a peek inside the fishbowl

13 Jul, 2016

A peek inside Jigsaw Escape Rooms

Posted by andrea tomkins in: Ottawa

The Fishbowl goes to Jigsaw Escape Rooms

I was invited to try out the Jigsaw Escape Rooms here in Ottawa recently* and I was particularly excited about it, for a few reasons. (a) Mark has been a few times and has really enjoyed it (b) I thought it would be really fun to do with the girls. The idea is pretty cool. Essentially, your group is locked in a room and you need to solve a series of puzzles in order to find a key that will result in your release, oh, and there’s a clock counting down the whole time. So yes, I was happy to go. Not only have I been curious about escape rooms in general, but I knew the girls would enjoy it AND it fit into my quest to do more things together as a family.

Us girls drove downtown after work to meet Mark. We parked, and all made our way over to Jigsaw after a little stroll around the Market. Mark had been to Jigsaw before and knew exactly where he was going. I wasn’t able to visualize where it was at first (Clarence and what?), and even as we approached it wasn’t immediately clear. It is tucked away a bit. It’s in the Byward Market at 122 Clarence St #201, next to a vaping shop, and up a flight of stairs.

We arrived a little earlier than we were supposed to – thanks to hurried strolling and my over-eagerness – so we were ushered into a back games room while another group finished their round. I was glad for this consideration because running into another group in the waiting area could have given away some secrets. This is where we met up one of the owners, Matt Prendergast. I don’t know why, but I surprised to learn that Jigsaw is very much a family affair. In fact, his whole family is rather entrepreneurial. He co-owns Jigsaw with his brother, and his sister was behind the counter when we arrived. Their parents own a restaurant, the Caribbean Sizzler, downtown. (Which I will definitely be checking out later.)

Matt explained the rules and how it was going to work. Perhaps I was visibly nervous.

Each room – and there are three right now at Jigsaw – has a backstory. We were booked for The Study (there’s also The Cabin and The Heist). Our story was that we were crime scene investigators who had to document a killing that took place in the study of the owner of Cromwell toys, before the murderer returns.

Matt told us that we could ask for help twice during the 45 minutes. (Actually, we could have asked for more help but then the room wouldn’t be considered “solved” by our team.) There’s a walkie-talkie hanging from the door knob and a camera on us at all times, so we were never really out of touch.

I don’t want to give much away about the room or the puzzles, but I will say that the clues were very well thought out, and quite clever, and incorporated almost everything in the room in some way. They’re also non-linear, which means they could be solved in any order and at no point were any of us standing around with nothing to do.

At first, we barged in there not knowing where to look (or maybe that was just me), but clues slowly revealed themselves. Perhaps it was a result of the osmosis that happens after many hours watching and playing video games, but that is not a pre-requisite. One has to assume that if there’s a typewriter on a desk and there’s a letter stuck in it that one should probably read it.

I can’t speak to the other rooms, but this one was smaller in size than I had expected. For some reason, I was thinking it’d be something akin to a sophisticated Hollywood movie set (doh) but that’s neither here nor there.

The experience really was a great team-building exercise, perfect for a family with teens too. I can honestly say that everyone contributed and pulled their weight. This is where having multiple brains at work really helps. (I should point out that the rooms are intended for six participants and we were a party of four.)

It’s a great option for a group of friends, co-workers, or family members who are looking for something new to do in Ottawa, outside of hanging out at a bar or going to a movie/bowling alley/pool hall. It’s fun, it’s social, it’s definitely novel.

Now that we’ve done one room I think it’ll be easier to do another one because we know what to expect and what to look out for. I am kind of kicking myself for not solving a couple of puzzles, that in hindsight, now seem kind of obvious.

The difficulty of the puzzles is actually something that Matt and I chatted about beforehand. How does the owner of escape rooms create puzzles, and how does one decide how difficult they should be? If they’re too easy, the room isn’t fun. If they’re too hard, the room isn’t fun. They have to be just difficult enough to make the process challenging and satisfying, even if you weren’t able to make it out of the room alive. He told me that it’s trial and error, and that they’ve been tweaking the rooms since they opened.

In the end, we didn’t manage to escape the escape room, but we came very close to solving it and had a lot of fun along the way. The 45-minutes went by very quickly. Afterward we went for sushi and ice cream, and chat about our near escape for the rest of the evening. We went home with full bellies and another happy memory.

* Jigsaw Escape Rooms foot the bill for our visit but there was no promise of a review. My views are my own.

Tags: , ,

2 Responses to "A peek inside Jigsaw Escape Rooms"

1 | hans

September 25th, 2016 at 3:32 pm

Avatar

Looks awesome had so much fun at alcatraz at http://www.escapeiq.com

comment form:

Archives

Me and my pet projects

Ottawa Bucket list

Subscribe via email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.


  • Gretchen Humphrey: I had a beautiful bee& birdbath filled with a solar fountain and dozens of antique marbles that were suddenly disappearing. At first I thought my
  • Jinjer: I am sobbing reading this post. And you're right, companion is not enough. Little furry treasured gifts that they are. Thanks for sharing cutie-pi
  • Karen: Dear Andrea, Mark and your daughters I am so very sad for your family xxx Piper was/is my favourite Instagram post. You shared with us so intimately
  • Christina Banuelos: Thank you for sharing Pipers life with us. Your posts of Piper brought me joy. Every time I see your post and see what kind of mischief Piper was gett
  • Carla Slocum: I am sitting here yet again crying at your loss. We have known that loss with Asta the WFT our first pup but now have the enormous gift of Stryker the
  • Janelle Brown: Dear Andrea Thank you for sharing Piper’s story with her followers. I empathise with your grief and emptiness as I lost my 14 year old Westie last
  • Natasha McReynolds-Nicholl: My god reading this is heartbreaking. December 1st was the as you describe longest day of my life, we lost out beautiful WFT hazel. Pipers final momen

The Obligatory Blurb

My name is Andrea and I live in the Westboro area of Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Piper who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. We also have two human offspring: Emma (24) and Sarah (22). During the day I work as a writer at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.

If you'd like to contact me, please use this form. If you're so inclined, you can read more about me here. Thank you for visiting!

 


Connect with me at these places too!

Still calling it Twitter