Escape Academy News

[p]The Headmaster’s Tower was the first building designed and constructed at the Academy, serving as the primary building for both living and education during the first couple decades of the Academy’s existence. The central lobby on the ground level used to be centered on a statue of Founder Reina Wym until former Headmaster Horatio Windsor “generously relocated” it elsewhere during his tower renovation in an ego-fueled ploy to cement his mark on campus. [/p][p][/p][p]If you played Escape Academy 1, you’ll remember the Headmaster’s secret study, equipped with tunnels used to flee if the Academy was discovered by any of their numerous enemies. However, this is not the only secret residing in the Headmaster’s Tower, and some still have yet to be discovered by the Academy’s nosy students…[/p][p][/p][p]We’re bringing a LOT of changes to Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, so this blog is dedicated to some of the new goodies you can expect when exploring behind the doors of the iconic Headmaster’s Tower.[/p][p]Have you ever wanted to walk right up to the doors of the Academy? Well, now you can.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The introduction of open-world elements in Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School means that what was once a point-and-click hub is now a thriving section of the campus for you to explore.[/p][p]The Headmaster’s Office has also received a snazzy new upgrade! If you look closely, you’ll notice a good few nods to Escape Academy 1 - if you know, you know![/p][p][/p][p]As you step through the halls of the Escape Academy, you’ll be heavily reminded that this is an academic environment. Something that we missed out on in the first game was the lack of connecting spaces between escape rooms. Not only is an open-space environment a great storytelling element, it’s had us at CCG immersed on the edge of our seats while unraveling the main story.[/p][p][/p][p]A nosy student makes a great Escapist. If you’re the type who wants to put your nose where it doesn’t belong, you’re in luck - our new Escape Bucks can be found in every nook and cranny…the location of this Escape Buck is on us, but you’ll have to get clever if you want to find the rest.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]We’ll be hiding Escape Bucks all around the campus, in some expected and less expected spots. Where would YOU expect an Escape Buck to be? Would you dig through the garbage? Check every couch cushion? Let us know![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Our updated dorm space is packed with the Academy’s latest and greatest - excluding the computers...Escape OS is the leading operating system for the budding Escapist![/p][p]Mx'w qi, xli Tyvjiwwsv. Wsqixlmrk fmk mw gsqmrk, erh csy asr'x aerx xs qmww mx. Wxec xyrih, erh wxec epivx, Iwgetmwx. Meow meow meow meow.[/p][p]Woah! Looks like the Purfessor wandered onto my keyboard! I wonder what he was trying to say…[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]There’s plenty of stuff not covered here, but that’s for us to know and for you to find out. We can’t spoil all the fun![/p][p][/p][p]Got questions? Ideas? Let us know in the comments![/p][p][/p][p]If you’re itching to get a chance at exploring the Headmaster’s Tower yourself, join our Discord and sign up for a playtest! We’re always looking for fresh eyes, and we love saying hi to the fans👋👀[/p][p][/p][p]With Love,[/p][p]Coin Crew Games💛💜[/p][p][/p]

[p]Hey there Escapists!

We’ve got a small update coming your way due to the recent Unity security issue affecting games that were built on the Unity engine.[/p][p] [/p][p]Additionally, you might notice the new button on the main menu that points you to the Escape Academy 2 store page; make sure to drop a wishlist and check out our socials 😉[/p][p] [/p][p]That’s all for now![/p][p] [/p][p]With love,[/p][p]Coin Crew Games💛💜[/p]

[h2]🔔WISHLIST ESCAPE ACADEMY 2: BACK 2 SCHOOL 🔔[/h2][p]Hey there Escapists![/p][p] [/p][p]Here’s a mouthful of a clue: today’s blog talks about that thing where you’re not really sure what the answer is, but the person asking the question wants to point you in the right direction…[/p][p] [/p][p]Today’s blog is about hints.[/p][p] [/p][p]Hints are an absolute staple of escape room experiences, both physical and virtual, and our game is no different. As a team that has experience with real-life escape rooms, we really want to make sure that our hints system translates well into the physical experience of asking the game master for a hint whenever you’re struggling to make it out of an IRL escape room.[/p][p]If you’ve got a good memory, or maybe if you’ve played Escape Academy 1 recently, you’ll know that we had a hint system there too. You would press a button, you’d get a prompt asking if you’re sure (because this affects your ranking at the end of the level!) and then you’d be given a hint that could range anywhere from “pointing you in the right direction” and “Hey goofball, it’s smacking you right in the face.”[/p][p] [/p][p]Similarly, when it comes to the art of hints, we want to point you in the right direction without just giving away the answer, because that takes away a large part of the mystery that makes escape rooms endearingly enjoyable. However, given that immersion is something we’re putting a lot more focus on due to the open-world elements in Escape Academy 2, we’ll need a little something extra.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]In Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, you’ll be able to access hints by tracking quests in your journal, an item that you take through the entire game. The journal functions as your map, your quest-log, and your best friend. Okay, maybe not that last one. That spot belongs to the Purfessor.🐈[/p][p][/p][p]Hints are hard to get perfect, so we want your thoughts. Whenever you are stumped on a puzzle what do you want, or expect, a hint to tell you? Should it be an answer? Should it point you in the direction of what you should be looking at, or something else entirely? We want to know![/p][p] [/p][p]Of course, another great way to do this is to help us in the form of a playtest. If you’d like to join us in a playtest, check out our Discord and sign up for one![/p][p] [/p][p]As always, thank you for reading and the team at Coin Crew Games hopes you have an amazing Friday. We’ve been considering some more ambiguous topics that go beyond the standard “features” blogs we’ve been rolling out - maybe some puzzle design here, engineering there. What do you think?[/p][p] [/p][p]With love,[/p][p]Coin Crew Games[/p][p][/p][h2]🔔WISHLIST ESCAPE ACADEMY 2: BACK 2 SCHOOL 🔔[/h2]

[p] [/p][p]Hey there Escapists!

Last week we had a blog on multiplayer systems - the super cool stuff that’ll help you get along with your teammate a little better - outlines, pings, and emotes! However, we wanted to dedicate a blog to go over the concept of multiplayer as a whole, how it’s shaping up for Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, and some of what you can expect.[/p][p]That’s okay. Luckily for you, we’ve got that handled. Check out our YouTube devlog on multiplayer![/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Escape Academy 1’s multiplayer was exactly what you’d expect out of a co-op escape room experience: you could give your partner items, and they existed in the same space as you while you solved puzzles. This did its job well, as you wouldn’t be exploring larger areas, but during some playtests for Escape Academy 2, we realized that multiplayer needed some upgrades.[/p][p] [/p][p]Escape Academy 1 taught us that playtesting is incredibly important. Just look at these internal documents I “borrowed” from our retrospective last year![/p][p][/p][p]While we were playtesting, we found a couple of issues with multiplayer that made it a little difficult for players to get the full experience out of an open-world game. But, we were missing something.[/p][p]When it comes to Escape Academy 2, our pool of playtesters is much larger and we’re making sure to use this to our advantage. With the first game, we let it fall behind for the reasons listed above, and this led to some of our puzzles in the later portions of the game losing the consistency we built with the early portions of the game. You might not have even noticed this as a player, but to us as a studio, it was leagues of difference.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Consistent playtesting has led us to be a lot happier, and much more confident, when it comes to our puzzle/world design with Escape Academy 2. Now, whenever we’re making something, we try not to call it fun until we’ve seen another player have fun with it. And even then, we want to playtest it over and over again to make sure that what we’re seeing is genuine enjoyment out of puzzle lovers like us.[/p][p]Playtesting has been a huge help for building out our open-world multiplayer.[/p][p][/p][p]A large campus brings large demands. Meet Player 1 and Player 2 - two of our playtesters here to help demonstrate how we came to the addition of the new multiplayer systems we introduced in our last blog.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Nice to meet you, Player 1 and Player 2! Let’s take a look at how your playtests went.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Player 1 is not the best when it comes to descriptive language - but Player 2 has the projector still that leads to one of the 3 answers needed for this puzzle. So, Player 1 says:

”I think you can put that projector still in that projector over there”

But Player 2 is beyond lost. “Over where? I don’t see it!” Well, it’s certainly not on the ceiling.[/p][p] [/p][p]Thanks to Player 2, Escape Academy now has pings for the first time ever.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Both players just finished an escape room. Great! But now they’re just standing there. Menacingly. Soullessly.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]However, our brand-new WIP emotes system is bound to fix that and give Player 1 and Player 2 an outlet to let out some of that extra energy. Let’s celebrate![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Lastly, it’s easy to get lost in an open world campus. You might be able to meet up in a designated spot on campus, or just learn the map, but to us, being able to keep a close eye on your partner makes staying together a little bit easier.[/p][p] [/p][p]Now, no matter where you are, you can keep a close eye on your partner. Whether they know it or not.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Lastly, one of the biggest lessons we learned while making multiplayer, and subsequently playtesting the multiplayer experience, is that fun is subjective. I won’t go too deep into this here because it’s quite the lengthy topic and this blog is already quite tall, but if you want to see a talk on this, Gabe Newell has an excellent interview with a behavioural psychologist where he talks all about it.[/p][p][/p][p]Regardless, playtesting has taught us a lot about what “fun” is, and as compared to Escape Academy 1, we’ve made a vow to ourselves to not call something fun until we’ve seen someone else have fun with it first.[/p][p] [/p][p]Hopefully you’re excited for multiplayer too - but what you see here isn’t the end of the road for us. We want your suggestions! If you have anything on your “Escape Academy 2’s Multiplayer Wishlist”, please let us know in the comments and we’ll take a deeper look at it![/p][p] [/p][p]If you’re excited about multiplayer too, make sure to let us know by putting us on your wishlist. And if you made it here, thank you for reading.

With love,[/p][p]Coin Crew Games💛💜[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p] [/p][p]Hey Escapists![/p][p]We hope you enjoyed our first longform devlog on YouTube; expect another one soon! 👀[/p][p][/p][p]One of our favourite staples of Escape Academy 1 was the multiplayer interactions that led to silly moments, or gave way to fun conversations with players. Bringing people together is fun! I mean, it’s even in our motto.[/p][p] [/p][p]So far, we’ve had a few questions on the topic of multiplayer interactions:[/p]

• [p]Will there be online multiplayer?[/p]
• [p]Splitscreen couch co-op? 🥺[/p]
• [p]Toggleable splitscreen?[/p]

[p] [/p][p]To put the answers shortly:[/p][p]There’s also a couple of things we’re adding to change up the way duos will explore the Academy - both to help with interacting in an open world, and to make the multiplayer experience that much more interesting.[/p][p] [/p][p]Let’s take a look 🧐[/p][p]It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a….ping?[/p][p][/p][p]When it comes to an escape room, things are a lot more localized. You can say “Hey, come check this out!” and walk a few feet over to your partner. Maybe your duo will point out something “over there, by that desk.” But when you’re exploring a giant sprawling campus, “over there” becomes a bit….confusing. Pings have quickly become a staple in many multiplayer experiences, and we think that bringing them into the world of Escape Academy will help make solving puzzles together less frustrating, while also leading to some silly interactions.[/p][p][/p][p]That’s a fair argument. If you’ve been keeping up with our devlogs and short-form content, it’s a very real concern. Escape Academy is the leading academy in the art of Escape, after all![/p][p] [/p][p]While many multiplayer games might opt to leash you within a certain range of the first player, we don’t want players to be limited to any single area - that can take away from the open world experience. So instead, cutting-edge Academy technology will allow you to see where your partner is on campus at any given point![/p][p][/p][p]Still struggling to find eachother? That’s okay. The gazebo in the middle of campus is an excellent place to relax and meet up before planning your next escape.[/p][p][/p][p]Every good Escapist needs a way to express themselves. We’re bringing emotes to Escape Academy as a way to help players communicate, for the better or for the worse. Solved that difficult puzzle? That deserves a thumbs up! Struggling with a spinner lock? Seems like the perfect opportunity for a sarcastic clap.[/p][p]One of the complaints from playtesters we’ve gotten is that splitscreen modes in online gameplay can be a little disorienting. So, just like in Escape Academy 1, you’ll have the option to switch between the splitscreen and widescreen views if motion sickness is something that affects you.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Partner taking a little too long to unpause in couch co-op? Time to take things into your own hands.[/p][p][/p][p]Lastly, to keep things from being a little too janky (or asking for a little too much out of your computer), players will have to enter escape rooms together. Always remember that two minds are better than one! Usually.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]We’re hoping multiplayer features will give just the right amount of sass to multiplayer interactions, and help to immerse you in the world of Escape Academy a little bit. If you have anything on your wishlist for Escape Academy 2 features, just let us know in the comments![/p][p][/p][p]That’s all from us - for now. Stay tuned for another longform devlog coming soon, and don’t forget to…[/p][p][/p][p]With Love,[/p][p]Coin Crew Games💛💜[/p]