SWAMPSCOTT — The library will be challenging families and community members of every age group to try and conquer its new escape room completely free of charge. This fun initiative is spearheaded by Library Director Jonathan Nichols.
Nichols explained that the endeavor is a labor of love.
“I love puzzles and games in general, and I actually did my first escape room many years ago, and I’ve always wanted to do one for the library — but those are usually more technology involved, and I wanted something more accessible, so I built my own,” Nichols said.
He explained how the upstairs meeting room was transformed into the escape room — decorated to resemble a witch’s cottage — which will be open to community members from Oct. 27-29.
He added that he constructs every puzzle included in the escape room from scratch, a process that can ultimately take up to a month to complete the whole project. He noted he had to find slots of free time during his duties as library director to transform the third floor meeting room into the escape room.
Nichols continued, explaining that the theme of this year’s escape room is “Magical Mayhem” — a blend of witchcraft and spookiness — with varying levels of intensity depending on the age of the group that’s participating.
“If it’s a family, a witch has cursed you, and you’ll turn into a frog unless you brew the antidote in time. If it’s for the adults that are playing, if you don’t brew the antidote, you ‘die,’” Nichols explained. “It has higher stakes, but I don’t want to scare children; it’s not meant to be scary… It’s more like ‘spooky.’”
Before the party of “intrepid adventurers” tackle the challenges of the escape room, Nichols gives a brief speech that explains the situation, stating that the group has stumbled upon a witch’s cottage, where the participants have found themselves “cursed.”
He clarified that there are no jump-scares. Instead, participants are “solving puzzles in a dark room” and “trying to work together as a team.”
With groups of 10 people at a time, another element mixed into the endeavor is the chance to make new friends during the process.
“You may not know all the people in your group, but that’s fine… You have to find a way to work together because there’s no way you can solve it alone,” he said. “There’s too many puzzles to solve (for one person).”
Nichols noted the community’s response to the event in previous years contributed to the escape room’s return.
“After the first year — which I don’t think people knew how fun it would be — people asked me every year since, ‘When’s the next one?’”
He added that it’s a chance for the community to come together and explore the fun challenges that the library has in store for potential participants.
“I come in with low expectations, and I’ll be blown away. I’m very proud of the puzzles that I build, and (I) also have the staff play through the room to make sure it’s not too hard… It’s just a lot of fun,” he said.
