After they've successfully solved one of Think Tank Escape Rooms' fully immersive puzzles, the most common question players ask staff is whether the downtown Spokane venue is part of a larger franchise.
It's not.
"It's humbling to hear that — it really is," says Jeffrey Savelesky, who opened the venue in early 2019 with his wife, Jolene. "That's the highest form of compliment I think we can get."
If you've been to Think Tank, you probably get why people ask this. Yet Savelesky devised, designed, built and programmed each of its incredibly detailed and high-tech rooms.
"We're tech-centric," he says. "We have a lot of tech even if it doesn't show, which is how we provide a really consistent game."
A theme-park industry veteran of more than 30 years, Savelesky took his knowledge overseeing the construction of various rides and attractions to craft an experience at Think Tank that's on par with some of the world's most popular amusement venues. When players step inside one of its three themed rooms (a fourth is expected to open later this spring), they feel truly transported to another world.
Without giving too much away, Think Tank's most recently opened room, Space Mission Guardian, is set on a satellite space station. To complete the mission, players must first "travel" to the outpost, where they're tasked with securing cryogenic vials of an antidote to a deadly virus spreading across the planet (a storyline actually crafted pre-COVID). Inside the puzzle, they'll encounter airlock doors, flashing lights and buttons, levers, computer stations, and more.
An escape room enthusiast since the industry got going more than a decade ago, Savelesky says he and older family members began doing the challenges together to "keep mentally sharp."
"I was looking to retire from being on the road all the time, and the two just lined up really well," he says. "We thought, 'OK, what are the things that we liked about them, and what are all the things we didn't like.' We didn't think, 'How can we outsmart a player in creating a puzzle that's difficult to solve,' but instead, 'How do we take somebody out of their daily lives for an hour and give them an amazing experience that builds some camaraderie?'"
When it comes to the challenge at hand — escaping — Think Tank's philosophy is to let players steer the ship. Rather than stump a group with complexity, players can ask for unlimited hints or, for an extra challenge, none at all. Time extensions are also sometimes possible. And if a group's doing incredibly well on the clock, they'll get extra challenges thrown at them since each room was designed to be adaptive while also offering a range of difficulty.
"My background is entertainment, not outsmarting people with puzzles," Savelesky says. "We really want to create showpiece experiences, and for people to come here and go, 'Wow, this is different than anything I've seen anywhere else.' And hopefully, we've achieved that."
2nd PLACE: Unit 55 Horror Games
3rd PLACE: 59: Escape Adventures, Post Falls
