How to Use a Jigsaw Puzzle as an Escape Room Puzzle
Custom jigsaw puzzles created at Jigsaw Explorer are perfect for use as escape room puzzles in digital escape rooms. Continue reading to see how easy it is to do this...
What Are Digital Escape Rooms?
A digital escape room is an online game in which you are locked in a room and you must determine an escape by deceiphering clues in the room. The clues are usually found by solving puzzles of various types. Creating digital escape rooms has become popular among parents and educators because escape rooms can be an effective and fun teaching tool for kids. Escape rooms are also useful for corporate events and team building. Learn more about escape rooms and how to create them by Googling "create digital escape room".
Create a Custom Jigsaw Puzzle for Your Escape Room
Custom jigsaw puzzles work very well as escape room puzzles. Use Jigsaw Explorer's custom jigsaw puzzle page to create your jigsaw puzzle using your own photo.
Mystery format: Be sure to enable the "Mystery puzzle" check box when creating your custom puzzle. Mystery format ensures the puzzle subject cannot be seen by players until the puzzle is completed (i.e., the puzzle program's "preview image" feature is disabled for mystery puzzles). Likewise, any credit line you specify for your custom puzzle will not be viewable by the player until the puzzle is complete, and players cannot reduce the number of puzzle pieces to quickly reveal the puzzle subject.
Puzzle subject image: The puzzle subject image can contain a clue or answer needed to progress to the next escape room puzzle, or the image may simply depict a picture relevant to your escape room theme and you place the clue or answer in the credit line. Your puzzle subject image can reside on your own web server, or you can upload it to Imgur.
Credit line: Specifying "mystery" format for your custom puzzle prevents players from being able to view the credit line before the puzzle is completed, so the credit line is a good place to put a clue or answer for your escape room puzzle. You can also specify a credit URL so that clicking the credit line takes the player to a web page of your choice. You can even use the credit URL to send the player directly to another custom mystery puzzle.
Add the Jigsaw Puzzle to Your Escape Room
If you are using a platform such as Google Forms to create your escape room then you cannot embed your custom jigsaw puzzle directly into the escape room. Instead, you will need to add a link to the custom puzzle inside the escape room form. See this simple Google Forms example of a jigsaw puzzle used as an escape room puzzle to see what this looks like.
Puzzle screenshot: Notice the screenshot of the uncompleted jigsaw puzzle used in the escape room example above. The screenshot is not required but it adds a nice touch to your escape room design. The screenshot is easily obtained from within Jigsaw Explorer's puzzle program by clicking Help > (scroll to bottom of Help panel) > Support Tools > Program Log > Preview. Right click the screenshot when it appears and use the "Save Image" menu selection to save the screenshot as an image file. The screenshot is already a perfect size for escape room use and can be uploaded to Google Forms or other platforms.
Let us know if you have any questions or comments about using Jigsaw Explorer custom mystery jigsaw puzzles in digital escape rooms.
