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| Everyone needs a bit of an escape. (Image courtesy The Cipher Room). |
Despite how it can feel, life shouldn’t be all
about vetting. So it’s always fantastic to learn that a colleague has a
non-vetty hobby or skill. Like David Vella. By day, David is a well-known
exotics veterinarian running Sydney Exotics and Rabbit Vets (SERV). But he also loves to escape. Literally. So David and equally escape-loving
partner, writer and website designer Marise Watson, have set up an escape room in Sydney.
As Marise explains, the Cipher Room is a real-life
puzzle solving adventure game. You and 2-5 others are locked in a room filled
with objects you can explore. You have 60 minutes to investigate, find clues,
solve puzzles and unravel the story so you can escape. It’s about immersing
yourself, using your brain and – if you’re really feeling it – dressing for the
occasion.
Marise is a puzzle/adventure game lover from way
back. Before she opened the Cipher Room, she spent over twelve months
researching – including a sabbatical in New York – developing puzzles,
designing graphics, making and acquiring props. David planned and built the
puzzles, proving he’s as handy with objects as he is with guinea pigs and
reptiles. We asked Marise and David a bit more about the Cipher room.
How did you come up with
the idea of developing the Cipher Room?
Marise has always loved puzzle adventure games and
we both like making things. We just started thinking of some game ideas and it
grew from there!
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| Image courtesy The Cipher Room. |
You
have to design puzzles that aren’t too easy to crack, but you’re attracting
people who enjoy solving puzzles. How do you do it?
There is a fine line between making something too
hard or too easy, and everyone thinks differently. We try to add a variety of
puzzle types and difficulty levels. Testing has really helped us here too.
This sounds like a hobby that turned into a full-blown project. David, as a vet, how important is it to have something non-vetty in your life?
Very important! I love building and things, so it's
been great to work with Marise on creating and designing puzzles and
props. There is also a satisfaction gained from seeing people coming in to our
game excited with the idea of challenging themselves while having fun at the
same time!
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| Image courtesy The Cipher Room. |
Marise, as a non-vet, how important is it to have a
non-vetty interest in your life?
My whole life is non-vetty (apart from David
of course)! But games have been a constant in my life, and it's nice to be
creating and designing my own now!
We tend to solve problems every day at work. Is it
important to solve problems in other contexts, and, if so, why?
We think it's great to exercise your brain while
having fun! A big appeal of escape rooms seems to be people working together,
having a shared gaming experience, and the thrill of opening a lock! We have
seen people leaving our games on a high, which is awesome!
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| Image courtesy The Cipher Room. |
Any advice you’d like to share with veterinarians and future veterinarians?
Come and play our game! Really hard to give advice
though, apart from try to find some balance with your working life and
what is on offer outside of this.
Thanks Marise and David. To visit the Cipher Room, book here.
Check out their facebook here, or follow on twitter or instagram. We're also interested to hear how others like to "escape". Drop us a line.
