Escaperoom (more Like Breaking and Entering) Dollhouse.

This is a escape room/ break in dollhouse.

The point is to get the code to the lock on the attic and open for a little prize( I had dinosaurs and lollipops)

At school (as a first year master student in interaction design) we were given the task to make something for a maker festival with the key word for our task being "Wonder". I wanted to make something based on escape rooms, that could be fun for both parent/adults and children, and that would be fun to just play around with even if it wasn't solved. Dollhouses have also always fascinated me, with kids being able to make up different worlds and stories surrounding a single little building with some dolls or characters. It was also magical how some could light up. (mine was supposed to but the lights short-circuited the second I had installed them so that didn´t happen.)

Tools:

-lasercutter ( but I think it would be possible with a saw and measurements by a hand)

-scissors

-snap off blade knife

-hot glue

-scotch universal gel glue

-zipties

-wire

-paintbrushes

-sponge for painting

Materials:

-3mm wooden plates

-velvet ribbon

-acrylic paint

-leaf gold

-airdry clay

I used this file as a basis for the puzzle in the basement/garage/cellar:

https://www.etsy.com/no-en/listing/1402606889/slide-picture-puzzle-box-plans-svg-dxf?transaction_id=4770671990&dd_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.etsy.com%2Fno-en%2Fyour%2Forders%2F3829722079%2Fdownloads%3Fref%3Dview_receipt

and the maker case website as a basis for the house to get a more stable interlocking pattern to make it a bit more stable than wood and glue:

https://www.makercase.com/basicBox

I started from wanting to have some kind of puzzle that would double as a lock, but that would also be easy enough for people of all ages to solve. and ended up finding the file for the sliding puzzle box.

I then made a rough model of how I wanted the house to look in cardboard, although this step is optional as it was just my creative process to find how I wanted it to look.

I wanted the puzzle to be a bit hard to access to add a bit of difficulty to the simplicity of the sliding puzzle.

and for it to feel a little bit like a Russian nesting doll, or the typical box in a box in a box. which would also optimise the space I could use in such a small build.

I first tested a mechanism of sliding panels, but later ended up with easily removable door panels.

I´m making this instructables post more as an inspiration for others than an exact guide for how to make it, as I've made so many small adjustments that I haven't saved, and gotten so caught up in the process that I haven't recorded the whole process.

The escaperoom works in dsfjsuhfiueif parts

Firstly the whole house is closed with a red ribbon, and the attic is locked with a red code lock. The colour choice was unintentional to begin with, but ended up tying the experience together, because without meaning to I ended up only using the colour red for the interactable parts.

And I ended up painting it as a bit of an abandoned / haunted house, both for the mystery and autumn aesthetic as well as for my own convenience with everything not having to be as precise to make it look more abandoned.

After opening the doors, you are met with the living room. As you can see I have placed a small bit of ribbon as well as the painting of a weird pattern in the middle of the floor. This pattern corresponds to the puzzle in the basement which I will get back to later. In the final version I had furnished this room with a few tiny air dry clay ghosts to add to the abandoned house / haunted house aesthetic. I also had some small bits of wood for a fireplace and an elecrical box that I intended to use for the lighting which ended up short circuiting on me on the day of, so It was just an empty box. as well as a miniature Persian rug to cover the ribbon a bit. I left a corner of the ribbon out of the corner to invite the person(s) using the house to move things around and start looking for things and touching the house.

after pulling the ribbon the living room floor is pulled up to reveal the "electricals and plumbing" under the floor, as well as the two ribboned panels/ doors of the basement now being possible to move out of the house for access to the basement.

The "doors" were held in place by the electrical floor, as well as a small stick in the basement floor keeping it from sliding and being possible to push into the basement to keep it from opening before accessing the electrical floor.

The whole living room floor is possible to take completely out of the house and out of the way along with the furniture. here I was thinking that people would have to reach into the house from each side, but since I also had a ribboned edge on the electrical floor as well as not having glued it down in any way, people started lifting this floor as well after a few run throughs of the "game"

This wasn't what I intended, but since my lighting short circuited and I wanted the house/ puzzle to have a bit of a box in box / Russian nesting doll feel to it, this just ended up adding to that feeling, and the extra visibility especially with the missing lighting.

After opening the electrical floor, which despite being connected so some lighting string was possible to take out as well. you see the basement with a small windup car just for fun, because this was supposed to be a fun experience even just moving through the story of the house kind of. You also find the sliding puzzle. In the pictures here it is solved, but I would scramble it between setups for each person. people would be welcome to try and solve it, but the solution was also, as I stated earlier, painted on the living room floor.

When solved the sliding puzzle is possible to take out, working as a lock to the lower floor, where you are met with a black floor. This was placed here mostly because the middle of the puzzle would bend a bit downwards since the middle four squares are only supported by other square tiles nearby. I solved this problem by just adding a little shelf with a sliding panel under it for support in the puzzle, which also added to the nesting doll vibes, and a little extra thing to figure out.

After sliding the floor away you were met with a last little ghost laying in the basement. I had painted him holding the code lock with the symbol for pi on his back to indicate this being the code for the lock as well as a last step to figure out. I also at one point thought of putting red and blue 3d glasses and painting graffiti on the outside to take you outside again one last time to fint the code in the graffiti, but I might do that if I make another one sometime.

After figuring out the code is pi: 314 you can open the attic where I had some small dinosaurs and lollipops as a prize for solving the box. This was just put together with some strips holding the roof as hinges in one end and the lock holding it through the roof, floor and a conveniently placed window in the other end.