What Building an Educational Escape Room Taught Me About Emergency Preparedness Messaging
I was recently honored to contribute to the Escape Rooms in Education Showcase 2025, hosted by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland.
My presentation, “What Building an Educational Escape Room Taught Me About Emergency Preparedness Messaging,” was very well received — with many attendees calling it both informative and inspirational.
In the talk, I shared how we use "ah-ha!" moments inside our mobile escape room — Shaky Grounds Cafe — to deliver real-world preparedness lessons in a way that makes players feel clever, engaged, and like they “taught themselves” something important.
It’s a delicate balance, but I design every puzzle around a core framework: Entertain → Engage → Educate → Empower.
✅ Entertain – It has to be fun. People tune out when they feel like they’re being taught at. So we lead with fun — and deliver on that promise.
✅ Engage – Once they're having fun, they're naturally curious. That’s when we have their attention.
✅ Educate – Now that they’re open and invested, we lace in the real lessons — skills that matter in emergencies.
✅ Empower – The ultimate goal: players leave not just entertained, but equipped. They feel like they taught themselves something through trial, error, and discovery.
If you're curious how game design can inspire real-world change, or if you're working in education, public safety, or experiential learning — I invite you to check out the talk on YouTube and learn more about what we’re doing at Shaky Grounds Café to inspire emergency preparedness through immersive play.
