Dot Sa'w Out

Award-winning Sci-Fi escape room

with RPG-inspired resource management.

Game Design

Escape Room

Sci-Fi

Idea

The gameplay draws inspiration from role-playing games, where each player assumes a specific role with unique abilities and powers, combined with resource management. Set in 2090, after a meteorite catastrophe destroyed the eastern half of Earth. Players are NASA agents investigating a mysterious signal, managing four key resources: Time, Energy, Speed, and Gravity.

Gameplay Design

Designed 6 unique player abilities (TAPs), 4 distinct missions, and 28 riddles for a 2.5-3 hour experience. Each mission is tailored for specific ability combinations. Players use abilities strategically — the Stop Watch freezes time, the Guard provides immunity against Time Guardians, and the Clone duplicates abilities. The narrative culminates in a plot twist where players discover they caused the catastrophe themselves.

Diamond Award for best escape room in Iran. 6,000 players in one year. 1.2B Rials revenue.

Credits

Closing Thoughts

Designing 28 riddles that connect narrative, mechanics, and physical challenges for a 2.5-3 hour experience was the biggest challenge. Each riddle needed a problem statement, clue system, and story connection. The RPG ability system created emergent gameplay where different teams found completely different strategies to complete the same missions.

team

Role

Lead Game Designer

Team

EscapeTalk

Awards

Diamond Award, 3 Festival Prizes

Genre

Sci-Fi / RPG