Since the start of 2018, Escape Authority has been on a bit of a pause. Perhaps some of you have wondered why that is. First and foremost – don’t worry! The site isn’t going anywhere! Escape Authority will remain your source for honest, trustworthy escape game reviews well into the future.
The site itself also sees a refresh of its identity in from of some new graphics and a sleek, reimagined logo. Check it out!
So, why the radio silence for a couple of months? To understand that is to understand a few important behind the scenes key points. For starters, Escape Authority, by intentional design, makes 0% profit. I’ve long felt that key to keeping the reviews impartial, trustworthy and respected is not gaining any financial benefit from them. Unfortunately as such, when big work projects come up outside of the site, they naturally need to take priority.
The majority of Escape Authority’s day to day operations, from content to graphics to schedule to social media is run single-handedly by myself – so when one of those big projects does pop up, things will inevitably need to come to a pause. It’s no secret that my “day job” has been that of attraction designer for some fifteen years now. Many of those recent projects have involved escape games, so Escape Authority has benefited from their coverage – but not everything I do is linked to this genre – nor can it be openly discussed.
On January 2nd, I was flown to Los Angeles for what was intended to be three days of meetings on the design of a new dark ride project for a theme park somewhere in Asia. (I’m sure you’ll understand that when you’re working on projects with budgets in the millions, Non Disclosure Agreements strictly dictate what can and cannot be shared about them.) The plan was to spend three weeks in Southern California, as a combination of those meetings, some game consulting time at a local venue as well as some vacation time while I was out there. This is a classic case of how sometimes life just doesn’t stick to a plan.
Three days of meetings turned into two months as the Creative Director of the project, including a two week trip to Asia for the attraction I’m heading up. The good news is while a week of that was work-related, the second week was a very unexpectedly modified version of that vacation time I originally planned – expect rather than just Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, it now saw visits to Hong Kong Disneyland, Shanghai Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea before flying back to the US!
It’s hard to imagine that when I arrived in Southern California, Sleeping Beauty Castle was still covered in snow, overlooking a Christmas Tree at the end of Main Street, USA. Sixty-four days later, I finally returned to Florida for what would be only my second full day in Orlando of 2018! Needless to say, after almost triple the amount of time away than was planned, there was a whole heck of a lot of catching up to do at home before focus could finally return here to Escape Authority. But.
It’s time.
Regular updates return this week, with new content beginning tomorrow, a new #TBT old school review Thursday and, yes, a brand new EA FREE PLAY! Giveaway on Friday! And trust me – after such a long hiatus, we have a major venue lined up for this week’s return to our highly popular contest! Keep an eye out for our new voices very soon as well, with even more to come in the near future. Speaking of – would you like one of those new voices to be yours? Shoot me an email at chris@escapeauthority.com and let me know why you think you’d be a good fit to join the Escape Authority Core Team. (Just be sure you meet our minimum game count of at least twenty-five rooms played.)
Although from time to time, work and life may need to take priority, rest assured that Escape Authority will always continue to be your source for this genre we all love!
