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.

The post Lisa & David Keynote the Prague Escaping Summit appeared first on Room Escape Artist.

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.

The post Toy Fair 2026 appeared first on Room Escape Artist.

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!

The post 👋 Boston: We’re Hosting a Meetup on May 14 appeared first on Room Escape Artist.

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:

The post 👋 Montreal: We’re Hosting a Meetup on May 10 appeared first on Room Escape Artist.

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.

The post 👋 New York City: We’re Hosting a Meetup on April 28 appeared first on Room Escape Artist.

This grant will provide $10k to a stellar Black artist to help them create the immersive art of their dreams.

If you’re a Black immersive artist, we hope you’ll consider applying. If you know anyone who would be a good fit, please share this with them.

Applications will close on Thursday April 23rd, 2026 at 12am (midnight) Pacific Time.

About The Black Immersive Creators Grant

The Black Immersive Creators Grant is a cash award of $10,000 for US-based Black artists who are interested in creating immersive artwork.

The goal of this grant is to amplify Black voices in the immersive community.

The recipients of this grant are Black-identifying creators who demonstrate a passion for creating immersive work. Whether they have an existing portfolio or not, create only immersive work or create this art in addition to other work and life priorities, this grant aids the cultivation and growth of inspired immersive art by Black creators to broaden and encourage diversity in the industry.

Applications Are Open!

Applications will close on Thursday April 23rd, 2026 at 12am (midnight) Pacific Time.

This award is for the production of a new original immersive project, or a new sequel or enhancement to an existing project. Completed projects and/ or previously-released projects are not eligible. The project must be able to be experienced by an individual in the United States. The project may be in-person, remote, virtual, and/ or site-specific and it must be presented to an audience within 12 months of receiving the award.

Learn more about the eligibility criteria and selection criteria here.

Fully Funded

Thank you to everyone who has already donated to this grant. The grant is fully funded for 2026!

The grant will launch donations for the next cycle soon. Stay tuned.

Inspire Me

Full Disclosure: David and I are members of the Board for the Black Immersive Creators Grant. It’s important to us that the immersive entertainment industry (including escape rooms) is welcoming to creators of all kinds, and that together we strive for more representation.

Being on the board has been incredible. Reading and evaluating the applications the last three years has been an eye-opening experience for me. I learned so much about different genres of immersive entertainment and about different culture. The applications were truly incredible. Read about the past winners here.

I’m so excited to read the applications that come in over the next month. If you’re eligible, please don’t miss this opportunity to apply.

The post Applications Open: 2026 Black Immersive Creators Grant appeared first on Room Escape Artist.

This is not the first time that my DMs and random encounters with escape room owners have come with the question, “Hey… umm… were you calling me out?”

The answer is unequivocally: No. I am not lowkey calling any of you out specifically.

If I was asking anyone to change with last month’s post it was enthusiasts, not escape room owners. Go back and re-read it.

Even this piece isn’t calling out a specific person or company because so many of you have asked me about last month’s post… and this is part of a larger trend.

Watching Trends

When I write pieces about larger trends, I am not calling out specific people… I am highlighting and analyzing what I see happening in our industry at large. In some cases, yeah, you might be one of the people who falls in line with the trend (sometimes for better, by the way).

If we’re calling out something specific at a particular company, then we cite the source. Richard Burns loves doing this in his writing… but you’ll note that when we’re highlighting a specific company in a thought piece, it’s pretty much always positive unless you’re lighting players on fire like an idiot psychopath.

Shining a Spotlight vs Waving a Flag

There are so many escape rooms out there, and there is so little time. We cannot play them all. More than 10 years ago we shifted from trying to cover everything to a model where we strive to shine a light on great games rather than wave a flag about mediocre ones.

Sometimes we seek out bad reviews, but that’s usually when someone has cultivated a reputation for doing terrible things.

More often than not, when we stumble into a negative review, it’s because the owner asked us to play it (often emphatically and repeatedly). We’re like Beetlejuice, say our name enough times and we will show up.

Coming From A Place of Love

A dozen years into Room Escape Artist, the only way that this all works is if its coming from a place of love. Love for the games, the players, and the creators.

But the funny thing is that if you only ever say positive things, then your words slowly become meaningless. If we like everything then our reviews are meaningless. And if we only highlight positive trends, then we are ignoring critical information.

We have a vast network of players and owners within our Patreon community that help us keep our finger on the pulse of the escape room movement, not just within our region, but all over the world. It’s an incredible group of people, and we could not do the work that we do without their knowledge, support, and funding.

Special shout out to those who joined this month: Emilio Garofalo Neto, Leslie Chong, Heather Logas, Matt S., Mitchell Otis, Mike Hamel, Natalie, Sam Sharpe, Brandy Agerbeck, and Stims24

To those of you reading who have the means, we hope you’ll consider joining this wonderful group of supporters.

Support Room Escape Artist’s Mission

There are lots of ways to support Room Escape Artist, like buying from Amazon or Etsy after clicking into the links included in this post or backing us on Patreon.

The money that we make from these helps us to grow the site and continue to add more value to the community that we love so much.

The post This Post Isn’t About You appeared first on Room Escape Artist.

2/21/26 Update

What just happened?

A quick update on what is happening in tariffs news. You might have seen some headlines on Friday, Feb. 26 saying that the Supreme Court struck down the President’s tariffs. You may have then seen a flurry of follow up news that the President announced he was imposing a 10% global tariff and then 15%. This continues to be a rapidly changing situation, and no one really knows where it’s all going. 

If you’re interested in additional background:

Exactly what is going on here gets into the nitty gritty of mechanisms for how the President is able to impose tariffs. I’m going to do my best to explain this high level, but again the caveat that I am not a lawyer and that this is complex / confusing.

Under the Constitution (always a great way to start a sentence), Congress holds the power of the purse, which means that Congress gets to set taxes. Congress is allowed to delegate this responsibility to the Executive Branch (i.e. the branch of government that is run by the President), and it has done so over the many decades of America’s existence through a variety of different laws. The law that the President used to impose most of the tariffs that have been announced over the last year was the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA (pronounced like eye-eepa). The Supreme Court ruling was basically that IEEPA does not actually allow the President to impose tariffs, so this was unconstitutional, and it all needs to be unwound.

Note that I said that IEEPA was used to impose most of the tariffs over the last year. Not all of the tariffs that were imposed were through IEEPA, and this ruling does not affect those tariffs (this includes tariffs on steel and aluminum, lumber, and automobiles). The follow up announcements about the 10% tariffs, which have now been bumped to 15%, is using a law called Section 122, which allows the President to impose tariffs up to 15% for 150 days, after which Congress would need to allow for a further extension. Section 122 has never been used before, so no one knows exactly how this will play out.

The best we can do is keep our eyes on the news and continue to build a lot of flexibility into all of our planning.

Introduction by David Spira

In December 2024, I advised a private client in my consultancy to buy all of the hardware, and then some, that we were going to need for an upcoming build, even though we didn’t yet know precisely what components were required. This recommendation ended up saving my client a ton of time and money.

Since then, my inbox has filled with stories from the owners and makers of escape rooms and immersive games telling me about shipping delays, extreme price spikes, and in some cases, an inability to purchase necessary components.

As these stories came in, Jacky Chang pitched me on blending her background in public policy and love of escape rooms to help investigate the places where escape rooms and politics collide, usually to the detriment of escape rooms (and small businesses in general.) The individual operators within our industry are not big enough to pay to play, but that doesn’t mean that our community isn’t affected by choices made in Washington.

This is Jacky’s first piece with Room Escape Artist, and it comes with a trigger warning: politics. The politics of Room Escape Artist are not about our individual personal politics, but the issues that encourage or discourage the growth, viability, or safety of escape rooms. Today we’re exploring tariffs; tomorrow, we may be digging into credit card policy and chargebacks.

Along the way, we ask that you check your partisanship at the door and join us as we explore specific issues. You won’t find the R-word, D-word, or T-word in this piece. Reasonable people can disagree, and we ask that you approach this as a reasonable person… even in 2026.

Tariffs are a fundamental issue for American escape room operators who are building new games or maintaining old ones. The goal of this piece is to help you understand how changes in tariff policy impact business.

Analysis by Jacky Chang

If you’re anything like me, recently you’ve been having a hard time figuring out what you can buy online, when it will get to you, and how much it’s going to cost. You might have seen various banners on websites recently declaring things like “tariffs included,” “duties not included,” “shipping to the U.S. resumed,” or “shipping to the U.S. suspended.” These banners might be changing week to week, and you’re trying to figure out if you can just wait this out, or terrified that things you need are going to suddenly spike in price. In this post, I’m going to do my best to explain what a tariff is, what is going on with tariffs, and what you, as a person who buys things online but has never thought about what country they come from before, can do to keep track of what’s going on and figure out what you should do.

Disclaimers

Before we dig into tariffs in depth, I want to add an upfront disclaimer that the language in this section is necessarily going to be somewhat academic and legalistic. This is because there unfortunately isn’t a way to explain this in regular language that doesn’t miss nuance/ possibly lead you astray, which will become quickly apparent as we go through this. Apologies for this, but also I did not create this world, we all just live here.

I will also be citing a number of cases and studies but will not be diving into their details. Links with more information will be in the footnotes in case you really hate yourself or can’t get to sleep tonight.

It’s also worth noting that current tariff policy is a constantly moving target, which as you’ll see, is part of the problem.

Lastly, I am neither a lawyer nor an economist. I am just a person who enjoys helping people understand complicated things that impact their lives.

We’re going to have to start off now with some definitions.

What are tariffs?

Let’s start with the basics. Tariffs are taxes imposed on foreign-made goods paid to the government of the home country of the importer. For the sake of this post, we’re going to focus on the United States as the home country, as the details of tariffs change significantly depending on what home country you’re discussing.

Tariffs only matter for “foreign-made” goods, and the tariffs themselves vary depending on both an item’s “country of origin” and product category. For example, as of the date of writing (Jan. 29, 2026), all aluminum, steel, and derivative goods imported from the UK have a 25% tariff applied to them, although there’s an agreement in place to lower this at some point.¹ The baseline tariff with China is fluctuating and depends on the good, but according to one source as of November 2025 appears to be an average of 47.5% across all goods.²

Country of origin

So how do you determine what an item’s “country of origin” is? United States law does not define the country of origin as “where the item was shipped from,” “where its parts come from,” or even “where it was manufactured.” The law instead defines “country of origin” as the last country where “substantial transformation” occurred, and “substantial transformation” is defined as “the good underwent a fundamental change in form, appearance, nature, or character.” This test goes back to a Supreme Court decision from 1908 involving corks.³

If this seems like a weirdly philosophical definition that is not clear, intuitive, nor predictable, you are not alone. Many years of legal battles have helped spell out some of what this means, and some of these examples are useful in showing how messy this can be.⁴ For each of the below, does this count as a substantial transformation?

De minimis exception

Alright, if you’ve gotten through all of that, you’re probably asking yourself, “OK, so this has been going on for a long time. The US has been leveraging tariffs and using this totally deranged definition of country of origin for over a hundred years. Why has this suddenly made my life so much harder?” The answer to this question relies on one last (I promise!) definition: the de minimis exception.

The de minimis exception was introduced in 1938 and means that imports under some value (previously $800) are not tariffed, because it’s not worth actually collecting them. For example, if a shipment is worth $50 and has a 10% tariff of $5, the actual cost of inspecting that shipment and collecting that money probably costs the government more than the $5 gained, and it slows down the whole shipping process. One practical side effect of the de minimis exception was that while large companies and importers would have teams, lawyers, and contractors dedicated to navigating their global supply chain, small businesses and individuals were largely unconcerned with the issue because nothing we bought exceeded the threshold. Prior to August 29, 2025, 92% of all shipments into the United States, around 4 million packages daily,  were valued under $800.

In July, Congress passed H.R. 1,⁸ which, among other things, repealed the de minimis exception starting in 2027, and at the end of July, the President signed an Executive Order fast-tracking that repeal and ending the exception starting midnight August 29.⁹

What’s happening

Actually implementing the repeal of the de minimis exception has created new responsibilities for everyone in your supply chain that previously didn’t exist. Before repealing the de minimis, the world was basically split into (1) people who care about tariffs and have huge teams to deal with them, and (2) everyone else who was blissfully unaware.¹⁰

The sender is now responsible for figuring out what tariffs need to be paid on the items they’re sending and deciding if they will pay those tariffs, or ask the receiver to pay those tariffs on delivery. This process includes (1) determining an item’s product classification using the United States Harmonized Tariff Schedule (which is a waking nightmare, go look for yourself)¹¹, (2) determining an item’s country of origin to figure out what the applicable tariff is (which we have already established is confusing at best), and then (3) filling out the specific paperwork necessary to declare the items properly. 

Once that’s done, the sender will need to take the package to a carrier (e.g. DHL, the national postal service, etc), who is now responsible for collecting the appropriate tariffs and paying them to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol during the clearance process for the package. For the initial six months after the Executive Order went into effect, carriers are allowed to either (1) collect the appropriate tariff calculated based on the item’s product classification and country of origin, or (2) collect $80, $150, or $200 per item depending on the item’s country of origin. This is nominally to ease the transition process. It has in truth resulted in confusion and concern from senders who do not know how much they will be charged by carriers before they bring their packages in, and buyers who are concerned they will be hit with huge bills when receiving their purchases.

Once packages arrive in the U.S., Customs and Border Patrol must now inspect the over 4 million packages a day that arrive in the U.S. that previously were not subject to tariffs, verify the packages’ paperwork, and receive the collected money from the carrier. It will not surprise you to hear that it appears that they have neither the personnel nor the technology to accomplish this new mission.

The person receiving the package (probably you!) will have to wait longer for the package to arrive, since it needs to go through customs. If the sender sent the package without paying the tariffs, it will be up to the receiver to pay those tariffs to the carrier on delivery of the package. The carrier will pre-pay those tariffs to Customs and Border Patrol to get the package through the border, and then collect those fees afterwards from the receiver. They will probably also add a fee of some sort onto the tariffs to cover the financial risk they take on from that process because if the receiver refuses the package and will not pay the fee, the carrier cannot receive a refund on the tariffs they already paid from the government. If they do then try to return the package to the original sender, they may request that the sender reimburse them for the fees they paid to the U.S. government before they return the package. I have seen at least one story of a sender being unable to pay the surprise thousands of dollars fee for returned merchandise, and the items being disposed of by the carrier.

OK, so that’s a lot of change. As noted at the beginning of this post (we’re finally back!), you’ve probably seen a lot of banners on websites saying they can’t ship to the U.S. anymore, or you’ve ordered something and now the tracking status says it’s “stuck in customs,” or sometimes you just have no idea what’s going on. So what’s going on?

Initially, a lot of international postal services suspended shipping to the U.S. while they figured out how to handle these new requirements. Many of them have since resumed shipping, although I couldn’t find a comprehensive list of who is and isn’t. This is probably because the situation continues to change pretty quickly. There’s also been a slow down at the border of packages making it through customs. Carriers’ tracking systems may not take into account these changes, which makes it harder to get information from them about where a package is. 

Packages that are not cleared by customs will likely be destroyed by the carrier. UPS has reported that they have so many packages in their warehouses that they cannot store all of them, and have had to begin destroying them¹². Before the removal of the de minimis exception, the packages would often be returned to the sender, but with the current system being overwhelmed, that does not seem to be possible anymore.

So what’s a small business (or individual) to do?

Regardless of your politics or policy beliefs around tariffs, one thing is always true (and commonly missed by politicians): implementation is policy, and implementation is best when it’s easy to understand and follow.

The rollout of tariffs over the past year has been confusing and unpredictable, and the burden of that confusion has unfairly fallen on individuals and small businesses. When tariffs are placed on foreign goods that don’t have domestic producers, people are left with no choice but to pay the inflated prices or go without. Whatever the goal on the policy level really is, the true impact has been counterproductive and unsustainable.

And meanwhile, while policymakers, politicians, and pundits (oh my!) debate the value of tariffs and try to make them real or not, what should you as a random person who buys things on the internet do?

First and foremost, you’ll need to start paying attention to where the things you want and need are coming from, and you should expect it to be harder to get things that are not made in the U.S. By harder, I specifically mean “more expensive” and “take longer.” You’ll need to plan ahead, be more flexible, and if you really need it, consider stockpiling.  This is true even if you’re buying from a U.S. store, since their merchandise will also start to cost more and they’ll probably pass those costs on to you as the buyer. Many businesses that depend on goods that are made abroad stockpiled as much as possible before the tariffs kicked in, but those places have sold through a lot of that stockpiled inventory. This means that even things you might have managed to get easily recently may still go up in price or suddenly become more scarce.

If you run a small business (like an escape room!) that depends on things that are made abroad (LEDs? Random bits of hardware? Lumber?), you’ll want to build as much flexibility into your project plans, supply chains, and budgets as possible. If you really need an item quickly, sometimes paying extra for shipping can help you get it faster, because companies like DHL have historically dealt with the small number of individual packages that did exceed the de minimis threshold and thus have teams and systems in place for handling tariffs. If that small business you run sells goods, you should be ready to communicate potential delays to your customers and expect that your customer base will shift (more American and less international), thanks to retaliatory tariffs that many countries have placed on American goods. Maybe there’s even an opportunity for supplying goods that people previously bought from foreign companies (silver lining, anyone?)!

You’ll also want to do your best to understand what the product categories and their associated tariffs are for the things you buy. There are reports of Custom and Border Patrol agents giving wildly varying tariff estimates for the same shipment.¹³ A small business owner in the UK told me that they’ve had clients have to challenge the tariffs classifications of their orders (turns out copper and brass are not the same thing and do not have the same tariff!).

Right now, the tariff situation is changing rapidly, including the possibility of the Supreme Court deciding the current set of tariffs are unconstitutional and the government somehow refunding all of the money that’s been collected (although probably not to you and me, individual buyers). Even if that happens though, there are many tariffs that won’t be struck down, and more may be imposed. The best place to find information on the practical impact of tariffs will be on the websites of carriers like DHL, UPS, and FedEx, or for marketplaces like eBay or Etsy. There are also some trackers that are looking at the larger swings in tariff policy, including across litigation, government activity, and so on, but those will generally be more politically oriented. If you want to get really nerdy about the broader economic impact of the tariffs, I recommend looking at the Yale Budget Lab’s reports. (Full disclosure: I’m friends with their Executive Director. Also a huge fangirl.) If you want an eye-watering set of graphics on how complex this is, the Cato Institute has also been writing on this and has a 2025 year end summary that also talks about the overall impact on U.S. businesses of the tariffs: Welcome to Tariff Complexity Hell.

The one thing that pretty much everyone agrees on is that tariffs are here to stay, and the uncertainty isn’t going away anytime soon. So stay informed and be prepared for the long haul, because things are going to keep changing and that’s not going to stop any time soon.

If you choose to leave a comment on this piece or on social media, work-in the word “time” to show that you read the whole piece.

1. House of Commons Library: US trade tariffs ︎
2. Peterson Institute for International Economics: US-China Trade War Tariffs: An Up-to-Date Chart ︎
3. CourtListener: Anheuser-Busch Brewing Ass’n v. United States. Because I am a child, I did giggle at “ass’n”. Also, wow, has Anheuser-Busch in its various legal forms been involved in a lot of lawsuits. ︎
4. For more details and if you want the satisfaction of listening to other people lose their minds about this, I relied heavily on the Planet Money episode “What ‘Made in China’ actually means” as a resource. ︎
5. CourtListener: United States v. Gibson-Thomsen Co. ︎
6. CourtListener: Uniroyal, Inc. v. United States ︎
7. U.S. Customs and Border Protection: Country of origin of Sticky Notes ︎
8. Wikipedia: One Big Beautiful Bill Act ︎
9. White House: Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries ︎
10. And 3, trivia nerds who love facts like action figures being legally distinct from dolls for tariff reasons, and courts ruling that the X-Men are in fact “nonhuman.” ︎
11.  https://hts.usitc.gov/. This is one of the wildest documents I have ever seen, and I sometimes read legislation for fun. There’s a training module to help you figure out how to use it, and it takes a cheery tone, but this is clearly not designed for a normal human to navigate. ︎
12. UPS is ‘disposing of’ U.S.-bound packages over customs paperwork problems ︎
13. https://x.com/scottlincicome/status/1965860701303705689 ︎

The post US Tariffs, Escape Rooms, & You appeared first on Room Escape Artist.

This has been a mantra of tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, better known as MKBHD, for many years. I’ve long agreed with the statement. If the tech doesn’t do what you need it to on the day that you purchased it, I wouldn’t bet on it suddenly meeting your needs later on, regardless of what the company behind it claims.

Over the past few years, I have found myself preaching an escape room equivalent:

“Never. Ever. Plan an escape room trip on the promise of a new game opening.”

Picking A Destination

If you’re planning a trip specifically to play escape rooms, you should plan it based on the games that you can book at the moment that you’re scheduling the travel.

If a company has promised an opening date, it’s not enough. It just isn’t. When it comes to launching games, escape room owners earnestly lie to themselves… but this can make them inadvertently lie to their customers.

You can believe that a new escape game is open when it’s open.

No Shade

I know that this reads like I am being mean. I’m really just trying to be honest and help everyone involved reduce stress and anger.

More often than not, when an escape room owner is wrong about when a game is opening, it’s because they are struggling. Building great things is hard, and creating one-of-a-kind experiences comes with a huge mess of variables that make timelines extremely difficult to project.

Often when an owner is declaring a future open date it is driven by a desperate business or personal need:

• “We need to hit this open date because it’s right before our busy season, and if we miss it, then we forgo a ton of revenue.”
• “We need to hit this open date because I am losing my %^&*ing mind. I cannot work on this $#!^ anymore. I just need it to open so that I can exhale and stop bleeding money and time.”

The brutal truth is that neither of these needs can force a positive outcome.

Set Yourself Up For Success

The best that you can do to make sure that you have a great trip is to design your journey based on games that exist right now.

This is a subject that has come up a few times over the past year in our wonderful Patreon Discord chat community. I won’t name names about the games that prompted the discussion, but rest assured, there are some exciting experiences likely coming in 2026. However, I’ve been around long enough to know that we should all be patient. Great things often take more time than their creators wish they would.

Special shout out to those who joined this month: David Rowan, Lo Co, Michael Swift, Jeremiah Sizemore, AJ Webster, Amy Schneider, Anjali Nath, Riddlehaven, Cath, Jonathan Cruz, Roger at Key To Escape, Anssi Tähtinen, Josh Russek, Chris Bittle, Brandi Miller, Katie Kasplode, and Emily Z. Jillette

To those of you reading who have the means, we hope you’ll consider joining this wonderful group of supporters.

Support Room Escape Artist’s Mission

There are lots of ways to support Room Escape Artist, like buying from Amazon or Etsy after clicking into the links included in this post or backing us on Patreon.

The money that we make from these helps us to grow the site and continue to add more value to the community that we love so much.

The post Never. Ever. Plan an escape room trip on the promise of a new game opening. appeared first on Room Escape Artist.

This award celebrates taking action to make the escape room world more vibrant, but the categories of the awards will vary from year to year.

The 2026 winners are being honored for:

• Sustained Iteration
• Format Risks
• Community Engagement
• Inspiration to Action

Each of the winners has made something special.

In this awards video, we speak about each winner and their work. Rather than capture the feelings expressed during the award ceremony with a few short sentences here, we hope you’ll listen to the show and appreciate what each winner has made.

REAction Award 2026 Winners

Sustained Iteration

Winner: Prison Escape

We are celebrating Prison Escape for the transformation they’ve demonstrated since 2018. They’ve iterated both creatively and on the business model. The improvement is enormous.

Format Risks

There are two winners in this category, both established companies who went out on a limb with an unusual idea, a temporary space, and an inexpensive build.

Winner: The ENDings

We are celebrating The ENDings, Strange Bird Immersive’s project that took advantage of a found space and dared to be completely different from any of their previous work, testing new frameworks including a scrappily clever approach to replayability.

Winner: Into the DarkVerse

We are celebrating Into the DarkVerse, DarkPark’s pivot to keep their business afloat, originally a temporary installation, in a new format, that had the staying power to reinvigorate their business creatively and financially.

Community Engagement

Winner: Nazotoki Market

We are celebrating the Nazotoki Market, a community festival in Tokyo sponsored by SCRAP that brought together over 70 different Japanese puzzle companies, showcasing and celebrating creators small and large.

Inspiration to Action

Winner: Lucid Labs

We are celebrating Lucid Labs, a passion project created by escape room fans. While so many enthusiasts dream of the game they’d make, at Lucid Labs, they brought their idea to life.

This experience is no longer running, but you can learn more here and you can see more from this team in 2026 at EMF camp.

Congratulations to the 2026 REAction Award Winners!

This is the second year we’ve given out this award. Read about the 2025 winners here.

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