Blazing Minds talks to Phil Harris, the designer behind the best escape room in the UK.
The Lanes in Brighton is a high-end shopping district filled with antique shops, art galleries and boutiques. On any given day of the week you might find people from all walks of life gazing longingly at the goods on display behind the windows. If you’re very lucky you might catch a glimpse of a priceless diamond guarded by high tech security. Not far from the Lanes is an entertainment complex called Pier Pressure and a man named Phil Harris who wants you to steal that diamond.
Phil is the managing director of Pier Pressure which houses four escape rooms, I had the chance to chat with him after one of them received the Enthusiasts Choice Award for best escape room in the UK. Phil explains how it came about, “The ranking we’ve gained isn’t something we actively entered. It’s done by a survey. In the world of escape rooms there’s a small but rapidly growing number of people who play fanatically, they’ll do at least one room every week. Everyone who did the survey has played at least 100 escape rooms, most of them over 250. There were about 24 games in the UK that made it to the finals and we were ranked number one which we are delighted with. It’s an absolutely amazing accolade, it feels really incredible that all the hard work we’ve put in has paid off and people think it’s worth playing.” The ranking wasn’t just for the UK though and the game in question, Loot the Lanes also placed 67th in the world, “That’s pretty damn good too!” admits Phil.
Every room at Pier Pressure is based on the local area, Phil elaborates on how Loot the Lanes embraces this theme, “The lanes themselves are the oldest part of Brighton. It was once all fisherman’s housing, basically really narrow, pedestrian-only streets. Nowadays it’s filled with expensive shops, jewellery and antiques. It’s a game we’ve wanted to do for a long time. We’ve built a full street and you get to go into different shops, the ultimate goal is to steal a diamond.” The pride in his voice is clear and you only need step onto the street to see the care and attention to detail. It’s not too surprising given Phil’s previous career.
“I set this business up with my wife, we played a few escape rooms a couple of years ago, absolutely loved them and it played into our backgrounds. I was an event manager, putting on big events in London and all over the world. So building the sets was something I was used to. My wife has a degree in psychology so the puzzles are all her.” I wondered how difficult as a designer it was to balance the puzzles and Phil was happy to shed some light, “One of the hardest bits is making sure it’s enjoyable for people who’ve done hundreds but still possible for an average member of the public on a stag do or a birthday party. One of the main ways [of balancing it] is our staff who host each game. They have to know when to drop a hint or give a nudge in the right direction. We want everyone to succeed and if we give the right push at the right time it should be possible.” The hosts, it turns out are a key element in every game, “Our games hosts are actors playing a character. They explain the back story, what’s going on in the world they are entering and what their mission objective is. If the players need a hint, they can call the hosts from a telephone box and ask for help.” Phil is quick to point out that from these phone boxes, the calls are free. It’s this level of immersion that Phil feels makes Pier Pressure’s games such a success, “I think one of the reasons we won the award was because of that. What we’re really good at is making an experience. You’re led by an actor down a road, it’s the closest thing you can get to being in a movie. You’re there in an amazing set, trying to work out how to break into a jewellers. It’s an exciting experience.”
Loot the Lanes is only one of the rooms and Phil is happy to tell us about the other adventures that await players, “Raver Quest is very unique, it’s set in a 90’s rave nightclub. It was probably the most fun to build, anything you can interact with in a nightclub is in there. It’s very interactive and there’s 90’s dance music playing so what’s not to love? Then there’s Modrophenia, loosely based on the movie Quadraphonia which was filmed in Brighton. Finally we have Pavillion Perplex which is set in the palace in Brighton. You’re trapped in the Pavillion in the Victorian era and you have to save it from destruction!”
Aside from designing escape rooms, Phil and his wife also enjoy board gaming. “We like the classics, Ticket to Ride, Catan. There’s a great party game called Snap Shot. We lost the instructions within a few minutes of opening the box and had to make up our own, it seems to work, we like it,” he laughs. Sometimes though, a quick game is not enough as Phil tells us, “We never get bored of Pandemic. Pandemic Legacy Season One was hands down the best board gaming experience I’ve ever had. We rented a cottage and played it all in a day and a half, we had snacks and drinks and it was bloody brilliant.”
As our conversation draws to a close, I ask Phil about his upcoming plans. “We’re 100% building a new room next year. The Volk’s Legacy. Magnus Volk was an inventor in Brighton and we’ll be theming a game around him with a steam punk vibe.” Of course I couldn’t resist asking if there was anything Phil hoped to achieve in the future if budget was no concern, “We’d love to do a mega escape room. At least three times the size and three times the length, I’m talking about taking over a whole building for a three hour experience. You can’t cut corners though and we wouldn’t want to disappoint anyone by rushing it. Maybe in five years time, watch this space.”
Considering he played his first escape room a mere couple of years ago and now has the number one game in the UK, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Phil’s dream drawing in the crowds in the near future.
For more information on Pier Pressure visit https://pierpressure.co.uk/
Jim King is a lifelong geek who enjoys talking about anything and everything out of the ordinary. He co-hosts a Star Trek podcast and is pretty good at Street Fighter 2.
