If there”™s one business that might not seem like the most appropriate in a pandemic, it would be an escape room operation. After all, the notion of bringing a group of people in tight quarters at a time defeats the concept of maintaining 6 feet of social distancing.
Of course, Dave Hennessey could not have possibly predicted a global pandemic would coincide with the opening of his Mind Factory Escape Games in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport. When he began planning the business 2½ years ago, he was more focused on securing a location for the business.
“One of the biggest challenges was finding the correct physical space,” he said. “And that was a yearlong search. While we were searching for the place, we were also designing what it would look like. Then, we actually got into this place, which was an old office covering 3,000 square feet that hadn”™t been used in some time. And (we) did a ton of work starting last June.”
Hennessey, a former journalist, originally planned to open Mind Factory Escape Games in mid-March, but its premiere didn”™t occur until mid-June. Hennessey said the main concern of his patrons is not the speed of solving the games, but ensuring the space is free of Covid-19.
“There is trepidation around coronavirus,” he said. “People are still nervous ”“ they’ve still got to wear masks.”
To ensure a healthy environment, Hennessey limits visits to Mind Factory Escape Games to only one group at a time. Hand sanitizers are ubiquitous throughout the venue and air filters add an extra layer of health protection.
Escape room games are not a new idea, so it was incumbent upon Hennessey to create an environment that stands out from the crowd.
“If you start to read some of the reviews online, people always tend to mention there was a level of detail here that they did not see in other escape games,” he said. “There’s a ton of technology in here. We had some pretty brilliant people working on interactive technology so that the game feels almost like a real-life video game, which is certainly different than the simpler locking-key, word puzzle-type of escape rooms.
“There is also the story,” he continued, referring to the crux of each game. “We put a lot into storytelling: there are videos and music and Jeff Steitzer, a terrific voice actor from the Halo video game franchise, has audio involved in the games.”
Hennessey said Mind Factory Escape Games currently consists of one game with multiple rooms; a second game is not available to play in order to conform to maintaining social distancing, while a third game is planned for later in the year.
Players who enter the game have one hour to solve what Hennessey described as “a series of interwoven clues and puzzles,” with a supernatural element that will need to be defeated in order to claim victory. The game can accommodate up to eight people and Hennessey stressed that the groups that play together are the only people in the venue at the time ”“ there is no interaction with other groups, and the space is sanitized ahead of each new game.
Hennessey is relying on social media to market his business and also has a Groupon promotion. He believed the Black Rock location will help him connect with the millennial audience that has made escape rooms a popular activity.
When the pandemic is finally history, Hennessey said he would be interested in growing the business to other locations ”“ provided he can find the right spaces to capture his goals.
“We need kind of a unique place to put Mind Factories, and that’s always the challenge,” he said. “If the physical space was correct and I thought the market was correct, yes I would like to do more, because I have tons of ideas.”
