From graduation research to escape room

The idea of an escape room at Delft University of Technology started in 2016. It's part of the TU Delft Science Centre which focuses on translating the science and research that happens at the university to a broader audience. A student did her graudation research into translating these stories into an interactive escape room. The theme "life on another planet" was chosen due to the underpresentation of themes such space travel at the TU Delft Science Centre. During this research, different researchers at the faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology and reserachers of the European Space Agency were involved to make sure that all puzzles have connections to challenges astronauts face in real life.

Two years later in 2018, the first steps were taken to build this escape room. Three different external companies were involved to transform the results of this reserach into a real escape room. It took two years to translate this concept into a real escape room. Due to the coronacrisis, the opening was delayed until october 2020 in the old Science Centre Delft at the Mijnbouwstraat. A good year later, the escape room had to be closed again to move to the city centre of Delft because of the closure of the location at the Mijnbouwstraat. In the Prinsenkwartier the escape room opened on the 21st of March 2022. During this movement, the entire escape room was reviewed once again. Some puzzles are changed, the storyline is finetuned and the escape room is now playable in English and made suitable for children's birthday parties.