Mobius, is a theme park designed to let the user experience extreme anxiety to find complete peace. Each room in the escape room is designed to bring about the same type of anxiety and paranoia experienced by a perfectionist in everyday life. The puzzles in the escape room deal with four different aspects of anxiety: ambiguity, opinions, options, and standards. Once you finish the escape room, another experience will begin, which allows the user to be entirely out of control bringing about complete peace, showing that sometimes, the perfect solution, is to stop and let go.

Layout

The Mobius building is shaped so that each room gets progressively smaller, accentuating the feeling of anxiety as you continue throughout the escape room. Once you enter the second floor it is more spacious and free.  

Visitor Guide

After each room is complete, the guest will collect a stamp on the outside of their visitor guide that will help them complete the final puzzle. 

In each room there will be paper that is added to the visitor guide that will help the guest complete each puzzle. On the left is the paper for the Opinions room, and on the right is the clue sheet for Relief. 

Rooms

Ambiguity

The first puzzle is a fluid intelligence test. These were initially designed to level the playing field between international students and natives. There are no directions explaining the puzzle. The visitor must complete the puzzle to continue. Throughout the Ambiguity room, there will be no hint of whether the answer is right or wrong, starting off the experience with the stress of not knowing looming over their head.

Opinions

The second puzzle is about trying to keep everybody happy, and the realization that its just not possible. When going through the Opinions, the guest will go through the experience of trying to order a meal for a family of eleven. Every person has some specific need and they must balance all of them. While they are in the room, they will receive periodic phone calls from actual people to make them feel like their decision is more than just a puzzle room. Once they have come to conclusion, they must place the order and rank who is most and least satisfied in the family.

Options

The third puzzle deals with having to choose. In Options, there are three different doors you can choose from, each with a different puzzles and riddles. All of them lead to the same place, but after one gets to be challenging, it is tempting to switch from one door to the next, which ends up wasting time.

Standards

The final room of the escape room portion of the theme park causes the user to confront their own expectation as well as, those perceived to be set by others. In Standards, the guest must create a design out of triangles, and submit it once it meets their own expectations. They are told that they can only continue once a committee has reviewed their work and accept it as satisfactory.

Relief

Once the escape room is complete, the guest will enter an elevator and crack a code to reveal a quote saying, “Incredible change happens when you stop craving control.” After completing the four anxiety filled rooms, they will realize that all the effort and stress put into completing the rooms may not have been necessary. The same is true of life. Although it is helpful to think and prepare, there is a certain kind of relief knowing that it is not always the best way to do something.

Freedom

The final room of the experience is the reward. After going through five rooms working and controlling situations, the final room forces you to completely give up control. The final room is a roller coaster powered by air. It is designed to simulate the ocean with sounds, scents, and effects. Augmented reality jellyfish will be seen in the room, and the beauty and fluidity in their movement will be a calming visual for the guest. Although there will be things in the room creating a restful environment, they will not be able to enjoy it unless they let go, and enjoy the experience.

Branding

Logo

Visual Identity Guide: Do

Visual Identity Guide: Do Not

I hope you have enjoyed your tour of Mobius. Right now it is just a concept, but I would love to turn it in to an actual experience one day.