Escape: The Final Countdown, ACC partner on college escape room experience

BRANDON, Man. (March 21, 2018)— Puzzle-lovers and investigative minds in the Westman region can now channel their inner Sherlock Homes or Nancy Drew to solve the mystery of a long-forgotten college romance.

Assiniboine Community College and Escape: The Final Countdown have partnered to bring the province’s first post-secondary escape room experience to the public.

“Even though we design all of our full-hour and portable escape rooms ourselves right here in house, we have never been challenged with designing one like this,” said Michelle Budiwski, owner of Escape: The Final Countdown.

Groups of six to 12 players have only 60 minutes to solve the mystery inside the storyline of their first-day orientation at college. The task at hand? Players must unlock a series of challenges to uncover the identity of their father, an Assiniboine alumnus.

Creative thinking, problem solving and communication are all put to the test in this entertaining, light-hearted storyline.

“As a college, we’re always looking for new, creative ways to be out in the communities we serve and celebrating students and graduates, all while having a lot of fun,” said Danielle Adriaansen, director of public affairs at Assiniboine. “We had a terrific time working with Michelle and her hardworking team as they took the lead writing the storyline from start to finish and building the room.”

And true to the college’s ‘learn by doing’ mantra, a few students pitched in to help the Escape staff build the room, with Carpentry & Woodworking students painting the space and Piping Trades students constructing and installing one of the room’s puzzles.

“They have been amazing to work with and actually having things in the room that were built by current students as well as highlighting some of their actual alumni and our game itself is priceless!” said Budiwski.

The room was launched earlier this month and will be available for bookings over the coming months. Those interested in learning more or booking a group time to play can visit thefinalcountdown.ca.

As an added bonus to current Assiniboine students, they’ll receive $5 off the price of playing just by showing their student card