Strangerswalkin.Teamswalkout.
A mini escape room built for a party floor – a set of tactile installations that turn a room of strangers into teams.
9.23 / 10 across 116 guest responses at the Google DeepMind holiday party, December 2025 – 2,000 guests over 2 days.
Read the case study →A mini escape room, designed for collaboration
Tactile installations are placed across the party floor. Each one is a short, satisfying puzzle that invites collaboration between strangers – a complete, rewarding moment on its own.
Together, they form one connected world: progress feeds a shared, public leaderboard and builds toward a collective finale. Guests flow in and out at their own pace.
Drop-in, drop-out
No fixed start times. Guests join whenever they’re ready.
Independently great
Every module is a complete experience – yet built to interconnect.
One shared world
A live leaderboard ties every team into a single, public story.
Made for big moments
Holiday & company parties
The centerpiece that gets a big room mingling.
Conferences & trade shows
A booth magnet that turns foot traffic into conversations.
Product & brand launches
An interactive story guests actually remember.
Team offsites
Turns colleagues into teammates – fast.
Agency activations
White-label ready for your client’s brand.
From “What’s your name?” to “We did it!”
This experience is designed to create emergent teams that last beyond the event. Here's how a night can unfold:
Drawn In
Bright lights and a glowing, hands-on machine pull players in the moment they’re ready.
Teamed Up
The game is better with more players. They turn to a stranger – now they’re a team.
On the Board
They solve it. Their team name climbs the public leaderboard for the whole room to see.
Rock Star
Final stamp, a custom prize, a name celebrated. They leave with a founding origin story.
One room. Three machines.
Three installations
Two of each module – six machines in total. Each a delightful puzzle. Independently great, built to interconnect.
◉ Broadcast MapThe Broadcast Map
- A backlit, pool-table-height console. Guests move, rotate, and work mechanical controls around the outer rim – built for 360° standing collaboration.
- Instant visual feedback. Adjusting controls directly shifts glowing light sequences beneath the surface.
- Teamwork is the path of least resistance. The rim layout puts strangers shoulder-to-shoulder; coordinated moves solve faster.
◉ Production ConsoleThe Production Console
- Asymmetric roles. A multi-station rig where each guest holds a different job – reading sequences, aligning parameters, and unscrambling signals together.
- Tactile controls. Rapid-action triggers, analog puzzles, and balancing knobs that demand continuous, hands-on adjustment.
- Extremely replayable. Once a team settles into their stride, they can't help but want to play again to try and top the leaderboard.
◉ Channel ProgrammerThe Channel Programmer
- Decode the guide. Guests study TV posters & clues to uncover hidden criteria and deduce the correct tape sequence.
- Physical media. Heavy cassettes drop into a reader slot where teams preview the TV show on a retro CRT TV.
- Input matrix. Answers are logged by arranging labeled VHS tapes in a physical grid of slots.
◉ Fully themeableYour brand, on the floor
Every surface is a canvas. We tailor the experience to your event so it feels made for the room.
- Branded coasters & prizes. Your logo on the take-home keepsake.
- Custom prizes. Custom prizes awarded to every winning team.
- Custom narrative design. We tailor the story around your event, product, or brand.
The analog advantage
Why hands-on hardware out-engages a screen.
Manual Interfaces
No keyboards or screens to tap. Guests work real dials, toggle switches, and sliders for immediate sensory feedback.
Physical Tokens
Cassettes, cards, and keyed tokens physically show progress – rooting digital logic in real-world, tangible tasks.
Collectible Keepsakes
Winning runs print a precision-aligned stamp onto a custom-branded coaster – a trophy guests take home.
Unified finish & collectible stamps
Every module feeds one shared Finishers Board. Teams earn their final stamp, claim a custom prize, and lock in their place – live, for the whole room to see.
2026
Stamp & keepsake
An LED-guided imprinter prints each team’s progress onto a custom-branded coaster – the trophy they take home. Yours can carry your artwork.
Public leaderboard
A live, televised board that celebrates finishers and pulls in everyone still playing.
Proven results, real reactions
Every quote below is verbatim – typed by guests themselves at the finale table, or given in the post-event survey.
Genuinely the best after party we went to at YC Startup School!
I was only going to stay for 20 minutes, but then I got sucked in by the puzzles!
Great games to make friends!
These puzzles are always my favorite part of these events!
Live action roleplay this was super serendipitous
It was the right balance of challenge and gratification!
This was chaotic good fun
Amazing and fun experience. The timed game was really great.
Sustained engagement
Games running per half-hour · 6pm–10pm · 2026Built to drop into your night
What an organizer needs to know – the series scales to a full floor and runs itself.
92 teams came through the floor in 4 hours at YC – a big room never bottlenecks.
Up to (8 + 6 + 7) x 2 across the six stations at peak, all playing in parallel.
Measured medians per station – an extremely satisfying win guests can circle back for.
No fixed start times. Guests flow in and out at their own pace all night.
Our game masters and actors run the entire floor and spin a narrative world – your team enjoys.
We handle transport, setup, and teardown. You pick the date; we bring the fun.
Easy to host
Low-lift on your end. Exact space, power, and timing specs are confirmed with you during quoting.
A pocket of floor
Three ~5–6 ft stations plus standing room. Fits a ballroom corner, lounge, or booth cluster.
Standard power
A few wall outlets near the stations. No special electrical.
Ground or elevator access
We roll in on cases – we just need a normal load-in path.
We own setup & strike
Our crew arrives ahead of the event and tears down after. You don’t lift a thing.
Questions, answered
At YC Startup School the six stations took 92 teams through in four hours – roughly 23 teams an hour – with up to 42 people playing at once. Guests drop in and out at their own pace, so it scales comfortably to a full party floor.
Rated 9.23/10 by 116 guests at Google DeepMind, and a median 10/10 from every team that played it at YC Startup School. Tell us about your night and we’ll tailor a quote to your space, headcount, and theme.
