Evadere Virtual Escape Rooms
Immersive escape-room adventures, designed to be played together from anywhere.
Overview
Evadere brought the challenge, storytelling and shared experience of an escape room into people’s homes. Launched in 2020 with almost no start-up capital, it grew from a single idea into a catalogue of seven original browser-based games, reaching tens of thousands of customers and becoming the UK’s largest virtual escape-room provider at its peak. Virgin Experience Days, Buyagift, Wowcher and Groupon approached the company to distribute its experiences, helping Evadere reach an even wider national audience.
The problem
When Covid closed physical venues and separated friends, families and colleagues, people lost more than somewhere to go. They lost shared experiences. Most entertainment available at home was passive or solitary, while many early online escape rooms were little more than printable puzzles. There was an opportunity to create something more immersive: an experience people could enter together, wherever they were.
Our approach
Evadere treated the internet itself as the escape room. Instead of recreating a physical room on screen, each game used the tools and behaviours people already understood: websites, messages, videos, audio, maps, documents, chat and online research. Players collaborated over a shared screen, following stories, uncovering clues and solving challenges together. The product was deliberately self-guided, instantly accessible and simple to distribute, allowing the business to grow without venues, hosts or significant infrastructure. Evadere was built independently, but it did not grow in isolation. As the venture matured, we partnered with specialists who helped strengthen different parts of the company. B2B digital agency ThinkEngine built a custom chatbot for Evadere, enhancing the interactive, conversational side of the games and giving the product greater technical depth. Aspen Waite provided practical business support as the venture grew, bringing valuable external experience and guidance to the operation behind it. Together, these partnerships helped take Evadere to its next level: ThinkEngine advanced the product customers played, while Aspen Waite supported the business making that growth possible.
The product
Evadere produced seven original digital escape-room experiences spanning detective mysteries, prison escapes, espionage, Christmas adventures and nostalgic trivia. Customers purchased a game online, received an activation code and played together through a browser, typically for 60 to 90 minutes. Experiences including The Chair, A Second Chance, Christmas Crisis, Cindy’s Bar and Operation London combined story, puzzles and multimedia to make remote players feel part of the same adventure.
Current stage
Evadere is now archived following a highly successful period in which it became the UK’s largest virtual escape-room provider. The business closed deliberately as audiences returned to in-person entertainment and demand for virtual-only experiences declined.
Outcomes
Evadere turned almost no initial investment into a six-figure pre-tax profit. At its peak it was the UK’s largest virtual escape-room provider, serving tens of thousands of customers through direct sales and national distribution partnerships initiated by Virgin Experience Days, Buyagift, Wowcher and Groupon. During the pandemic, Evadere also donated access to hospitals and supported charitable causes, using its games to provide connection, distraction and shared enjoyment at a uniquely difficult time. The business was closed deliberately when the market changed. As restrictions lifted and audiences returned to physical venues and in-person entertainment, demand for virtual-only experiences reduced. Evadere had answered a genuine need, achieved substantial commercial success and reached the natural end of its opportunity.
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