Once you have purchased the Escape City Box at the official sales points listed on www.escapecitybox.com, the team of players must download the official app on the mobile device on which they want to carry out the game. This application is available for free download in Apple Store and Google Play. Participants will need to have a mobile phone (not included in the box) in order to download the app and receive the game instructions. Any smartphone with Internet connection and updated Android or iOS system will be valid. The app will ask for permission to use location, to indicate your position on the map and to complete some of the riddles. Also, you will need to activate the access to the camera of your device in order to use it in some of the puzzles. During breaks, we recommend to close the device application when it is not in use. On some devices it will be advisable to use headphones while playing the game videos in open spaces.

In the information of each of the games and routes within the app, you will find the estimated duration of the game. The indicated time does not include the breaks you want to take during the game to eat, rest or visit some place. The application always shows a skyline at the bottom of the screen that will be completed as you progress through the game, indicating graphically how much you have left in each moment. In your hands is to play calmly or even compete with another group to be the first.

Once you have downloaded the Escape City Box app, you will have to choose the game you want to play, in some games you will have to choose also the city where you want to play. After that, you will have to complete a simple registration process as user of the application if you are not registered: team name or username, a name and surname of the contact person and date of birth (only access by players of legal age), a valid email and phone number, and select the language of play. Once logged, you will need to enter the numeric code or validate the QR code that is inside the Escape City Box. The Escape City Box codes expire two years after the time of purchase and cannot be used on more than one device at a time or on more than one occasion: you cannot restart a game later in the game. But it is possible, using the same code, to change device (in case the battery is running out, for example) and continue the game at the point where you have logged out on the other device.

Numbered Envelopes The Escape City Box contains a series of closed and numbered envelopes that you will need to open only when the game application indicate it. In them there is information for some specific riddles of the game, so opening them early will not help you at all, quite the opposite, they contain information that would be a spoiler that can condition the course of the game.

Map The game takes place along a route within the city, in some cases, you will have to guess the next point to follow. Therefore, you will have a map visible constantly (unless you are in a middle of a riddle) in the app. If you ever get lost, on the map you’ll have a way of knowing where to go. The app comes with an alert that, in case you go far away from the next point where you must continue the game, the app will inform you, so you will be able to check the map and deduce better where to continue.

Backpack It is located on the Menu (at the bottom of the screen). It will keep the items you collect during the game. You may need to use them at some point of the game. It will also be the place to go if you need hints.

Logbook You will find at the Menu. Here you will find recorded each one of your game actions. You can access in case you want to check out a completed step or watch again a video.

Help: clues to solve riddles In case you need help to continue the game. You can use the clues you have in your backpack. You can access it from the application menu: Menu / Backpack / Help / Unlock clue. You will have two clues from the beginning of the game. We recommend using them only when you are really blocked and do not know how to continue or answer any of the riddles. Each puzzle have one, two or three associated tracks, depending on the case, so as don’t spend more clues than necessary in a specific game: probably with the first clue you can already solve it. Just pay attention to the clue carefully.

Questions to get an extra clue During the game, you will see an icon on the map marking a point that corresponds to a “question for clue” game. In order to answer it, you should to go at the indicated point and if you answer it correctly you will be able to get an extra clue to use later. This is a non-mandatory question that you will be able to jump if you do not know how to answer it or not to go for it if you prefer not to get one more clue.

Skip test You may find yourself in some situation during the game that prevents you from performing some of the riddles: a demonstration, a traffic cut, closing of places that is required access to play, very adverse weather conditions, etc. You can skip that test by accessing Menu / Backpack / Help / Skip test, and indicate the reason why you have to skip it, not being “penalized” in the final score if it is for matters out of your control. You can also skip any other puzzle or riddle during the game without having anything to prevent you from completing it, but this will take points away from your final score, as you will see in the section “Scores and ranking”.

Scoring The game has a scoring system. Each action will score points to your team during all the game. Errors in answers and skipped tests subtract points, keep it in mind before responding. If a test cannot be performed for reasons out of your control (as indicated in the “Skip test” section), such as: events on public road, closing of the places that are required access to play, very adverse weather, etc. In these cases the team will be able to indicate it during the process of skipping the test and they won’t be penalized in the final score.

The game has been tested until the absence of errors, but it is possible that, like any other electronic system, it will fail unexpectedly. If this happens, we recommend the following steps:
– Close the application and re-enter. It may be due to device-related or other very specific faults that may not appear at another time.
– If the problems persist, change the mobile device, closing session at the point of the game you are in and entering the app through another device, you must remember the username and password.
– If the problem continues on the new device, you can describe your situation, indicating your game code and a contact phone number via our email contact@escapecitybox.com. We’ll try to fix it as soon as possible.
– If you notice that the problem is not solved neither changing device, you can skip the test in the Menu: Backpack / Help / Skip test.

If the game cannot be played due to errors in the content of the box, in the course of the game or other problems of gameplay arising from its contents, get in touch with Escape City Box via email contacto@escapecitybox.com and we will try to provide a solution in the shortest time possible. This circumstance does not include the impossibility of resolution of the game by a team that has not been able to solve an specific riddle or puzzle, since the game has been repeatedly tested to verify that its difficulty is manageable by any type of player.

All Escape City Box games are available in Spanish and English: both the contents of the box and the game app on the mobile device. If games are held in a city outside Spanish territory, they will also be available in an official language of the country to which the city belongs. All Escape City Box games have subtitles in those languages in all their audiovisual content.