EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Escape rooms are becoming more common in El Paso, but this local business is making its mark with its “one-of-a-kind” rooms.
An escape room is a game where you’re given clues and hints, and you have an hour to try an escape the room before you fail.
Misael Garcia, co-owner of Operation Outbreak, has been running a local escape room business for almost seven years with his sister.
Operation Outbreak. Photo taken by Jocelyn Flores/KTSM
Before the escape rooms, Garcia found himself wanting to do something more. He had graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) with a degree in business.
“I was having a quarter-life crisis. I was graduating from UTEP and I was working with my dad in his lumber mill and I wanted to start something of my own, to say that I could do something,” Garcia said.
Garcia, at the time, had not ever done an escape room but soon sparked his love for the game after completing one in Washington.
“I was up in Washington at a volleyball tournament. You know how you go to the hotel, and they have those ‘things to do’? This was eight years ago, but I saw one for an escape room and I had always heard of them and thought ‘this would be cool.’ So, we did one, and I absolutely fell in love with the idea,” Garcia said.
The theme of Operation Outbreak was influenced by a popular video game, “BioShock.” A game that takes place in the 1920’s where Art Deco and Steampunk themes take front and center for set styles.
As the business grew, Operation Outbreak is moving on from Art Deco but keeping the vintage-pop art styles that is showed in their newest mural in their waiting room.
Operation Outbreak mural. Photo taken by Jocelyn Flores/KTSM
“I love puzzles and I’m a huge nerd, geek and this kind of fit in the realm,” Garcia said.
Their first room, Baker Street Mystery, was a Sherlock Holmes-inspired escape room. Garcia said that within a few months of opening, they were already building another room.
“Luckily, we got really, really busy. We started getting calls like ‘Hey, we want to bring our corporate team, and we want to do like 12 people’ so we were like ‘we need to open another room fast,’” Garcia said.
Since opening back in October 2017, Operation Outbreak has grown to have six different rooms, all mostly designed by Garcia.
All their rooms have been transformed to fit their themes; horror, jungle, spaceship and everything in between.
Warning, the following images might be disturbing to some viewers.
“You can definitely see as our newer rooms open, how immersive the sets are. The rooms you find here, you’re not going to find anywhere else,” Garica said.
Garcia prides his work into how real the rooms feel, as if you walked into a movie. That’s where he gets a lot of the ideas for new rooms.
Warning, the following images might be disturbing to some viewers.
“A lot of the times, I’ll be watching a movie or playing a video game, and I’m like ‘it’ll be cool to instead of watching it, I kind of want to be in it,’” Garcia said.
The building of a room is a very detailed process that Garcia explains in a part-by-part overview:
First, he and his team come up with a theme for the room. Then they gather a list of puzzles they want to include in the room, ranging from solving a math problem to having players cooperating by holding two items at once.
Once gathering all the puzzles for the room and fitting them into the storyline of the game, Garcia’s team “maps out” the flow of the puzzles and how they should work.
Throughout each stage of creating a room, Garcia says it’s important to always to trial-and-error runs.
“Once I have like a general idea, I have a big white board and I’ll draw out a puzzle how it’s supposed to work. I’ll have my sister or some of our staff do the puzzle to see if they can figure it out. A lot of times, it makes sense in my head, but it doesn’t make sense to anyone else,” Garcia said.
Garcia’s team will then go into the build process and start constructing how the rooms will look and where the puzzles go.
Once everything has been built, Garcia’s team installs the props, lights and buildings to bring the rooms to life.
After the rooms are ready to go, “beta” testing begins for players to test out how the rooms are and give feedback.
The whole process from brainstorming a new room to the finished product takes roughly six months, Garcia says.
Not only does Garcia and his team have to figure out a story, puzzles and connect the whole room into one cohesive flow, but also have to find a sweet spot for all players to enjoy, whether you’re a veteran in escape rooms or this is your very first room.
“What helps us, that probably differentiates us from other rooms, we, the owners, get to see how a lot of new players play, how experienced players tackle things differently. It helps us with the design,” Garcia said. “It also helps that I’ve played over 100 of these (rooms), but a lot of times, as I’m designing the rooms, we forget that most people are new to these. With beta testing, that’s where we’re really figure out how to find that sweet spot.”
Garcia says he really wanted to bring something different in El Paso and that was a driving force to open an escape room business, instead of a restaurant.
“I really wanted to bring something to El Paso that isn’t like a typical bar. Something that kids, young adults, teens, older people, everyone can enjoy,” Garcia said.
Garcia says that one way that his business stands out from other escape rooms is his staff.
“You can tell our staff really, really cares. If you go to our review page, you’ll see they’re always getting shout outed. Even though I’m very involved and I’m trying to be here every day, whenever I’m out of town or whatever, we have staff that cares about this place. They care that the customer is leaving happy or their experience really well,” Garcia said.
If you have any new ideas of rooms or puzzles, Garcia says don’t hesitate to reach out, Operation Outbreak is always listening to the community’s input and ideas.
Garcia also says that another way his business stands out is how Operation Outbreak is built by the community’s suggestions and ideas. He says sending out newsletters asking what the public will want to see and sparked some ideas in newer rooms.
As Operation Outbreak continues to grow with newer rooms, Garcia says he’s excited to implement newer items into his rooms to make them that much more immersive.
Operation Outbreak is located at 4530 Montana Ave., Suite E in Central El Paso.
For more information on the escape rooms or to book your session, visit their website here.
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