Creation guide
Building a game, start to finish
Everything you can build on Escape Game City, and every setting available. Written for someone who has never created a game or a clue: it starts with the vocabulary and ends with the list of what blocks publication.
The vocabulary
Three words, and one thing to understand so you don't lose an evening: clues do not live inside stages. They live in a library shared by the whole game, and each stage ticks the ones it offers. Creating a clue is therefore never enough to put it in play.
The container: title, description, artwork, duration, age, price, language. This is what players see on the listing before they start.
↑ each stage ticks what it needs ↑
Every clue in the game, whatever its type. The same clue can serve in several stages. A clue no stage has ticked is flagged “Unused”: no player will ever see it.
A game runs in a straight line: the player lands on stage 1, reads the clues it offers, works out the answer, enters it — and moves to stage 2. If they get stuck they can ask for a hint, which costs them a time penalty. The clock runs from start to finish.
The game and its settings
The first choice, made at creation, drives everything else: is your game played outdoors, or in a living room?
Game to play at home
The player does not move. Everything happens on screen, and possibly on printed paper.
Location stages are not offered, and the “Discovery” axis cannot be weighted — it assumes walking. This is the format of short games and gifts.
Real-world game with GPS
The player walks a town. Stages can require reaching a real place.
Two extra settings appear in the sidebar: the play area, drawn on the map, and the starting point. Both are required to publish. Every clue can then be unlocked on site.
The listing
This is what the player reads before starting.
- Title
- 2 to 255 characters Required
- Description
- 10 to 2047 characters Required Rich editor: bold, italic, headings, lists, quote, alignment, and links — the only field in the product that accepts them.
- Game language
- Required The language of your texts, not of the interface. One game, one language: to offer the other, duplicate it.
- Duration (in minutes)
- 5 to 1440 minutes Required to publish It is also the clock of the game.
- Minimum and maximum age
- 3 to 120 years old Required The minimum must stay at or below the maximum.
- What your game asks for
- Required when public Four axes weighted from 0 to 5. See below.
- Requirements
- 2 to 2047 characters Optional What players need at hand: a printer, a pencil, two people…
- Required document (PDF file)
- PDF, 10M maximum Optional The vehicle for printed material: cards to cut out, sheets to hold against a window.
- Music (MP3 file)
- MP3, 20M maximum Optional
- Price (leave empty or 0 for a free game)
- €0 to €100 Optional Empty or 0 means free. Payment goes through Stripe.
- Private, and its password
- 2 to 255 characters A private game appears nowhere publicly and skips moderation: players enter with an identifier and a password, both shown on its admin page. You can switch private ↔ public at any time.
The five images
Four of them block publication. They are filled in automatically at creation, derived from your title: you can publish without uploading a single one, then replace them whenever you like.
| Image | Ratio | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Cover Required to publish | 3:2 · 2950 × 2000 px | Listing page, social sharing |
| Thumbnail Optional | 1:1 · 920 × 920 px | Lists and catalogues |
| Game background Required to publish | 9:16 · 2484 × 4416 px | Behind the game, for the whole session |
| Success screen Required to publish | 9:16 | Game won, with your message |
| Failure screen Required to publish | 9:16 | Time up, with your message |
Accepted formats: JPEG, PNG, WEBP, GIF, 3M maximum per file.
Upload frames carry exactly the expected ratio. An image uploaded at another ratio is not refused: it is cropped, top and bottom, or left and right. That is where titles and characters usually sit. Crop before uploading.
What your game asks for
This grid is the same on every game in the catalogue — that is what lets two listings be compared line by line. You set weights, not percentages; the proportions shown to players are calculated.
- Discovery
- Walking to real places and reading what is there: a plaque, a façade, a street detail. ⚠️ Refused on a play-at-home game: the row still shows 0 %, but the slider cannot be set.
- Observation
- Looking closely at an image for what it hides: a detail, an overlay, a difference.
- Logic & deduction
- Connecting clues to work out the code: an order, a match, an elimination.
- General knowledge
- Drawing on what you already know, or looking it up: history, symbols, languages, science.
Difficulty is deliberately not a criterion: it is already measured by the real success rate of players, shown alongside. An axis that is not asked for shows 0 % — that is not a gap, it is information.
The stage: four ways to solve it
A stage is a question and its answer. The type says how the player proves they found it. It is the only truly structural setting; everything else — clues, hints, success message — is common to all four.
Numeric code
The player types digits on a numeric keypad.
- Stage solution
- 1 to 12 characters Required
- Available composers
- Layer templates, dial templates and sound instruments: all of them can only draw and play digits, so they require this stage type.
This is the most common type, and the only one compatible with every composer. If in doubt, start here.
Alphanumeric code
The player types a word or a mix of letters and digits, on a 36-key keyboard.
- Stage solution
- 1 to 12 characters Required
Pick a code word outside the vocabulary of your story. A word too close to the setting — “MOON” in a witch's tale — eventually resurfaces in the text of a clue, and gives the answer away.
QR Code
The player scans a QR code with their phone camera.
- Stage solution
- 1 to 12 characters Required
Never write the QR value in a clue: it is never typed on a keyboard, and revealing it removes any reason to go and scan anything. The printable QR is given to you on the stage screen.
Geolocation
Outdoor gamesThe player walks to the place. The step validates itself on arrival.
- Stage solution
- Not applicable: there is nothing to enter
The point must fall inside the play area you drew. Allow at least thirty to fifty metres of radius in town: below that, GPS drift stops validation from happening at all.
What every stage carries, whatever its type
- Step no.
- Assigned automatically Last stage + 1. Change it afterwards with the arrows on the game page; deleting a stage renumbers the following ones.
- Clues for this stage
- At least one to publish Click the thumbnails in your library to offer them to players at this stage.
- Message on success
- 2 to 512 characters Required Shown when the stage is solved. This is your narrative hinge: avoid starting it with the code, use it to launch the next stage.
- Hints
- 2 to 512 characters At least one per stage A text and a penalty in seconds. Order is assigned automatically: the first one added is offered first — so start with the gentlest nudge.
The form accepts a hint from 2 characters, but publication requires 10. A hint written “??” saves without a word and blocks going live later, from another screen.
Another rule, checked by moderation: the last hint helps a lot, it does not give the answer. It may state the whole method and where the order of the characters comes from — not write the code.
The eight clue types
A clue type is defined by what the player DOES, never by what you fill in. That is why “text” and “cipher” are two types although they share exactly the same fields: one is read, the other is attacked.
Six types out of eight can be created without bringing a single file: you type a code or a text, and the server builds the images or the sound. This is the part of the product creators discover last, and the one that saves the most time.
Image
A photo, a scanned document, a map. The most common case.
What you provide
- Upload an image.
The image is served to players at 621 × 1104, cropped to the centre. Anything that must be read has to sit near the centre and stay legible on a phone: a fine inscription placed at the edge disappears.
Text
A letter, a note, a coded message. Nothing to produce, nothing to download.
What you provide
- Write the text of the clue.
Settings specific to this type
- Paper, size and position of the text.
This is the safest type: nothing to download offline, crisp at every zoom level, readable by a screen reader. When a detail absolutely must be read, prefer text over an image.
Sound
Composable by the sound studioA voice, an intercepted message, a sound to identify. Transcript required.
What you provide
- Upload a sound file.
- The transcript is required: without it the clue is unusable for a deaf player or anyone without headphones.
Ogg is refused — iPhones cannot play it, and the clue would be silent for half your players. The transcript describes what is HEARD, never what it means: “three knocks, then seven knocks”, not “the code is 37”. Maximum size: 8M.
Layers to overlay
Composable from a templateTwo images the player overlays to reveal the answer.
What you provide
- Upload the bottom layer.
- Upload the top layer: without it there is nothing to overlay.
Both images must have exactly the same dimensions, otherwise nothing lines up. That is what templates are for: they produce both layers from a single call.
Image to reveal
Composable from a templateA visible image and a hidden one, which the player lights up with a finger.
What you provide
- Upload the image visible to the naked eye.
- Upload the hidden image: that is what the lamp reveals.
Settings specific to this type
- Fading veil: what has been uncovered can close again.
- Announce the gesture, or let it be discovered.
Do not swap the two images: the visible layer is the one being rubbed away, the hidden layer is the one carrying the code. Swapped, the card shows the answer from the start. Templates order them for you.
Encrypted message
Composable by the cipher toolA text to decipher. The app gives the player a scratchpad for their guesses — it never gives them the key.
What you provide
- Paste the ciphered message, or use the composer: enciphered by hand, it goes out wrong every other time.
Settings specific to this type
- Paper, size and position of the text.
The key is never stored on the clue: it would travel with it into the app. Write it in a hint, or in a second clue of the stage. The player's notepad does not know the key and decrypts nothing — it only propagates the guesses the player makes.
Image with hotspots
An image whose areas open on touch. The scene sets the stage, the areas carry the detail.
What you provide
- Upload the scene to explore: it is what carries the zones.
- Place at least one zone on the scene. Without zones this type promises nothing to touch, and the clue is just an image.
Settings specific to this type
- From 1 to 8 zones, label of 40 characters, text of 400 characters, size adjustable from 3.5 % to 30 % of the width.
A zone left without text is not saved at all. You therefore do not end up with “an empty zone” but with one zone FEWER — and if it carried a character of the code, the stage becomes unsolvable. Publication also refuses filler zones: random letters, or every zone carrying the same text. Several zones that resemble each other without being identical are perfectly legitimate, though — that is a good elimination mechanic.
Dial to turn
Composable from a templateTwo concentric discs the player turns to the right position. Composed from a template only.
What you provide
- The disc is missing: a dial is not uploaded, it is composed.
- The cover is missing: compose the pair, it comes out of a single call.
- Pick a dial template. Two discs brought together by hand have no reason to line up, and nothing would say so before the game.
This is the only type that cannot be uploaded: two discs picked by hand never line up, and the game would be unsolvable with nothing to warn you before play.
Settings common to every type
- Clue name
- 255 characters maximum Optional To find your way around the library. It is not shown to the player as an instruction.
- On-site unlocking
- Optional Keep the clue closed until the player has reached somewhere. See the next chapter.
What the server builds for you
Three composers. The principle is the same in all three cases: you type a code or a text, the machine produces the media — never misaligned, never unsolvable, never the wrong code. Nothing is written to disk until you save: an abandoned tab leaves no file behind.
Image templates
You reach them from the clue form, by ticking the type then “Compose”. You enter the stage code and the template draws both layers; the “another version” button replays the composition with a different draw, without ever changing the code. All of them accept DIGITS only — they draw in seven segments, having no embedded font — and the field is capped at 6.
Stack two layers
| Template | Length | Second clue |
|---|---|---|
| Blink comparator Two surveys of the same bench, a few parts apart. Sweeping the slider makes the changes flicker. | 4 digits maximum | — |
| Cardan grille A mask with windows over a grid of digits, a symbol engraved next to each window. The mask selects the digits; the order is told in another clue. | 5 digits maximum | Required |
| Half glyphs Each digit is cut in half, one half per layer. The code is written on neither: the only true lock. | 6 digits maximum | — |
| Red filter A message drowned in red noise, brought out by a coloured sheet. The player has to tune the slider. | 6 digits maximum | — |
Light up a hidden image
| Template | Length | Second clue |
|---|---|---|
| Buried plate Soil to sweep away. Underneath, a brass plate with the code engraved on it. | 6 digits maximum | — |
| Fogged window Condensation to wipe. Behind the glass, the code glows in the night. | 6 digits maximum | — |
| Invisible ink An ordinary letter. Under the lamp, the very same sheet carries the code in fluorescent ink. | 6 digits maximum | — |
| Under the wallpaper Wallpaper to peel off. The code is written in charcoal on the wall it covered. | 6 digits maximum | — |
Turn a dial
| Template | Length | Second clue |
|---|---|---|
| Half-glyph dial Each digit is cut in two, one half per disc. The code is on neither: the catalogue’s second true lock. | 8 digits maximum | — |
| Correspondence dial Twelve symbols around the disc. Aim the pointer at one: the window shows its digit. Which symbols to aim at, and in what order — another clue tells. | 5 digits maximum | Required |
| Windowed dial A pierced cover that, at the right position, shows only the code digits. It does not hide, it points. | 8 digits maximum | Required |
Some templates do not stand alone. A Cardan grid points at digits but not at their order; a windowed dial has twelve positions and nothing says which one; a symbol dial reads one digit per symbol, but you still need to know which ones to aim at.
This is the half of the puzzle the machine cannot guarantee. The composition screen then gives you the exact sentence to copy, already written in the language of your game, and a “Also create the clue that announces it” button. Without it, every reading is as good as another and the stage has no solution left.
Ciphers
You write the message in plain text and the server encrypts it. Accents and lower case are folded to the alphabet; digits are encrypted too — a number left in the clear would give the code away. The plain message is never kept: to correct it, you recompose it. Length: 4 to 300 characters; beyond that, nobody decrypts to the end.
- The reversed alphabet
- A becomes Z, B becomes Y. The easiest: it can be cracked without a key, which makes it a good first cipher. The key can be given as a table, or told through a story sentence.
- The shift
- Every letter and digit moves forward by the same number of places. The player finds that number, then steps back. The key can be given as a table, or told through a story sentence.
- The random alphabet
- Each character replaces another, with no rule. The strongest — and undecipherable if you forget to hand over the table. The key can only be given as a table: fifty-two signs cannot be told as a sentence.
Sound instruments
Type the code, pick the instrument: the file and its transcript are built for you. Nothing to record. The “another take” button changes tempo and timbre, never the code.
| Instrument | Accepted code | What the player must know |
|---|---|---|
| Knocks Four knocks… seven knocks… two. They can be counted: the only self-sufficient instrument. | 5 digits maximum, no 0 | Nothing |
| Morse Dots and dashes, one digit at a time. The table is given in another clue — the table is the puzzle. | 6 digits maximum | A rule, told elsewhere |
| Music box A scale first, then the code's melody: each note is worth its rank in the scale. The rule is told elsewhere. | 6 digits maximum, no 0 | A rule, told elsewhere |
Printed material
This is not a clue type: the player handles paper, not a screen. The vehicle is the game's PDF document, plus the requirements line warning that a printer is needed. The ideas panel, on the game page, offers six — two of which the server can compose entirely: a QR code cut into four cards to reassemble, and a sheet of puzzle cards carrying the code across the cut lines, so that no single card shows a whole digit.
Cross-cutting settings
Four settings that do not define a type, but apply on top of one.
Text appearance
The paper your text is shown on in the game. Background, colour and font go together: that is what keeps the clue readable on a phone.
| Paper | Typeface |
|---|---|
| Game screen | Sans serif |
| Notebook page | Serif |
| Parchment | Serif |
| Blackboard | Sans serif |
| Sticky note | Sans serif |
| Terminal | Monospace |
| Typewriter | Monospace |
- Text size
- Small · Normal · Large · Extra large A factor, not pixels: the size follows the accessibility settings of the player's phone.
- Text position
- Top · Middle · Bottom Within the card's height. A text longer than the screen falls back to the top on its own.
Does the veil come back?
By default, what is uncovered stays uncovered. Switched on, the lamp becomes a beam: the player has to sweep and go back over spots they passed too quickly.
- Never — scratching is permanent
- Default
- Slowly — the veil returns within seconds
- about 6,0 seconds
- Medium — you must keep sweeping
- about 2,5 seconds
- Fast — only what is under the finger stays lit
- about 1,0 seconds
A scene to explore gains enormously: the constraint creates attention. A code to read loses everything — six digits fading while you read them is a dexterity test grafted onto a deduction test, and a wall for anyone who reads slowly or has motor difficulties.
Tell the player what to do
Ticked, the app shows "Swipe your finger over the image to light it up". Unticked, the player sees an ordinary picture and only discovers the gesture by touching it — finding out becomes part of the puzzle. Write a hint that points to it: without the sentence, nothing else will.
This setting exists for the reveal type alone: an overlay shows its slider, a dial its two arrows, a hotspot image its pins, a cipher its keypad. On those, hiding the sentence would conceal nothing.
On-site unlocking
By default the clue is available at any time. Open this block to keep it closed until the player reaches a specific place — useful for outdoor games.
- Radius (metres)
- 20 to 5000 metres Below 20 m, GPS drift in a city prevents the unlock from ever happening.
- Nature of the setting
- Orthogonal to the type: a located clue can be an image, a text, a sound or a dial.
Before publishing
The “Validation” screen of your game lists what remains to be done at all times. A private game skips moderation; a public game is reviewed by the team.
What the machine checks, by family
- General information
- Visuals
- Steps
- Hints
- Clues
See the full list of publication criteria
The “Test” button plays your game in the browser exactly as a player would — same tabs, same gestures. Nothing is recorded: no participation, no progress, no score. It is the only way to spot a code no clue gives, or a clue attached to the next stage: the checklist verifies presence, it does not play.
After publication
Publishing freezes a version. The line you keep working on stays editable; the published version is the one being played. Republishing creates a new version, and goes back through moderation if the game is public.
Quick reference
| Field | Limit |
|---|---|
| Title | 2 to 255 characters |
| Description | 10 to 2047 characters |
| Duration (in minutes) | 5 to 1440 minutes |
| Minimum and maximum age | 3 to 120 years old |
| Game price | €0 to €100 |
| Stage solution | 1 to 12 characters |
| Message on success | 2 to 512 characters |
| Hints | 2 to 512 characters 10 characters minimum to publish |
| Clue name | 255 characters maximum |
| The message, in plain text | 4 to 300 characters |
| Zones of a hotspot clue | 1 to 8 zones Label 40 characters, text 400 characters, size from 3.5 % to 30 % of the width |
| Radius (metres) | 20 to 5000 metres |
| Images (game and clues) | JPEG, PNG, WEBP, GIF · 3M |
| Sound file | MP3, M4A/AAC or WAV, 8M maximum · no Ogg |
| Music (MP3 file) | MP3, 20M maximum |
| Required document (PDF file) | PDF, 10M maximum |
The five costliest mistakes
- Creating a clue and forgetting to tick it in a stage. It is then flagged “Unused” and no player sees it.
- Composing a template with the wrong code. The clue looks great, the overlay works, and the stage stays unsolvable. The code is pre-filled when you arrive from the stage form: go that way.
- Forgetting the second clue of a Cardan grid or a windowed dial. Every reading is as good as another; there is no solution left.
- Writing the code in the last hint. The player who pays for it does not get a hint, they get the end of the stage.
- Not testing. The checklist verifies presence: it declares compliant a stage whose code appears in no clue at all.
You now know what the tool can do. The rest is learned by writing a first stage.
Create a game