Brand New Virtual Reality Arcade at Lock Chicago

Hello!

We missed you all and figured it was time to catch up since the last post back in September when we opened our 3rd escape room, "Matsuri". We're excited to announce that since then we've recently opened our state of the art Virtual Reality Arcade at Lock Chicago in Evanston. 

Equipped with 2 HTC Vive headsets and a spacious play area, guests can compete in head to head challenges or fight cooperatively against hordes of robotic aliens or zombies! We have dozens of unique games and experiences including hits such as Beat Saber, Rick and Morty's VR Experience, Arizona Sunshine, and more.

Pricing is $20/person for the hour and you can bring up to 8 total guests. With multiple 50'' flat screen televisions see what they see and immerse yourselves in the experience. Come check us out and see what all the hype is about! 

Cheers,

Brian, Bane, and Alex - Lock Chicago

Escape Room #3 - "Matsuri" Opening October 14th!

Hello Again!

It's been a busy couple months but we're excited to finally announce the arrival of our 3rd Escape Room, "Matsuri"!

The village of Matsuri is on the verge of peace. The rival gangs that run the village have decided to end their decades-long-conflict by celebrating with a fireworks festival, and your company, Hanabi, will be providing the fireworks.

However, the grand finale has been stolen by the village thief and taken to their hideout! Luckily everyone knows where that is because that kind of goes with the gig when everyone knows you're the village thief. But without the grand finale, the rival gangs will accuse each other of sabotage and the warring will continue.

You'll have to use your brain and teamwork to solve the traps in the hideout of the thief and recover the fireworks. The village of Matsuri depends on you!

Matsuri opens on October 14th but we will be doing testing throughout October prior to the official release. For those of you who have been in contact with us over the past few months we'll be reaching out and sending you your invitation soon but if you're interested send us an email at info@lockedchicago.com and we'll see if we have any slots available! 

Happy Escaping!

Lock Chicago

Finally Moved! Lock Chicago's New Escape Room Facilities

Hello Again!

We know it's been a few months since our last post and it's been a crazy 60 days as we've fully transitioned out of our original location and onto our new facilities at 820 Davis Street, Suite 151 in Evanston. Have no fear as we're still literally one block away from our prior location just with some new upgrades.

We have an additional 2,400 square feet to work with for a total of 4,000 with 2 new escape rooms coming by the end of 2017! We have added some new features to our existing "Sunburn" and "Malfunction" escape rooms and increased the capacity to 10 players each for "Private Rooms". They will still remain 8 players each for the "Public Room" function.

Feel free to stop by at our new spot to chat or take a sneak peek at our upcoming escape room concepts as we look to build on our new Lock Chicago location!

Best Regards,

Brian, Bane, and Alex - Lock Chicago

Lock Chicago's New Escape Room Location!

Hello Again!

Our team at Lock Chicago is excited to announce we're moving to a brand new location (still in Evanston don't worry!) to 820 Davis Street. This facility will be close to 4,000 square feet and triple the size of our existing space.

This will allow us to add 3 additional escape rooms and enhance our existing rooms even further to provide the best possible experience for our guests. We're delighted to be able to leverage our new innovative technology in our 3rd upcoming room which will launch in July! More details to come in a following post :)

Stay tuned as we will be passing out some hot new deals and promotions on our new room!

Cheers,

Lock Chicago

Lock Chicago and the Escape Room Festival Season!

Hello Again!

Today we're going to talk about Escape Rooms and the unique opportunity they bring to different street festivals, concerts, and outdoor events throughout the community and city. While escape rooms initially started out as designs built specifically for in-house locations the industry and experience has grown so much beyond that point. Larger companies and brands such as Zelda, Resident Evil, Ford, and more are crafting unique mobile experiences that they can take from city to city that not only promote an upcoming event but drive awareness for the unique experiences of an escape room.

Us at Lock Chicago are no different as we initially began our foray into mobile games with our partnership with Northwestern University's "Dillo Day" student-run music festival. We set up a 30 minute mobile escape room on the festival grounds back in 2016 and we look to ramp that up even further in 2017. 

The nice thing about being able to create an experience on the go is that you can take it virtually anywhere. As Spring and Summer inches closer keep an eye out for all the local community festivals in the area. Evanston has an abundant amount in their downtown area which makes a perfect opportunity for you to contribute and drive awareness of your own escape rooms brand in a fun and innovative way.

Just make sure you're prepared for any weather situation as that can put a damper on the outdoor escape room experience as well as durable props (us at Lock Chicago learned that the hard way).

In any case best of luck as we get through this seemingly mild winter and onwards towards warmer weather!

Cheers,

Lock Chicago

Now Hiring Escape Room Game Masters/Operations Manager at Lock Chicago!

Game Master 
Lock Chicago Escape Games – Evanston, IL 60610 
$10 an hour - Part-time

Do you want the coolest job you've ever had? We are currently looking to add multiple part-time team members to our Lock Chicago team at Lock Chicago - Escape Games.

We are a rapidly growing, team-building, design consulting and retail entertainment company. We are looking for someone with wide ranging talents to work in conjunction with our current Operations Manager and learn the business as we expand to our new location in the coming months.

The positions we are looking to fill will be titled "Game Master". To be considered please submit a resume with the subject of "Game Master Application" to info@lockedchicago.com.

Game Master:

• This is a unique and one-of-a-kind job! You will educate our guests on how it all works. You will inform them of their objectives while in the room. You will work in a control room and coach the guests while on their journey to escape! You will be their guide when they stumble and offer them hints if needed. You will then prepare the Escape Room for the next group of guests.
• You must be fun and enthusiastic as you are a big part of the whole guest experience from beginning to end.
• Prior to applying to this position you must first familiarize yourself with the concept of Escape Rooms and the worldwide phenomenon that is spreading fast across the US. Escape Rooms stimulate the mind, your sense of curiosity and your ability to work with others in an effort to escape.
• Please visit our website at www.lockedchicago.com to learn more.
• If on one hand you like video games, playing chess, and solving puzzles/riddles, while on the other hand you like designing, building and/or fixing things, you have found the perfect job!

This job requires you to be:

• Remotely view and monitor games in progress and assist participants
• Customer Service focused
• Professional, polished and well-spoken
• Hands-on and handy with tools and gadgets
• Game or puzzle-minded
• Creative thinker
• Flexible with regards to work schedule

This job requires the following experience:

• Retail, amusement or hospitality experience.
• Comfortable engaging with both small and large groups of people.
• Public Speaking experiences a plus!
• We'll teach you the rest!

Escape Rooms: Where Are They? (Not Just Lock Chicago!)

Hello Again!

We wanted to follow up our last post to highlight a growing trend in the Escape Room Industry. When we began in Evanston back in January we were 1 of 15 companies in Illinois operating some form of an escape room. Just under 10 months later we are now 1 of 40 companies.

Escape Rooms are growing at an extremely rapid rate which is great for the industry as it continues to spread the word and increase exposure for this exciting and fun activity. More mainstream outlets are getting on board as well as we see hit television shows such as "The Big Bang Theory" and more highlighting Escape Rooms on their broadcast.

Disney recently announced a new "Guardians of the Galaxy" themed Escape Room in their park. The success of rooms throughout the country will undoubtedly spur an increase for larger outlets to capitalize on the success. 

To us at Lock Chicago this is great news because it continues to challenge us and other Escape Rooms to create the best possible experience for the most important person, our guests. If you're looking for nearby escape rooms feel free to visit the popular website: http://escaperoomdirectory.com/ which has a large index of rooms across the world!

Until next time take care and happy escaping!

Cheers,

Brian, Bane, and Alex