Meet Zesty!

Welcome to our brand new "Meet the Builders" series, where we delve into the creative minds behind some of the most remarkable community room designers in Escape Simulator. Kicking off our first edition, we introduce you to Zesty, also known as Paul from Canada. As the mastermind behind exceptional community-made rooms like "The Devilish Diorama" and "The Ominous Obelisk", Zesty has gained a reputation for his inventive designs and captivating gameplay. With a background in programming and a deep love for escape rooms, Zesty crafts immersive experiences that keep players enthralled. In this interview, he unveils his creative process, sources of inspiration, favorite creations, and valuable lessons picked up on his journey.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into playing Escape Simulator?

My username is Zesty, my real name is Paul, and I'm based in Canada. I'm a programmer by trade but also for fun. I was introduced by my friend to my first escape room back in 2016. I had played the classic online flash escape rooms like Crimson Room and Vermillion Room back in the day but I fell in love with playing them live. I started building escape rooms for fun out of a vacant room for my annual halloween party. My first one was pretty basic but for later rooms I started investing in micro-controllers, IR and NFC sensors, cameras, 3D printing props, and programming various display interfaces. My favourite part of running homebrew escape rooms was observing players from my "command center". The same friend who introduced me to my first escape room also introduced me to Escape Simulator in late 2020 and I've been playing with them since :)

What inspired you to start designing rooms in the game?

I wanted to continue building physical escape rooms but couldn't due to the COVID-19 lockdown, also they were very expensive to build. I briefly considered hosting them remotely with a body cam while everything was under lockdown, but it wasn't the same. I built my first Escape Simulator map (Perplexing Paintings) in January 2021 to see what the room editor was like and see what was possible with the game engine. I really enjoyed how intuitive the experience was and how quickly I could prototype new ideas.
I was stunned by the sheer volume of players I had access to through Steam workshop. With my physical rooms Id have ~50 players each season - now with Escape Simulator I had access to tens of thousands. I always had ideas that were too expensive or physically prohibitive to implement in real life but with Escape Simulator I could do anything I want so that was a big draw for me.

Can you walk us through your process of creating a room?

I start with a core mechanical theme. I draw out my ideas on pen and paper, just messy doodles and sketches. I write as many puzzle and room ideas as I can think of on a text editor. Then I plan out the progression, starting with some level 1 puzzles (puzzles that require little to no context to solve), followed by 2-3 parallel progression tracks (so players can work in parallel or switch between tracks if they get stuck on one), and a final large scale "meta" puzzle that uses the entire room layout, requires knowledge/context/items gained from previous puzzles, etc.

What are some of your favorite rooms you've created so far, and what makes them unique?

One of my favourite rooms that I created is The Devilish Diorama. The concept is that you're stuck in a room that has a diorama version of itself on a table. I'm quite happy with how the mechanics of the recursive room were communicated to the player and the pacing of the room. I'm quite proud of The Ominous Obelisk as well, which is a map where you're ascending a cyberpunk pyramid (not an obelisk haha) while solving puzzles themed around HyperX and OMEN PC gaming peripherals. Cheesy as hell, and so much fun to make. With this room I started to experiment with presentation, music selection, and more unique assets. I also wanted to make an experience that felt more substantial and fleshed out (since my last map The Devilish Diorama felt very short at 15 minutes). One of my design goals was to create a room that looked nothing like anything else in the workshop and I think it worked!

How do you come up with the themes and puzzles for your rooms?

This is going to sound silly, but I take a letter of the alphabet (A, B, C) and I think of an alliterated title. So P gave me Perplexing Paintings, D became The Devilish Diorama, Q became The Devilish Diorama 2: Quantum Quandary, etc. Its a weird way to come up with room themes, but its also given me some of my best ideas, like a creative writing prompt. That'll give me the core mechanical theme to focus my room around. I feel that it's important to make a room feel unique and cohesive vs. another Victorian-themed escape room.

What do you think are the key elements to creating a challenging yet enjoyable escape room?

Its important to focus on intuitive and clearly communicated puzzles. That's why I limit the number of distracting elements such as visual noise, red herrings, clutter, busywork, and verbose text. Interfaces in game should employ a toyetic quality that naturally invites users to play and interact with them. Its better to show than tell - designers should minimize explicitly writing out rules for puzzles in text. Ideally, players can intuit the rules of a game by experimenting with its systems, seeing what is possible, observing the resulting consequences of their actions, etc. It's also important to focus on guiding the players to win vs. actively trying to stump them - a subtle distinction. Games are meant to be won, not lost. That doesnt mean handing players the solution, rather to empower and guide them towards their solution in as pure and undilated an experience as possible.

What are some tips and tricks you can share with players who want to try their hand at designing rooms in Escape Simulator?

It helps a lot to understand how the lock logic object and its different types work (i.e. continuous, in-place). Knowing how to chain locks together and send values between them allows for some pretty nuanced logic even without Lua. Using the empty logic object and parenting objects together is very useful and can help you build very complex, multi-faceted compound objects. The visibility activator will let you load/unload chunks of your room to save on performance which is crucial for larger maps. I usually delete the standard walls/ceilings/floors the room editor provides you at the start and make my own with the given props, this gives a lot more freedom on laying out the room. It is super important to test your room in different configurations since everyone will play it differently. I test my rooms with 1) an underpowered PC, 2) multiplayer (with a second copy of the game I bought myself), and 3) with a gamepad. To make yourself stand out on steam workshop, use a distinctive preview image with high contrast and a large, legible font. It's also important to sell your room with a unique and instantly recognizable hook. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2861390478]

What are some lessons youve learned the hard way as a creator for Escape Simulator?

With my first map, I learned the hard way that my puzzles were too hard and too high in frustration. I learned to focus on improving the readability of my puzzles and reduce distracting elements as much as possible. I also have the inverse problem of some of my puzzles being too trivial to be of good gameplay value. Its a tricky balance Im still working and iterating upon with each new map. I also learned how to better analyze and respond to constructive feedback. I learned that sometimes what people say dont always line up with their actual experience. The best indicator for a players experience is to watch them play it live and observe their minute to minute experiences. Another lesson I learned is that no matter what you do, its impossible to please everyone, and thats perfectly fine.

Can you share any memorable experiences or funny stories that have happened while you were designing or playing your escape rooms?

I had a lot of fun designing the final boss room in The Ominous Obelisk. I won't spoil it, but it makes fun of a lot of things like corporate sponsorship and branding, PC gamer culture and streamers. It was super fun making an experience that was ominous but also completely over the top and ridiculous. I had a lot of fun making The Devilish Diorama 2. This was the first time I used a voice actor in my room. Murk (a Twitch/YouTube streamer) is a super talented voice actor so I gave him a lot of different roles including a voice answering machine, an animatronic cowboy, and a businessman (think of the manager from the movie Office Space). I wanted to channel his chaotic and irreverent energy so I gave him exaggerated, over the top lines. He even improvised lines which were so good I had to include them. I included some sus cowboy lines to throw him off like "It's time for a good old rope and choke". A while back he played the Cats In Time room in Escape Simulator, there he threw a kite (a key item) out the window and immediately regretted it - I included the same kite as hidden secret in The Devilish Diorama 2 along with some easter eggs specifically about him haha. It was amazing to watch him play through that live.

What are some of the nicest reactions or interactions youve had with people who played one of your rooms?

I love popping into streams of people playing my maps, it's so funny watching their reactions especially when they don't believe its me. Murk didnt believe me when I first stopped by to watch him play The Devilish Diorama, he thought I was trying to impersonate the creator XD. At the end he was nice enough to offer his voice for the sequel. Its always heartwarming when players offer to help out with playtesting or otherwise just enjoy my maps. After Dr. Poly (Twitch/YouTube content creator from Australia) played through my maps, we did an interview live on Rec Room (social VR game). That was so much fun, Poly is a super cool and funny content creator. It was surreal walking into his TV studio set (which he made in Rec Room!), shaking his hand, waiting behind the studio for my cue, walking out like I was on the set of The Tonight Show, such a fun experience. One of my favourite comments to my rooms was, "this room made me rethink everything I thought I knew about space and time" haha.

What do you feel has been your greatest Escape Simulator accomplishment so far?

Probably the Ominous Obelisk, I'm quite happy I managed to make it in 11 days (for the Escape Simulator Build-A-Room #2 contest) and it turned out as well as it did - normally I take a very long time to release maps.
Also very happy with the way The Collab: Boardgames turned out. It was tough coordinating a large group of creators (13 of us), but everyone pitched in great content and I got a ton of support, especially from Mumbo who was co-managing the project with me. He and Ich helped keep the project scope in check and Wollo and Franch provided lots of insight into project management. I learned a lot about when to step back and delegate work and also when to put my foot down. Everyone was awesome to work with and super enthusiastic.

Are there any features you would like to see added to the room editor in future updates?

Verticality (stairs, ramps, ladders, multiple floors) would be my most anticipated feature. I'd also like to more easily collaborate on rooms with other creators i.e. through real-time multiplayer editor sessions. An in-game Lua code editor that shows available variables would be nice. The ability to render elements/props specifically for different players would make for great supernatural-style experiences. It would also be neat to be able to send requests in-game to external APIs (i.e. my own server) so I can do things like retrieve live information, record statistics from players about their play sessions, or integrate live Twitch features like letting viewers affect the play session. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2774254073]

Are there any other room designers in the game whose work you admire or draw inspiration from?

When I started out making maps, Zek (Sudoku Puzzle Room) was a huge inspiration. Duc's maps (Riddles, Books, and a Lab) were a great inspiration too, he's really good at putting out polished and consistently engaging experiences. Cico's (Little Emily) maps scared the hell out of me and helped me understand how to make experiences that really drew the player in. I was blown away by the raw scale and ambition of Franch's (INSIDE) and Robin's (It's All Led Up To This) maps. They all set a high bar for me to aspire to.

What are your future plans for designing rooms in Escape Simulator? Do you have any big projects in the works? ;)

We're currently working on a new Collab map. Its a huge group now - before it was the 13 of us for The Collab: Boardgames, now theres 24 with everyone offering varying levels of support. Then I'm releasing The Devilish Diorama 3: Byzantine Box which I've been working on and off for some months now. There's a lot of new ideas I'm excited to show everyone. I wont make the mistake of announcing a target release date too early and missing it again haha. Then Inversion Inc. which will be my first original mainline room in a while. The theme of the room is "binarism" (two sides to everything) and will focus on a mechanic of "inverting" objects (as for what that means, Ill leave it to your imagination).
We're incredibly grateful to Zesty for taking the time to share his insights with us. While we wait for his next fantastic creations, be sure to check out his existing masterpieces here or in-game. If you wish to chat with Zesty or other amazing community room builders, make sure to join our Discord. We hope you enjoyed this new recurring series and we look forward to diving deeper into the creation process of many other room builders. Stay tuned! Pine team

[ 2023-05-11 14:00:53 CET ] [ Original post ]