About paradigmQ Escape Games, Vancouver, WA
paradigmQ is fun, exciting and stimulating! Not to mention, has a collection of the best and most ingenious interactive escape games anywhere!
Challenge friends, family, and co-workers but don’t dawdle! You only have 60 minutes to work together, find clues, crack codes, and solve puzzles to win!
Perfect for plenty of events, such as date night! Or showing out-of-town friends a great time! Create memories and celebrate a birthday party! Host your wedding party! The opportunities are endless.
This is what our players can agree on: paradigmQ sponsors enthralling, creative puzzles, unique challenges, and cool ciphers to test your wits.
Are You Game?
Our History
In the beginning…
We set out six years ago – at Escape Games PDX, paradigmQ’s older sister location – to bring escape rooms to the greater Portland and Vancouver areas. After a grueling 18 months of searching, securing permits, constructing experiences, and testing – then retesting! – our puzzles, finally we opened at the end of 2015 with our first location, Escape Games PDX.
The first room we built was Sherlock’s Secret, then quickly Prison Break was built not long after. It didn’t take long for demand to grow – and continue growing.
Thus began our quest to increase the number of escape experiences available for our guests, many of whom returned to us again and again, seeking new challenges.
Portlandia became our third escape experience and is perhaps our quirkiest room ever! It’s a mix of Portland history and is a satirical representation of Portland life and culture, made all in honor of the beloved and much-admired television show by the same name. (Fun fact! We even had Fred Armisen visit us for inspiration for an escape room sketch!)
What’s so wild, is that all this happened within four months of opening, and it’s been full-steam ahead ever since.
Now…
We couldn’t be happier with the community we’ve built. Players tell us time-and-time-again how our rooms feature impressive scenic design, clever robust puzzle paths, and hyper player-focused goals than any other escape room facility in Portland or Vancouver. Due to our incredible player base we were able to open a second location in the fall of 2019: paradigmQ Escape Games. Now we have over ten different escape experiences!
READ MORE...Meanwhile, we’re also constantly seeking new ways to delight and excite our growing list of new and returning players. Events like Agent UnderCOUVER and Clues Done It, have allowed us to branch out into our cities and engage in bigger escape experiences.
We’re proud to have earned the title of “No.1 Escape Room Company in Portland and Vancouver”. Our success couldn’t have been done without our dedicated staff of game masters, designers, puzzlers, and escape experts.
Come visit us today at paradigmQ, where players can…
…enter a time portal into the past or future…
…begin a hunt for the legendary Sasquatch…
…solve a mysterious murder on Pennyworth’s express!
Above all? paradigmQ is waiting for you!
Are you game?
APOLLO SENT YOU?
ANYONE CAN ESCAPE!
HISTORY OF ESCAPE GAMES
Escape game rooms began online, with video games such as: Crimson Room (2004) and The Room (a popular game app!). In 2007, Real Escape Game, in Japan, with the company SCRAP, developed the first in-person escape game. Quickly, escape rooms began opening up all over Asia and soon after that Europe, in 2011. The US didn’t catch the escape room craze until 2013, when Seattle based Puzzle Break opened the first game stateside. By the end of 2014 there were an estimated dozen or so located in the US and today, it’s estimated there’s about 50,000 escape rooms worldwide!
Opinions vary on why escape rooms are so popular. You can ask ten different players and get ten different answers. Some people love the group camaraderie, some enjoy the unknown of it all, some love being able to use their brains for fun, and some just love the thrill! Escape rooms cover niche markets like horror, live action, and actor-based. Companies like HBO, Ford and NBC have hosted their own escape experiences!
Escape rooms are also popular in the media. TV shows like Bob’s Burgers, The Big Bang Theory, and Portlandia have featured episodes focused on their characters playing in an escape room.
No matter the history, we’re happy to be a part of it since 2015. Thank you for making us a part of it all!
JOIN THE TEAM
HAVE YOU EVER WANTED TO LEARN WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A GAME MASTER?
Whether you like to call them Game Masters, Clue Masters, Escape Guides, or any other of the handful of great titles out there, our team is what makes paradigmQ a fantastic place to work and play. Each and every one of our team members brings their own style, vibrancy, and personality to their role. Our goal, “win”, “lose” or “draw”, is that players walk away with a fun memory to share and look back on.
Training to be a Game Master is both simple and extremely complex. You don’t have to know every code to every lock, but you do have to know how to pump up a team, how to help them progress through an experience, how to nudge or give them hints, and how to cheer them to the finish line. The best part is that every group and every player experiences the room differently.
If you’re totally sold on the idea of being a Game Master, the overseer behind the curtain, please send us an email with your resume HERE.
We look forward to hearing from you!
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Curious about new escape room games, looking forward to special events, or interested in escape specials? Join our newsletter for up to date information on all things paradigmQ!
