Secret Chambers: Escape room unlocks success in Fort Worth

Secret Chambers

The Secret Chambers

513 Alta Mere Drive

Fort Worth

888-669-9998

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www.thesecretchambers.com

Ever since he was a little boy, Matthew Moore has loved creating adventures. The older he got, the bigger the adventure, and now they are larger than ever and can be enjoyed by anyone who wants to join him.

The Secret Chambers is set to open the largest venue of its kind in Texas. Billed as the most immersive and unique escape room adventure in North Texas, its new location at 513 Alta Mere Drive in Fort Worth opened on July 15. The facility is more than seven times larger than the original location (9,464 square feet over two stories) and challenges would-be escapists with six new bigger and better chamber themes.

“Since I was a child I’ve always enjoyed telling stories and creating my own board games. In 2015, I happened to participate in an escape room in Oklahoma City while passing through, and immediately felt like the concept was something I could utilize to bring my stories and games to life in the hope of bringing joy and adventure to others,” said Secret Chambers creator Moore.

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The Secret Chambers experience features interactive storytelling with live actors, jokes, activities, hand-built props, antiques and plenty of surprises. The escapists search for a series of puzzles that will help them unlock doors to other escape rooms.

The Secret Chambers has assembled a team of award-winning men and women with backgrounds in theater, arts, filmmaking, writing and game design, all working together to create the experience.

More than 70,000 people have experienced The Secret Chambers since the original location opened three years ago. In reviews on Google, Facebook, Trip Advisor, Yelp and Groupon, 99.6 percent of the commenters give the Pirate and Cthulhu Adventures five stars. That helped it earn the 2017 and 2018 Certificate of Excellence and the No. 1 spot on Trip Advisor’s Fun Games category.

“I think up the room concepts, write the storylines, puzzles, activities, surprises, humor, and plan out the decor,” Moore said. “Then I run the complete concept through my team of special effects masters and artists, take their feedback and make changes. Then they help me bring it all to life.

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“I have a passion for entertaining others, and The Secret Chambers is my vehicle for doing that. I focus on a completely immersive, interactive and innovative experience that is completely unlike any other escape room in the world.”

The Secret Chambers is also the first venue in North America to offer the augmented-reality dodgeball game HADO, which is the current rage across Asia. Along with a kids’ Code Camp, The Secret Chambers is a place for people of all ages and abilities to escape reality and have fun.

The original Secret Chambers opened on Oct. 8, 2015, right by Ridgmar Mall. Moore said it has simply outgrown that property. He also said this is not the only growth his company is planning.

“Once we fill up our new building with our six new adventures, we’ll be expanding further out across the world,” he said.

The new location kicks off with the Mafia Adventure. It takes players back to 1933, at the end of the Prohibition era, in a speakeasy that could be on the Jacksboro Highway. The players play the role of a posse hired to hunt down Bonnie and Clyde, and the adventure starts with them walking into the speakeasy after seeing the infamous duo sneak in to hide.

“Through the course of the adventure, the players will discover all sorts of surprises as they try to find Bonnie and Clyde hiding somewhere in the speakeasy. The finale is so epic and surprising, players will never see it coming,” Moore said.

Future escape experiences include the Storybook Adventure, Area 51 Adventure, Edgar Allen Poe Adventure, Jungle Adventure, and Train Heist Adventure.

“Whereas other escape rooms focus on the challenge and puzzles, I focus on the fun and adventure,” Moore said. “Players are here to have a good time, so we aren’t going to push them too hard with difficult or cumbersome puzzles. Our experience is more focused on completing the storyline to find out the ending and some of the newer rooms will have multiple endings based on a choose-your-own-adventure type decision tree.

“Along the way, players will complete tasks that are designed to be fun and interactive, not frustrating. We have several dozen online reviews that mention we’re the perfect amount of challenge without being frustrating, and I pride myself on that.”

Entry for the original two rooms of Secret Chambers costs $25 per player. For new rooms, such as The Mafia Adventure, the price is $30 per player, but each of the new rooms is more than twice as large as the original rooms, and the decor and special effects have been significantly upgraded, Moore said. They also offer group discounts for parties over 20 people.

“My idol is Walt Disney, and my ultimate goal is to one day have the same positive impact on the world that he had,” Moore said. “There’s no greater feeling than making people happy, and hopefully our new building will allow us to keep building up steam. I have big things planned for the future of the company and I can’t wait to roll them.”

According to a blog that follows the Escape Room market, at the end of 2014, there were 22 escape room companies in the U.S. and, at the end of Q2 in 2017, there were 1,800.