Puzzles, Fear and Play: Armenia’s Quest Room Scene

2026-02-04 - 07:46

Listen to the AI generated audio article. Your browser does not support the audio element. Hello, Reader. Let’s play a game. You wake up in a pitch-black, unfamiliar space, alone, with the lights off. You’re here because you wanted something new and thrilling, so you signed up for a game. You have 60 minutes to escape. Escape or stay. Make your choice. Let the game begin! If you found this article, you’re likely drawn to becoming the main character, someone who enjoys solving complex intellectual puzzles, hiding from monsters, or breaking enchanted spells. Quest rooms offer sealed chambers of possibility, where players step into a narrative and become a part of the story. Most games are cooperative, though competitive formats exist. The rules are simple: decipher riddles to escape before time runs out. There’s a crucial difference between escape rooms and quest rooms. Quest rooms prioritize intellectual challenges and narrative structure. Escape rooms focus on finding your way out and avoiding the actor, sometimes in as little as 15 to 20 minutes. Quest rooms abroad are rare and often simplified. The Armenian market, however, emphasizes puzzle-driven gameplay, placing intellect at the center of the experience. To unlock the exit door, you must learn the origins of quest rooms. Your next clue lies in the archives. Escape rooms don’t have a single birthplace—they drew inspiration from text-based adventure games, reality and fictional TV series, and puzzle hunts. The first quest rooms weren’t physical entertainment but digital experiences woven in binary code. In 1976, the text-based computer game Colossal Cave Adventure (originally called ADVENT) allowed players to explore a virtual cave using only words on the screen. Another text-adventure videogame, Behind Closed Doors, was created in 1988, where the protagonist Balrog had to escape an outhouse. Later, the 2001 point-and-click game Mystery of Time and Space added visuals and became the prototype for live escape rooms. Some British reality TV shows served as early prototypes for today’s quest rooms, putting players in teams to solve puzzles and escape. One show from the 1980s called The Adventure Game featured two celebrities and a member of the public traveling to planet Arg to solve puzzles made by alien Argonds. Another British children’s show, Knightmare, followed four children attempting to complete a medieval fantasy-themed quest. Horror and thriller movies like the “Saw” franchise, “The Game”, “Escape Room” duology and “The Cube” draw inspiration from the same concept: escape before time runs out! These films capture the anxiety and terror of characters being trapped in an unknown environment, fighting for their lives. Dear Reader, you have reached the first checkpoint. Long before this moment, live-action puzzle games first emerged in Japan. In 2007, the company SCRAP launched the world’s Real Escape Game (REG). These early games broke free from screens and were staged in locations like schools and abandoned hospitals, transforming everyday spaces into sites of collective problem-solving under pressure. As digital logic migrated into the physical world, puzzles became tactile and the atmosphere of the rooms became essential. The wave of quest rooms peaked in 2015. Some venues disappeared, while others adapted to the market and developed their original ideas. Your next challenge begins here! You find a key tucked under the door to the next room. You open it and step toward your next riddle. A young woman sits at a desk, smiling at you. Through a short dialogue, you learn that she is Lilit Vardanyan, owner of the Quest Project Isolation. In 2015, the Ukrainian brand opened a new branch in Armenia. Her team then adapted the concept to the Armenian market, gradually forming their distinctive style. “We were among the first to introduce escape room culture to Armenia,” Lilit says. Each game at the Quest Project Isolation has its own story, drawn from famous films, TV series, real-life events, and customer suggestions. A lot of work happens behind the scenes before customers can enjoy the thrilling, and torturous, experience. After choosing the theme comes the construction phase, where the staff works with a professional specialist to decide what devices the room needs. For Lilit, the most time-consuming stage is creating and safely installing the electrical devices. Next, they write the legend, creating a story realistic enough for the team to feel part of that world. “Once our pictured world is ready, we start working on the puzzles,” Lilit explains. All riddles have logical solutions connected to the scenario and flow of the game. According to Lilit’s observations, horror quests featuring live actors are most popular among 18 to 19 year old players. Escaping a scary quest pushes people out of their comfort zone and creates memorable experiences. “For many, horror quests are a way to get an adrenaline boost and a surge of emotions,” Lilit says. Meanwhile, players over 30 choose non-scary rooms to focus on the tasks and test their logic in a stress-free environment. Lilit notes that the actors of the Quest Project Isolation are the most caring people on the team. Still, they manage to scare the players so much that they start dancing and praying to reduce their fear. “Recently, one participant brought a scary mask into the quest room, intending to scare the actor—and I must admit, they succeeded,” Lilit says. It took more than 10 years for Quest Project Isolation to show people that entertainment can exist in this format. They continue to shape the local culture of quest rooms. As a result, demand is growing daily. The path towards the next destination has been unlocked. You find yourself in a small room with board games lining the shelves. The young man sitting in front of you is Edgar Hayrapetyan, ready to share his story of founding Moon Quest with his friend. On February 22, 2024, they entered the Armenian market with a fresh focus on horror quests, improving plotlines, scare levels, settings and acting. After studying the market, Edgar found that demand leaned heavily toward horror-themed quests and scary experiences. He noted that Armenia lacked horror quest rooms that delivered the full spectrum of fear. Based on feedback from players who had tried closed and current quests, the horror was often not terrifying enough. As a horror fan himself Edgar aimed to raise the scare level in Moon Quest’s experiences. The key difference between Moon Quest’s horror rooms and others is the performance of the actors. At Moon Quest, actors fully embody their characters and engage with the audience. “When we compared the acting abroad to how our local actors open and close doors to scare people, we decided to improve the genre of quest performance, which besides jumpscares, also includes theatrical performances by actors,” says Edgar. Beyond dialogues and jumpscares, the actors are allowed to touch, separate, pull and push players. For those seeking more adrenaline, Moon Quest is the only place in Armenia to offer a hardcore mode for adults, where actors are allowed to be physical with players, use a taser, and appear with a chainsaw. For that mode, participants must sign a contract confirming that they understand the rules and accept the responsibility. Player experience is taken seriously, so great care goes into preparing realistic costumes for each character. Each room features unique decorations and lighting that align with the storyline, creating an immersive atmosphere. Edgar explains that prop durability is carefully planned in advance to minimize damage during gameplay. Fragile items are intentionally placed at the beginning of the quest, while reinforced metal props appear later. To maintain consistency, the rooms are constantly repaired, repainted and refreshed. The puzzles are smartly designed. Core structures serve as a foundation and are transformed visually and thematically to fit each environment. Edgar mentions that on average, three to four puzzles follow this shared framework, while the remaining six are entirely original and designed specifically for each room. You walk inside The Walking Dead quest room, which is dark, and filled with creepy, apocalyptic decorations hanging on the walls. You start observing the room when the lights suddenly switch off, and Edgar disappears. A narrow door opens, and you decide to enter. You descend narrow stairs into another small room. There, you see a man sitting at a desk, looking at a computer screen. That man is Sergey Nersesyan, the owner of Yerevan Quest. Sergey’s decision to open a quest room came from years of playing them in Yerevan and abroad. After COVID-19, some quest rooms closed, and as the market recovered, he felt the quality of the games had dropped. He believed it could be improved, so he decided to open up his own rooms in 2021. He started by creating complex riddles and testing them on his friends. Their puzzled yet positive feedback showed him the importance of balancing difficulty and enjoyment. Encouraged by strong player satisfaction, he rented a space for four months as a trial to assess public interest. There weren’t many players at first, but the numbers grew. Despite initial financial losses, Sergey opened a second room—this one horror-themed. “I’m not a fan of horror quests, but that’s mostly what people ask for,” he says. An actor’s presence determines how scary a room feels. Players can choose to play without an actor, but the riddles may feel less challenging without adrenaline affecting their concentration. On the other hand, actors’ jumpscares take time away from solving puzzles. Sergey Nersesyan has acted as a monster in their escape room scenario Monster List. For him, the most rewarding part is the emotional exchange of fear with players. He describes escape rooms as adventures centered on emotion, whether it’s fear in horror quests or the satisfaction of solving puzzles through teamwork. Despite the market’s demand for horror, Sergey wants to push non-horror quests forward. Yerevan Quest is slowly achieving this. Murder on the Orient Express has become their most-played room. Until recently, Sergey wasn’t financially dependent on the quest business. All income went back into improving it. “If I were doing it only for money, I’d lose motivation quickly during tough financial periods,” he says. His motivation to grow Yerevan Quest comes from developing the local quest culture. He also sees a problem of the market finding quest rooms overpriced and not ready to pay more for high-quality gameplay. “We’re on that path now, but the market isn’t ready yet. We made big investments before COVID-19, but they didn’t pay off,” Sergey explains. The owner of Yerevan Quest isn’t giving up on his goal of elevating Armenian quest rooms. He’s planning to open new branches and excite the public with new rooms. He aims to match international quality standards, and so far, player feedback is mostly positive. He takes pride in their well-crafted puzzles. “Anyone can create a quest with paper and a pen. We want to offer an experience that people cannot replicate at home,” says Sergey. While quest rooms aren’t massively popular yet, they offer a unique form of entertainment, which pulls people away from screens and into real-life interactions. 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