"Escape from the Tokushima"
Escape Experience

Concept Design, Game Design

The "Escape from the Tokushima" experience concept takes the popular format of the escape room and expands it into a larger participatory experience that immerses participants in a fully realized, fully functional, yet fictional space, with an explicit narrative in which they are active characters. The most successful escape rooms allow visitors to assume a level of role-playing in the scenario which outlines their objectives, and Tokushima raises that role-playing to an imperative: to "beat the game," players must embody characters in the story. They become archetypes from the sci-fi genre, and only by thinking as their characters are they able to solve the puzzles and work their way through the maze.

The linked PDF presents an overview and design plan for the overall concept, along with reference imagery, and discussions of general gameplay loops.

(c) 2024 Joseph Donovan