So, there was one time on a trip to Spain when Matthew Marczak \u201926 (ENG) found himself chained up in some guy\u2019s basement.<\/p>\n
He laughs about it now. But, true story, he was part of a group that voluntarily descended a staircase into a stranger\u2019s basement, willingly agreed to being chained down there, and only slightly worried they wouldn\u2019t make it out in time.<\/p>\n
The whole experience resembled a scene from the horror movie, \u201cSaw,\u201d he says, in which the main character puts his victims through a battery of puzzle-like tests to save their lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love movies and TV shows, and something like this lets you be the main character,\u201d Marczak says. \u201cImagine being Indiana Jones, walking into a temple, and having to run around putting totems on platforms. Escape rooms let you do that. They\u2019re interactive, immersive experiences that let you be the character.\u201d<\/p>\n
In character, Marczak has been shackled to other pirates on a boat that rocked for an hour and a half while they figured out how to overthrow a mutiny. And he\u2019s raced the clock as a government agent to save the president before a terminal disease got the better of him \u2013 or before the hour was up.<\/p>\n
Marczak estimates he\u2019s played upward of 75 escape rooms \u2013 the farthest from home being the basement in Spain and the largest in a 12,000-square-foot Las Vegas warehouse.<\/p>\n
As grand an experience as those were, he\u2019s now focused on building a portable escape room that people can play with friends at home, but one that\u2019s no less immersive and no less interactive.<\/p>\n
With funding from UConn\u2019s IDEA Grant Program<\/a> through the Office of Undergraduate Research<\/a>, Marczak\u2019s project has the working title, \u201cDeveloping Next-Gen AI Entertainment for Portable Escape Rooms,\u201d<\/a> even though by the end of next academic year he expects to have produced a full-blown prototype that people can play.<\/p>\n The concept, he explains, is that a host would book the game from an escape room business with a physical address and pick it up to play at home. With a small group or large party, players would follow the game to its end and return it 24 hours later to the business, or in a big city maybe a locked drop box location.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would come in this cool, super high-tech wooden box with buttons, light sensors, and special effects to make you feel like you\u2019re in a traditional escape room, but you\u2019re at home,\u201d Marczak says. \u201cInside the box, there would be a set of weird metal pieces that when screwed together form a robot that starts talking to you and that you can talk back to.\u201d<\/p>\n The whole game centers on the idea of robot artificial intelligence and whether humans can train them before technology takes over the world \u2013 but in a fun way of considering the fall of humankind, Marczak jokes.<\/p>\n The game would use a cellular connection, not Wi-Fi or the internet, allowing it to be even more portable and able to be played just about anywhere, Marczak says, adding he expects to incorporate tricks using people\u2019s phones, like directing a player to focus one\u2019s camera onto an item to display a secret message.<\/p>\n That\u2019s just augmented reality, he notes. The actual robot sending text messages or calling on the phone is real – because, after all, AIs are out to destroy the world.<\/p>\n Marczak has had a hand in developing the games \u201cBreathless\u201d and \u201cInvasion\u201d at Mind Factory Escape Games in Bridgeport where he\u2019s been christened chief creative officer, so he understands what goes into a game\u2019s evolution.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s why this game doesn\u2019t yet have a name. That depends in part on how he decides to end the storyline, he says.<\/p>\n At 12 years old, Marczak says, he played his first escape room and has been hooked on the concept since. During pandemic boredom in 2020, he found an old table at his house and taught himself electrical concepts to build into it a series of puzzles that a player would have to solve to stop a nuclear missile from launching.<\/p>\n He says that\u2019s what sparked his interest in electrical engineering.<\/p>\n Playing the role of William Barf\u00e9e in his high school\u2019s performance of \u201c25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee\u201d helped develop a love of theater.<\/p>\n Put the two together and, at UConn, Marczak is an electrical engineering major with a minor in entertainment engineering and aims to work in the entertainment industry, maybe even designing immersive experiences at Walt Disney World.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always been fascinated by how things work, and I had so much fun as a sophomore in high school designing the circuits for that first portable escape room,\u201d he says. \u201cI learned it all by watching YouTube videos or finding free online courses.\u201d<\/p>\n A student at UConn\u2019s Krenicki Arts and Engineering Institute<\/a>, which joins the College of Engineering<\/a> and School of Fine Arts<\/a> to offer classes in entertainment engineering and industrial design, Marczak says escape rooms are a perfect example of merging the disciplines.<\/p>\n Getting the escape room\u2019s robot to work is basic circuit design. Designing the game to make players feel transported is theatrical. Programming the two to work together is computer code, much of which is open source, Marczak says.<\/p>\n \u201cI hit probably 20 different issues building that first one four years ago and learned a lot about what I could do better the next time, what needs to change,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n