Kominers’s Conundrums: Free a Phoenix So It May Rise Again

Nothing quite brings puzzles to life like escape rooms. They create an alternate reality where a group of friends can walk into a place filled with clues that have to be solved before time runs out. And they’ve been popping up everywhere — as of early 2020, there were a couple thousand of them in the United States alone, representing twentyfold growth since 2014.

Then the pandemic hit, putting the burgeoning industry under threat. But like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, these games came back in new online and hybrid forms. There have been so many innovations, in fact, that a conference is convening to consider them: The Reality Escape Convention — or “RECON,” for short. There’ll be lectures and workshops on new puzzle designs and technologies, plus a healthy dose of live gameplay.