Lockdown Escape Rooms
Fancy being part of a team that is going to pull off the biggest bank heist ever? It is possible, in Kortrijk. Together with your companions, you have one hour to crack the high-tech security and steal as much money as possible, before the police storm in.
The game – what else? – is one of four ‘escape rooms’ from start-up Lockdown, an initiative by five friends with a passion for games. “When we worked out the idea in 2017 and there did appear to be a market for it, I decided to become a majority shareholder and build the company,” says CEO Gijs Vanreusel. An escape room is a gaming activity where you are locked in a room with others. Using puzzles and riddles, you have to find a way out.
Zombies
“In ‘Sector Z’, our newest escape room in Ghent and the largest in the country, large groups are divided into two teams: zombies and lab technicians. The zombies must try to eliminate the lab technicians while the latter are developing an antidote. With that creative competitiveness between two groups, we bring a new dynamic to the escape-room world,” Vanreusel says. The rooms are developed entirely in-house by Lockdown, from concept to realisation.
Customer experience
To start Lockdown, the initiators put a sum on the table themselves. They then used crowdfunding to raise money from family members and friends, followed by a Start Loan from PMV. “We know all our investors personally,” says the CEO, who wants to grow further in the coming period, but above all wants to remain committed to quality: a good customer experience must remain paramount. “The next step will come then,” concludes Gijs Vanreusel.
Visit the website of Lockdown Escape Rooms