Notice the date now. Yeah I know...that's not a typo.
 

It's now over three years later and Matt and Angela asked me to help them with their wall of gears once again. To my surprise, it was up and running and working pretty good.

Open Door Escape Games has four different rooms now and this one is called 'Inheritance'. The players are told a short story before entering the main area, which is about their long lost uncle leaving them a large sum of money. But the only way you can get that money is by solving all of the clues within 60 minutes.

That's a timer at the top which starts when the people enter the room. Below that is the center section of the gear wall. But on either side are locked doors which is where all the gears go.
 

Here you can see all of the gears installed, which looks awesome! The signs on each side say, "DO NOT SPIN GEARS BY HAND". I hope this keeps everyone's fingers out of harms way. However, all the players sign a waver before entering.
   

On the right side there is a shaft with no gear on it (arrow). This is the one I was talking about earlier to throw people off. But it turns out this puzzle has been too hard for people to solve. What the kids want me to do is permanently attach four removable gears to make this puzzle easier to solve. And what about that empty shaft? Well, I'm not able to remove it because the screws are on the backside. But I have an idea...
 

I plan on using these shaft collars to keep the four gears on and I'll use these to cover the end of the extra shaft preventing any gears being placed on that one. In fact, I used these on two of the gears in the picture above.
 

Notice the yellow chain here. This goes through that large gear and would be locked. This is just another puzzle that needs to be solved in order to move the gears. BTW, this chain takes the place of an air cylinder. I also used two shaft collars on some of the larger gears below.

Behind the window, hanging on the threads is a clue that gets dispensed for the players while spinning the gears. This clue can be placed anywhere along that thread but is usually within an inch of the end.

The door with the lock right below the window is for resetting the game. Matt made this door and installed the lock, but this is not part of the game and is only used by the employees.

At the bottom is where the clue travels down a chute and is retrieved by the players. Matt made the chute as well. This wall of gears works great and was really fun to watch as everything was turning. If you'd like to see a short video of the gears in action, click here (about 37 mb).

If you are into escape games then you won't be disappointed with 'Inheritance' because this room has a lot going on besides this gear wall.
 

This view is to the right of the gear wall. And if it looks foggy, well...it is. That fog was produced by a fog machine that fades away after a few minutes. But it's what the guests see when they enter the room, which is a really cool effect.

That VW bug was in my garage while I worked on it a few months ago. And that tree that you see was hand made by Matt and Angela out of wood and other materials. No kidding! I would love to show you more but I don't want to spoil anymore for someone that is going to visit the escape room. If you want to test your wits and have a great time, book this room with some friends because you won't be disappointed.
 

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