Liverpool’s former magistrates court is to be used for a ‘live escape game’ attraction.
The Victoria Street court cells will be used to lock people up as part of Exit Strategy. The game will see contestants holed-up in the cells and forced to crack a complex series of puzzles in order to escape within a 60-minute slot.
The idea came from 19-year-old Jack Crump and his dad, John Crump, who have been working in the building since late last year.
Jack Crump told JMU Journalism: “The idea for the game came to us when we were on a trip to Berlin. We went to a similar game called The Room. It was number one on TripAdvisor so we thought we’d give it a go. When we returned to Liverpool and found there wasn’t anything similar here we decided to try and start one ourselves.”
The game, which will start at the end of the month, introduces contestants to a storyline based on Illuminati-style conspiracy theories.
The game will follow the study of a man who has gone missing after delving into claims that the world is run by a group of shape-shifting intergalactic lizards. The Magistrates court was chosen as the location for its ‘unnerving’ atmosphere.
Crump said: “It’s located in the cells of the old magistrates where people used to be locked up to await trial so it’s funny we’re locking people back up in there – with the means to escape of course.”
Exit Strategy will be linked to an interactive app called ‘Reptile Resistance’, which explores the game’s storyline in more detail and invites users to complete brain-teasing challenges.
The final touches are now being made to the Exit Strategy, though the Crumps hope to eventually build two more games at the former courthouse.
He added: “I think Exit Strategy has a great potential to do well in Liverpool. These games are a relatively new attraction and other ones like ours are very successful all over the world. More exit games are set to open in Liverpool after ours which I think will give us good competition, and also motivation to make ours the best it can be.”