Adam Clare

Marshall McLuhan was a very influential thinker who changed the way we think about media at large. He argued that the medium is the message when it comes to understanding popular culture. If you grew up in Canada you may remember this Heritage Minute:

McLuhan was a visionary and here all I hope do to is get you interested in learning more about him and his thinking. In the first week back in class he came up twice with one of my classes looking directly at his work. Due to many students asking for more information, here is a very quick look into McLuhan and his impact on media, culture, and humanity.

The term “the global village” was coined by McLuhan and has been used ever since to describe the interconnectedness of the planet thanks to technology. His impact was large and you can get a good idea of the complexity of his thinking and its impact in the documentary below.
The documentary, This is Marshall McLuhan: The Medium is the Massage, is a great introduction to the thinking of McLuhan.

If you’re interred in hearing more from McLuhan, you can check out and the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto (check out their events). And here is giving a great interview on ABC:

Part 1
“A baseball game without an audience would be a rehearsal only.”

Part 2
“Participation in replay is a form of pattern recognition that is new in new media.”

part 3
He uses the word Orient so much I think he should’ve read some Edward Said.

I wrote a book about how to make escape rooms. If you are thinking of opening an escape game or are wondering what goes on behind-the-scenes at an escape room this book is for you.

Escape the Game: how to make escape rooms

Escape the Game is all about how to make escape rooms. It goes beyond only design issues to the business issues that concern escape room creators based on the broad questions that have come my way as a consultant, game designer, and professor of game design.

I’ve worked on escape rooms and have blogged about them (On Designing Escape Games For The Real World and Tips on Designing Room Escape Games), so I figured it was about time I write out my thoughts in a more coherent manner. Thus, the book Escape the Game took shape.

Escape the Game cast of characters.

I was inspired to write Escape the Game by playing escape rooms that made major, but easily fixed, game design mistakes. I hope to inspire designers to think holistically, to think about their escape rooms as more than the sum of their parts.

Get my book Escape the Game to find out even more ways to design your escape room.

Indeed, the first draft was just answers to questions that people have emailed me because of the popularity of my posts on designing escape rooms. Escape the Game is now more than that.

Escape the Game looks at the high-concept aspects of making escape games like issues around game flow. The later half of the book goes into aspects of making escape rooms that escape room owners wish they knew before they started; practical things like what to charge and legal issues unique to escape rooms.

I address the most common questions that people have about designing, making, and running escape rooms. I want anybody who designs puzzles and challenges to know that the mechanics are the message. If there is a disconnect between the mechanics of a puzzle and what you’re trying to convey to the players then it makes for a lacklustre play experience.

You can get a good idea of what’s in the book from the table of contents:

Get Escape the Game on Amazon now to learn how to make escape rooms!