aaron Hooper of Next Level Escape, Australia Oct 17, 2022

Show notes

Next up on our global tour, in Season 4, Episode 3, David and Peih-Gee go down under with The Doctor and The Alchemist, aka, Aaron Hooper and Leanne Yong from Next Level Escape in Sydney, Australia. They gave a fantastic talk at RECON '21, Playing with Game Structure: the Macro of Mechanics. In this podcast, they go into more depth about designing unusual game mechanics like their game, The Game, a competitive escape room where players go head to head, battling for objectives, or The Show Must Go On, which is part audio play, part interactive performance and part escape room.

Leanne and Aaron both came from finance backgrounds—Aaron previously worked as an economist and Leanne as a business analyst. They combined their hobbies of tech, writing, and gaming to create some very fun escape rooms with humor, loads of player interactions, and unique gameplay.

Because of their backgrounds in business, it was very interesting to chat with them about the economics of running an escape room, especially when they are located in the heart of the Central Business District and run games for lots of corporate groups. After chatting with them on the podcast, it was clear that Leanne and Aaron put a lot of love and thought into creating their escape rooms, especially when it comes to creating innovative game mechanics.

Episode Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors:

Morty - A free app for discovering, planning, tracking, and reviewing your escape rooms and other immersive social outings.
World Escape Room Championship - A global competition for escape room players. It is being held virtually, for free. The elimination round is on November 5, 2022. Each member of the winning team will receive a Nintendo Switch Lite.
Buzzshot - ‘Customer Satisfaction Software’ for your escape room business. Streamline your marketing and grow your escape room business with pre- and post-game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and integrated review management. Use code REPOD2022 in the dropdown list when booking a demo for 20% off your first three months.

Reality Escape Convention - RECON

Our escape room and immersive gaming convention, will be an incredible event for creators and consumers of the games we love. We hope to see you in Boston. Learn More about RECON.

Production Credits

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing of Stand Inside Media

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht

S4E2 – Paradox Project, Greece: Dimitris Varelas and the Three Hour Escape Room Oct 10, 2022

Show notes

In Season Four of Reality Escape Pod, we’re going global! Each episode we’ll be interviewing escape room creators from a different country, and there’s no better place to start with than Athens, Greece, home to Paradox Project. Paradox Project’s escape rooms are some of the most highly regarded games in the world, with two of their rooms ranked in the top twenty best escape rooms according to TERPECA. These games also have the distinction of being some of the longest escape rooms in the world, with The Bookstore clocking in at 200 minutes. That’s a whopping three hours and 20 minutes.

While chatting with Dimitris Varelas, one of the creators of Paradox Project, it became clear that the driving force behind their games is a deep love of escape rooms and a devotion to creating the best possible player experience. He’s willing to run his games for you at all hours of the day, and has invited any visiting escape room enthusiasts to consult with him when planning their trip to Athens.

Hearing Dimitris talk about their design process, we could see how much care they put into their games. From their willingness to put the player experience first, to crafting custom sets in huge locations, Paradox Project is a shining example of how to craft incredible escape rooms that cater to escape room enthusiasts.

Episode Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors:

Morty - A free app for discovering, planning, tracking, and reviewing your escape rooms and other immersive social outings.
World Escape Room Championship - A global competition for escape room players. It is being held virtually, for free. The elimination round is on November 5, 2022. Each member of the winning team will receive a Nintendo Switch Lite.
Buzzshot - ‘Customer Satisfaction Software’ for your escape room business. Streamline your marketing and grow your escape room business with pre- and post-game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and integrated review management. Use code REPOD2022 in the dropdown list when booking a demo for 20% off your first three months.

Reality Escape Convention - RECON

Our escape room and immersive gaming convention, will be an incredible event for creators and consumers of the games we love. We hope to see you in Boston. Learn More about RECON.

Production Credits

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing of Stand Inside Media

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht

S4E1 - Reconnecting with RECON Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

We're kicking off Season Four of Reality Escape Pod with a RECON Boston recap! David and Peih-Gee are joined by Lisa Spira and Theresa Wagner. RECON was an incredibly special event with brilliant talks, amazing lobby parties, and some very special escape rooms. Magic was definitely in the air.

We recap the talks from industry leaders and discuss the amazing ARG (alternate reality game) created especially for RECON. David and Lisa give us insight on some of the aspects designed to help the convention run more smoothly. We look back fondly on the lobby parties, and Peih-Gee talks about her nefarious goal of making David cry at RECON (and how it backfired). We listen to voicemails from attendees, discuss our top secret special guest, and replay his incredible imitation of David.

RECON was truly a magical experience, judging by the response from attendees. It was a celebration of the escape room community, an experiment, and a knowledge share... We look forward to making more RECON magic in the future.

Episode Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors:

Morty - A free app for discovering, planning, tracking, and reviewing your escape rooms and other immersive social outings.
World Escape Room Championship - A global competition for escape room players. It is being held virtually, for free. The elimination round is on November 5, 2022. Each member of the winning team will receive a Nintendo Switch Lite.
Buzzshot - ‘Customer Satisfaction Software’ for your escape room business. Streamline your marketing and grow your escape room business with pre- and post-game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and integrated review management. Use code REPOD2022 in the dropdown list when booking a demo for 20% off your first three months.

Reality Escape Convention - RECON

Our escape room and immersive gaming convention, will be an incredible event for creators and consumers of the games we love. We hope to see you in Boston. Learn More about RECON.

Production Credits

Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Lisa Spira

Edited by Steve Ewing of Stand Inside Media

Music by Ryan Elder

Logo by Janine Pracht

David & Peih-Gee talk pastries & puzzles on Podcast This Escape Sep 20, 2022

Show notes

Last week, David and Peih-Gee managed to solve the mystery of the Silver Screen room on Escape This Podcast, and this week, they're recapping their adventures in the madcap chocolate factory. We recommend listening to that episode before you listen to this one.

After getting stuck on donuts and pies, it was a relief to know that Dani and Bill had graciously reserved one of their harder rooms for us. We dissect some of the puzzles in the game and debate the merits of various puzzle design etiquette, including common expectations like prop reuse and crossword puzzle rules.

If you enjoyed these episodes, we hope that you'll check out Escape This Podcast and listen to more of their wonderful audio escape rooms.

Season 4 of the Reality Escape Pod is launching October 3, so stay tuned!

David & Peih-Gee Play Escape This Podcast Sep 13, 2022

Show notes

David and Peih-Gee go on a romp through a very wonky chocolate factory on Escape This Podcast, a show that's a mix between table top role-playing and escape room style puzzles. Much like Willy Wonka, Dani and Bill are madly creative geniuses, dreaming up fantastical audio escape rooms that have come very close to stumping us on more than one occasion.

Going on their podcast is always a good time, and the best part is that all their audio escape rooms are available for free to play with your friends and family at home. Tune in to see what happens when David and Peih-Gee find themselves in a strangely smooth white room with not much except a television and a giant bar of chocolate. Make sure to check out the companion show next week on Escape This Podcast where we'll break down and analyze the room we just played.

And… Season 4 of the Reality Escape Pod is coming in October… so stay tuned…

Special Release: S3E2 Bonus Episode - Johanna Koljonen Aug 29, 2022

Show notes

Today we're releasing a Patreon Bonus Episode from Season 3 to give you a sneak peek of our REPOD Patreon perks. Johanna's episode was extremely popular, and with good reason. She shared a wealth of knowledge about game design with us on the main episode, and yet, we still had so many questions for her. Luckily she stuck around for the Aftershow.

This one in particular feels very much like an extension of the main episode. If you haven't listened to her main episode, we highly recommend you play that one first. You can find REPOD S3E2 with Johanna here. Johanna thinks about game design with both an eye towards the larger picture, as well as considering all the small details, like how temperature can affect a player's behavior. We hope you'll enjoy this surprise release of our exclusive Patreon Bonus Aftershow.

Bonus Content

After each episode, hosts Peih-Gee and David record another long form show, just for Patreon backers ($5/ month and up). Sometimes the guests stick around for the Aftershow.

Where the main episode is a heavily edited and produced experience, the bonus content is a freeform conversation.

Season 3 Episode 2

This sneak peek is the REPOD S3E42 Patreon Bonus Episode, recorded with Nordic larp creator Johanna Koljonen.

You can find REPOD S3E2 with Johanna here.

David & Peih-Gee get Stranger on The Infinite Escape Room Aug 08, 2022

Show notes

The Infinite Escape Room is a puzzling podcast where a group of pals sit down, have a drink, and work together to solve an audio escape room. The creators are brilliant and hilarious, and they were kind enough to welcome us on a recent episode. We had a blast puzzling our way through this Stranger Things-inspired episode, despite David constantly trying to off Peih-Gee in some nefarious way, and Peih-Gee trying to figure out what is "bed cheese."

This is something a little different from our usual episodes, but we think you'll really enjoy it. We like what they're creating at The Infinite Escape Room Podcast, and we hope you'll give it a listen. Here is our episode, "Portal shenanigans and Hidden Bed Cheese."

And... Season 4 is coming in the fall... so stay tuned for that.

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