How much does sound design matter?

At RECON, Troy will show us how thoughtful sound design can enhance any immersive experience, and will provide practical guidance on how to improve your audio on any budget.

About Troy

Troy Armstrong is the Director of Product Design for Great Big Game Show, where he leads the creative development of immersive, live-action game show experiences.

Troy has worked in the escape game industry since 2017 and joined The Escape Game in 2020. There he continues to play a pivotal role in shaping the sound and music identity of its award-winning experiences including The Depths, Timeliner, Cosmic Crisis [Golden Lock Award Winner 2024], Ruins, and Legend of the Yeti. He has also collaborated with clients ranging from Nickelodeon (Rugrats) and Cheetos to Disney (Mysterious Benedict Society) and Hulu (Only Murders in the Building).

Troy holds degrees in music composition from the University of Southern California (B.M.) and the University of Texas at Austin (M.M.). An active commissioned composer, his concert works have been performed across the United States, Canada, Central America, Australia, and Europe by distinguished ensembles including the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the U.S. Navy Band.

He currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee, with his partner, Taylor, and their dog, Elly.

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This event creates a space to discuss and to learn about new formats of escape rooms and the future of real-life gaming.

In our talk, we’ll discuss what escape rooms can be if you’re willing to break the mold, with examples from our experiences playing around the world.

David will also be moderating a panel of industry experts.

Event Details

Play two epic large-scale games, participate in a one-day conference, and make connections.

• May 21-23, 2026
• Events in Malešov and Prague, Czechia
• Hosted by The Chamber

The large scale events are Kingdom Come: Experience, which is a 3.5-hour-long game with 10 actors, taking place at a real medieval castle, and  ChamCorp: The CyberGame for up to 200 players simultaneously, with more than 30 actors in an open-world setting of a futuristic cyberpunk Underground City.

We are excited to experience these games and meet others from the global escape room community.

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Toy Fair is an exclusive show, in that you need to be in the industry (or press) to get a ticket. But every area of the industry is represented: manufacturing, design, insurance, shipping, and more. The most attractive booths to someone like me, of course, were those showing off the coolest and newest games. A few interesting games caught my eye while I was wandering dozens of aisles of displays.

Jumbo Games

Jumbo Games is a large international toy and game brand with many, many products on the market. At previous Toy Fairs, we had seen their line of Wasgij jigsaw puzzles. These puzzles don’t 100% match what is pictured on the box, but instead reveal a different perspective of the box image or a moment before or after the box image takes place. The most interesting new product they had on display was Pieces of Evidence, a jigsaw-based detective game. The first box in this line, “The Last Voyage!”, will contain three jigsaw puzzles that each offer clues to help resolve the final mystery. We’re looking forward to seeing it in stores in late 2026.

Fizz Creations

Fizz Creations is a toy company that has recently dipped into the at-home puzzle game experience. Their display had a few notable games on their puzzle shelf, each with an interesting form factor. There was a pop-up book, a manga box set, and miniature cardboard briefcases with puzzles inside. The pop-up book, Cryptic Circus, was a murder mystery. While the format definitely seemed geared for children, the content was not. Wheels of Time promised five different games set in different eras. This seemed to be a theme of Fizz’s puzzle offerings: many of their games said that they had multiple ways to play or different paths to take.

Professor Puzzle

We reviewed a few games from Professor Puzzle’s Quick-Fire Escape Rooms a few years ago. Since then, Professor Puzzle has released new games in the same line as well as a new murder mystery line. Escape Through Time will be their newest entry in the escape room line when it releases, and Death in the Alps is the title for the upcoming murder mystery game. Both games are slated to release in Q2 2026.

University Games

University Games has been a long-time presence in the desktop puzzle space. Their BePuzzled series produces Hanayama puzzles and 3d crystal puzzles, but also mystery jigsaw puzzles and boxed murder mystery party games. Their Murder Mystery Party boxed games come with roles for six participants, as well as a suggested food and drink menu. The newest item in this line is Mistletoe & Malice, which tasks your dinner guests to solve the Christmas time murder of the Noël, Queen of Puddings.

Quick Thoughts

• Thames & Kosmos’ 2026 Exit: The Game Advent Calendar will be called The Magic of Christmas. Look for it in late 2026. We have loved the Advent calendars in past years. (See our reviews from 2025, 2024, 2023, and 2022.)
• Flipsi Puzzles showed off their double-sided jigsaw puzzles. Each promised an intriguing surprise when flipped to the secret secondary side after the puzzle was completed.
• CGE’s Codenames has been a popular game in the escape room community, and they announced three expansions packs for Codenames that will release in Q2 2026.
• Fun Squared Games showed off Code Lock, a head-to-head logic puzzle about following instructions to sort your nine numbered tiles faster than your opponents.

Toy Fair 2027

Toy Fair will return to the Javits Center from February 20-23, 2027. After nearly heading to New Orleans for a few years instead of staying in New York City, I’m glad to see that it looks like NYC will continue to host Toy Fair in the coming years. I’m already looking forward to 2027.

Hopefully we can get our hands on some of these upcoming games soon! Keep reading here for reviews once we do. I expect some of them will end up in our next Holiday Gift Guide in November.

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If you live in Greater Boston, or you happen to be in town too, we hope you’ll come out to Needham, Massachusetts, on Thursday, May 14th.

We are thrilled that Midnight Mansion has offered to host this event at their venue… which means this meetup is also an opportunity to learn about the next big immersive gaming experience coming to you in Greater Boston. They’ll be happy to give you a peek behind the scenes.

This meetup is a casual gathering for escape room players, owners, and creators to mingle and chat. It’s happening on Thursday, May 14th. Mark your calendar!

Details

• Thursday, May 14, 2026
• 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM ET (drop in whenever)
• Midnight Mansion, 460 Hillside Ave. Rear Side – Lower Level. Needham Heights, MA 02494
• You can expect very short programming around 9:00 PM.

Needham is accessible by public transportation from Boston. Take the Needham Line to Needham Heights. This meetup will take place on the “warehouse” side of Midnight Mansion. Follow the directions here. Parking instructions are included.

Feel free to bring a snack or beverage to share.

Thank you to Victor and Hunter from Midnight Mansion for providing the venue!

Please RSVP.

It’s a free event, but we’d like to know how many people to expect.

Midnight Mansion

Midnight Mansion is a creative technology and fabrication studio, founded by Victor Hung (creator of Boxaroo & Level99), that builds immersive, interactive experiences by blending storytelling with custom hardware and software. Their studio facility in Needham, MA combines office with fabrication and rapid prototyping space.

They have graciously offered to host this meetup. While we are visiting, Midnight Mansion may have some games and puzzles they’re currently prototyping for their new venue, Edge of Elsewhere. If you’re feeling puzzley, they’d love for you to help playtest! No pressure. Up to you!

FAQ Answers

No, the focus of this trip is not escape rooms. It’s family. TBD if we will be playing or reviewing any games.

Yes, while we are in town, we will be attending The Wedding Party: A Mystery Dinner Experience. This experience was created by Errol Elumir and company, revised by Secret City, and is now coming to Boston, produced by Kellian and Brian of Club Drosselmeyer fame. We have tickets for Saturday, May 16th.

No, we can’t see everyone we love in this city individually on this trip. We’re sorry. But please come to the meetup so that we can hang out!

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Well, before that event takes place, we’ll have some members of the RECON team in town in May. So, we’re hosting a meetup!

If you’re in Montreal, we’d love to see you TWICE in the next few months. You can come to this meetup and then come to RECON. Win-win!

This meetup is a casual gathering for escape room players, owners, and creators to mingle and chat. It’s happening on Sunday, May 10th. Mark your calendar!

Details

• Sunday, May 10, 2026
• Starting at 7:00pm and continuing for a few hours
• Jack Astor’s Bar & Grill Laval (1820 Аv. Pierre-Péladeau local FA01)

Jack Astor’s Bar & Grill Laval is generously hosting this meetup free of charge. Please order food and drink from the venue to support their business.

You can expect very short programming around 9:00 PM.

Please stop by at your leisure. We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Who Attends?

This event is for those interested in, passionate about, or working in escape rooms and immersive gaming… whether you live here, or just happen to be in town on May 10th.

We’re calling all owners, operators, creators, designers, technologists, bloggers, podcasters, and of course, players! This is a casual, community event to meet others with similar interests.

FAQ Answers

Yes, we will be playing escape rooms on this trip.

Yes, we will be reviewing escape rooms on this trip.

Yes, we will be playing Castle of Eternal Suffering at Sauve Qui Peut and Ctrl Alt Reboot and Escape Plan at Escaparium. (We’ve already played Magnifico.)

Yes, we will have already played all these games by the time the meetup happens. We can talk about them with you!

No, the focus of this trip is not playing and reviewing escape rooms. It’s all about getting ready for RECON.

Yes, you can come to this meetup even if you aren’t coming to RECON. (But also, you should come to RECON too!)

RSVP

Please RSVP. This is a free event, but it’s helpful to be able to give Jack Astor’s a head count.

But… RECON?

Yes, RECON is also in Laval, which is just outside of Montreal.

If you landed on this page because you’re looking for information about RECON in August 2026, here are the links:

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If you’ve lived in New York City (or the tri-state area) for a while, and you’ve come to these meetups many times over the years, welcome back. We’d love to see you again and hear what you’re working on, or what experience you’ve enjoyed recently.

If you’re new to New York City (or the tri-state area), please don’t be shy. Whether you’ve moved to the area since we last hosted one of these meetups, or you just happen to be in town, please stop by and introduce yourself. We’d love to get to know you.

We know there are new Patreon supporters in the area because we’ve mailed you cards, and we hope this is the perfect opportunity to meet you.

This meetup is a casual gathering for escape room players, owners, and creators to mingle and chat. It’s happening on Tuesday, April 28th. Mark your calendar!

Details

• Tuesday, April 28, 2026
• Starting at 6:00pm and continuing for a few hours
• Shades of Green Pub (125 E 15th St between Irving Pl and 3rd Ave)
• We will be congregating in the back room.

Please stop by at your leisure. We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Who Attends?

This event is for those interested in, passionate about, or working in escape rooms and immersive gaming… whether you live here, or just happen to be in town on April 28th.

We’re calling all owners, operators, creators, designers, technologists, bloggers, podcasters, and of course, players!

There is no formal programming. This is a casual, community event to meet others with similar interests.

Venue

Shades of Green Pub is generously hosting this meetup free of charge. As always, please order food and drink from the venue to support their business.

Shades of Green Pub asks that we consolidate checks. Please order per table on one tab and take advantage of Venmo, Paypal… or cash (most immersive method of payment). Note that there will be $20 credit card minimum.

RSVP

Please RSVP. This is a free event, but it’s helpful to be able to give Shades of Green a head count.

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Can you build world class escape rooms by yourself?

Bill Dalitsikas is the founder and creative director of Lockhill, an internationally recognized horror escape room brand based in Athens, Greece. At RECON, Bill will explore his triumphs and struggles as a solo creator, providing invaluable lessons on the risk and rewards of relying too much on yourself.

Bill has faced a lot as a solo creator in one of the world’s most competitive escape room markets. For anyone in a creative field, working solo or with a large team, come take insights from Bill’s experiences to better position you to make creative decisions for your business.

About Bill

Bill Dalitsikas is the founder and creative director of Lockhill, an internationally recognized horror escape room brand based in Athens, Greece.

Over the past decade, his work has received multiple international distinctions and has been ranked among the top horror experiences worldwide, contributing to the broader conversation around narrative-driven immersive design.

Rather than refining a single formula, each new project explores a different direction for the medium. He was among the early adopters of integrating live actors as core gameplay elements and has developed continuous narrative structures and immersive introductions that begin before the first puzzle is touched.

In most of his projects, Bill has worked hands-on across disciplines, from architectural builds and puzzle systems to lighting and sound. This multidisciplinary approach grew from curiosity and necessity and continues to shape how he thinks about creation, collaboration, and long-term sustainability.

Listen to Bill on REPOD

Bill was a guest on Season 9, Episode 12: Designing for Chaos:

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What’s an escape room business worth?

Marcelo Morales built a multi-location escape room business through acquisitions and original builds. He’ll share his perspective on the value of an escape room business and what choices you can make to increase of decrease that value.

Whether you’re looking to grow your business, or just understand how to run a healthy one, Marcelo will share lessons you can bring back to your own escape room or immersive gaming business.

About Marcelo

Marcelo is a senior project manager for an industrial production line manufacturer and a multi-location escape room owner operating approximately 18 active games across four locations under Encrypted Escape and Captured LV in PA and MD, with experience growing businesses through both acquisitions and original builds. By day, he manages multimillion-dollar industrial projects where capital planning, risk management, and execution discipline are critical. By night, he enters the realm of escape room design, construction and their finances.

He has built games, evaluated, purchased, and integrated existing escape room businesses and learned firsthand that the real challenge begins after the deal closes. Replacing aging games, funding rebuilds, managing cash flow, and maintaining guest experience often cost more than expected, even as acquisitions reduce early risk by avoiding permitting and build-out. His decisions focus on long-term profitability through disciplined reinvestment, careful use of capital, and resisting short-term growth that quietly erodes margins over time.

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RECON takes place August 16-17, 2026 in Laval, Quebec, CA.

By sponsoring RECON, you’ll position your brand at the forefront of industry innovation. Sponsorship benefits will be visible before, during, and long after the event, helping build your brand’s reputation well into the future.

Who is a good Sponsor for RECON?

RECON brings together an audience of escape room owners and creators who are eager to learn about products and services that can help their businesses thrive.

Past sponsors have included companies providing:

• Technology
• Booking software
• Game management software
• Marketing, consulting and other business services
• Experiences for players, including VR and tabletop games

If you have a product or service that supports the escape room and immersive gaming industries, you need to be at RECON.

What’s included in Sponsorship?

We offer three sponsorship tiers: Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Each offers progressive levels of visibility and benefits before, during, and after RECON Laval.

Every sponsorship includes a booth in the RECON Exhibit Hall, the perfect place to meet attendees and showcase your products and services.

For details on sponsorship packages, contact Cindi, RECON’s Sponsorship Coordinator, through the RECON website.

Get Your RECON Ticket

If you are an owner or creator of escape rooms or immersive games, we hope you’ll join us at RECON Laval. Get your ticket today!

The post RECON 26 Sponsorship Opportunities Now Available appeared first on Room Escape Artist.

The Expo Hall

The centerpiece of PAX Unplugged is the Expo Hall. It would be easy to spend all three days just wandering the aisles, stopping at every interesting booth for a demo or a conversation with a designer. This is usually my PAXU plan, but my intent this year was to spend more time exploring the things that happen in the many other rooms throughout the convention center. Even so, I found more than a few booths and games worth highlighting while investigating the Expo Hall.

Two booths I consider puzzly stalwarts of the convention are PostCurious (reviews) and Thames & Kosmos (reviews). If you’ve been reading REA for any length of time, you’re likely already familiar with these two companies and why you should stop by their booths. PostCurious has been making beautiful tabletop puzzle tales for years and is an industry leader in combining engaging gameplay with captivating art. They were showing off their new and upcoming titles Emerald Echoes, Ministry of Lost Things: Finders Keypers, and Pandora’s Legacy.

The folks over at the Thames & Kosmos booth had their usual slew of games, both puzzle and not. Thames & Kosmos is known for their Exit: The Game series of tabletop escape games. The Exit line includes a yearly advent calendar. This year’s calendar theme was The Intergalactic Race.

A throughline I kept noticing this year was games with low player counts, specifically games designed for just two people. And while I love a huge game that can take hours to churn through, it’s very helpful to have a selection of games that work best for just two people. To that end, the banner for Logic & Lore caught my eye. Logic & Lore was a competitive deduction game designed for exactly two people. Each player had to put their constellations (represented by cards numbered 1-9) back in order by asking their opponent a series of yes or no questions. The catch was that only their opponent saw the cards they were asking about. It was a great, quick game based on logic and deduction, and I happily added it to my PAX haul.

Distant Rabbit’s Mantis Falls was a noir-inspired hidden role game made for 2-3 people, but seemingly designed with two players in mind. The two players were witnesses to a crime in a mob-run town and needed to work together to escape – but one of the witnesses might actually be an assassin sent to dispatch the actual witness. It was a tense game of suspicion that made for some interesting gameplay.

While the expo hall was definitely still the centerpiece of the convention, I tried to explore the other rooms around the convention center as much as possible. Between the panels, the playable games, and the dozens of other rooms to visit, there was more to do than I could fit into just three days.

Panels

Panels and workshops at PAXU run the gamut from entertainment to education and everything in between. Whether you’re looking to get inside information about the industry or just there to watch funny people do silly things, there were panels for everyone.

To kick off my PAX weekend, I spent my Friday morning at the “Super Sleuthing: Successful Solving of Puzzle Hunts” panel. Not only was this a must-attend based on the content, it was also led by known and trustworthy people in the puzzle hunt world: Sara Winters, Jacqui Fashimpaur, and Michael Anderson. They all spoke of their MIT Mystery Hunt experience and so much more. Any attendee of the panel left with a history lesson as well as valuable tips on how to find puzzle hunts and start solving them.

PAX events attract celebrities with well-established nerd credentials. Dropout regular and host of Um, Actually Ify Nwadiwe has hosted a few panels at PAXU and PAX East, and I was finally able to get a seat at one. His panel was called “Ify Play Tests A Panel Show” and it was a game show featuring three teams of two notable nerds each playtesting a panel game that was reminiscent of famed British panel show Would I Lie to You? The teams had been given topics to present a real or fake fact about, and points were awarded for spotting the fake statements. This was a lesson in the importance of playtesting everything, as I’m reasonably certain that half the participants didn’t fully understand the scoring system (to a very entertaining outcome).

Convention Games

For the past few years, PAX Unplugged has been curating a selection of convention games and has now settled into what feels like a standard format. They had the same number of convention games available as last year, all updated for 2025.

Lockwood Immersive returned with another puzzle hunt, this time called “Oddities Inc.” This paper-based puzzle hunt took the form of a competence assessment for new hires at Oddities Inc. Once we solved all ten puzzles, which were varied in both puzzle format and difficulty, we were presented with a final meta mission – sneaking into Oddities Inc. HR and stealing our employment contract. It was a fun and innovative way to finish up the puzzle and narrative aspects of the hunt.

Back again with their small footprint games was Co-Operatives. Based permanently in Boston, they travel to PAXU each year with a selection of short, portable communication-heavy escape games. I had the chance to play the new game for this year, Gnome Sweet Gnome. We had to help a bunch of tiny gnomes get ready for their upcoming celebration. Like their other games, teams were evenly divided on two sides of a wall that contained all the locks and puzzle information. Gnome Sweet Gnome was 20 minutes of compact fun. It’s usually difficult to get a booking at Co-Operatives once the ticketing opens up, and that’s a good problem to have.

Board game publisher Czech Games Edition has had a yearly puzzle hunt celebrating their latest major release, and this year’s was Wispwood. Wispwood caught my eye immediately because not only was it themed around cats, it was also black light sensitive! The free puzzle hunt followed CGE’s normal loop of having players explore the convention hall for posters, scanning QR codes on them, and solving a puzzle on their phone, which gave the location of the next poster. CGE managed to pack a variety of puzzle types and challenge levels into this year’s hunt, and a lucky winner each day went home with a copy of Wispwood.

So Much More To See

There were many, many options to book social games. KMS Games returned and ran two of their games: Game Over (which they ran last year) and a new game for the convention, The Sandcastle. I wasn’t able to get a booking for The Sandcastle, which was sad for me but a good sign for the popularity of what KMS Games is making. And there were multiple time slots for two different Blood on the Clocktower scenarios, one for beginners and one for more advanced players. These were also full as soon as preregistration opened, and had a long waitlist.

Hidden on the upper level of the convention center was the First Look room. The First Look room is where PAXU displays the “hot” games that you might only have seen at other large shows like SPIEL Essen because they likely do not have US distribution yet. This room was table after table of games all available for play.

The highlight of the First Look room was Digit Code, a two-player logic game using player created codes written on a seven segment display. Players competed to guess each other’s codes using questions about how many segments were filled in a row or column. It made for an interesting and quick guessing game, and the rulebook provided my favorite justification of the weekend: “for some unknown reason…we must quickly interpret a six-digit digital code.”

If you plan on traveling to PAX Unplugged in 2026, be sure to check out all of the things that are happening beyond the expo hall. There were rooms full of hidden treasures all throughout the convention center, and more games and events than I could play in a full weekend. PAXU returns to Philadelphia December 4-6, 2026. See you there!

Disclosure: PAX Unplugged provided a media pass.

For more about some of the games and events mentioned this this piece, check out these podcast interviews:

REPOD S10E8: The PuzzleTales of PostCurious with Rita Orlov & Lauren Bello

REPOD S9E1: MIT Mystery Hunt: James Douberley, Benevolent Dictator of Death & Mayhem

REPOD S9E6: Steven Medway, Creator of Blood on the Clocktower

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