CHENNAI: Little did Hareesh Mothi, an audit expert, think that he would end up as a gaming entrepreneur. It was in 2014, when he visited Poland on work, that he was first exposed to the concept and got hooked to it. During that visit, he took part in his first escape game. He spent one hour playing the game, trying to defuse a ticking bomb. Soon, he found himself intrigued by the concept and played it in multiple countries. He later decided to start on his own set up an initiative in Bengaluru.
Narrating what led him to set up his escape game venture “Breakout” in Bengaluru, the entrepreneur said he chanced upon it for the first time on the recommendation of a friend when he was in Poland. “My friend introduced me to this concept. In my first experience I did not even make it out in 60 minutes.It took a long time to figure out the concept. Later we went to Prague and played there too. I did not think of the business potential at that point in time. I was just becoming a fan. After I tried it in other countries, I found that there was a saturation. All the games were clue-based. That is when the idea struck to start something close to real-life to make it more interesting.”
While escape games usually revolve around clues, Mothi wanted to introduce a storyline to the concept. “All over the world, they give a lot of importance to the ambience. They give so much importance to the clues and never give importance to the story, because it’s ten times harder to build the game. We wanted to build a game where every clue is integral to the story line. So those playing the game get immersed into the character because they are living the experience,” he said.
It’s been a long journey for Breakout since the time of its inception. Very soon, the team wanted to introduce additional features and began working on IoT- based escape games, making use of sensors. Not all the technology required (both hardware and software) was available in India and hence they had to go to great lengths to put it all together. Recently, Breakout expanded its presence by introducing tech-enabled games and even rented out a new place in Koramangala in the city for the all new feature.
Talking about the effort that went into it, Mothi said it took them one year and nine months to put it all together. Finding the right partner was a challenge and they worked with 37 vendors to make it happen. To put together a reliable technology keeping safety of the visitors in mind was crucial for the team. Integrating the storyline with the interiors of their gaming room was also a challenging task, he said. Breakout is a team of 25 and there are professionals who work exclusively on developing the storyline.
Enchanted Forest, Murder Mystery, Kidnapped, Curse of the Pharaoh are some the games designed by Breakout. Enchanted Forest is an exclusive feature written for children, where they get to take part in a treasure hunt inside a forest. The team has made use of IoT-based technology to provide an improved simulative experience.
Completely boot-strapped venture, Mothi started the gaming room by chipping in from his own pocket. Today, they have a franchise in Ahmedabad and Kolkatta. Very soon, they would be opening one in Chennai, Mothi added. The team plans to set up their unit in 20 locations across the country in a span of one year.
In a nutshell
Breakout was a completely bootstrapped project which started in Bengaluru
It currently functions with a team of 25 people including creators who build the storyline
It took them nine months and 37 vendors to get the ball rolling
The team plans to expand to 20 cities soon