A Room Escape Artist Production
In a world gone digital, doing things in person is strangely revolutionary.
Reality Escape Pod is an interview podcast diving deep with people who make the world’s best immersive games and experiences: ARGs, puzzle hunts, tabletop games, theme parks, and of course, escape rooms. Our aim is to bring together different segments of the gaming world to share ideas between them.
Hosts David Spira & Peih-Gee Law explore immersive gaming from all angles with a unique blend of curiosity, joy, and a deep appreciation of craft. Each episode explores the guest’s philosophy, design approach, and humanity.
About the hosts:
David Spira is an experience designer, co-founder of RoomEscapeArtist.com and Reality Escape Convention. He is the escape room industry’s most prolific leader. In 2014 he applied his professional skills as a digital experience designer to the burgeoning industry of escape rooms, and more than a decade later he has built a community for its creators and consumers.
Peih-Gee Law is most well known for being a fan favorite contestant on the reality show Survivor, where she played first in Survivor China in 2007, and again in a returning All-Star season Survivor Second Chance. In 2025, she launched PG's Playhouse, a fun podcast with brainteasers, puzzles, and trivia. She is also on the official story team for Neotropolis, an annual 5 day immersive cyberpunk festival, where she creates narrative driven gameplay and experiences for thousands of attendees.
Episodes
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
In episode 6, we sit down with Anthony Robinson, an enthusiastic larper, former castaway on the reality show Survivor Fiji, and long-time contributor to the immersive theatre website No Proscenium.
Anthony introduced David and Peih-Gee, who met (and found their mutual love of escape rooms) as guests on an episode of the No Proscenium podcast. It only seemed fitting to bring Anthony onto our show to chat about immersive gaming and Survivor.
Anthony is an old school larper (Live Action Role Play) who also happened to play Survivor, which is one of the most immersive games in the world. Larping is one of the original forms of immersive gaming, and it was a blast chatting with him about the different types of larp. We also discuss how to incorporate role-playing into our everyday lives. As you may know, David is a huge Survivor fan, so it was fun chatting about Survivor, and how much the editing can slant to create a certain narrative.
This episode in particular was more of a conversation between friends who have a shared love of deeply nerdy topics, and we hope you'll enjoy listening along.
Production Credits
Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Lisa Spira
Music by Ryan Elder
Logo by Janine Pracht
Tuesday Mar 30, 2021
Tuesday Mar 30, 2021
In episode 5, we had a lovely chat with Barry Meade, founding member of Fireproof Studios and one of the co-creators of The Room, an incredibly vivid mobile game first released in 2012.
The Room had a tactile, immersive quality to it, from its haunting soundtrack, to the weight of physical objects, and how the environment handled the lighting design. These design elements, combined with a series of intricate puzzles, have delighted and inspired countless escape room enthusiasts and designers.
It was fascinating to hear about how a limiting set of circumstances created the perfect recipe for an evocative 3D puzzler. What came through clearly was their sharp sense of focus. They knew what they were good at and didn't waste resources trying to be too many things. After chatting with Barry, we could see how Fireproof Studios really embodies the spirit of an indie design studio.
Production Credits
Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Lisa Spira
Music by Ryan Elder
Logo by Janine Pracht
Tuesday Mar 23, 2021
Tuesday Mar 23, 2021
In this episode, David and Peih-Gee chat with Chris and Anne Lukeman, owners of the escape room company CU Adventures and the escape room shirt company Solve Our Shirts.
We talk about how a trip to Wisconsin and to two attractions in particular "opened their eyes to a level of weird that became a commercial business." Those attractions were Wizard Quest, a fantasy-themed scavenger hunt and House on the Rock, which Anne describes as a "skyscraper hobbit-hole of kitsch." We learn about their background in indie filmmaking and how it has influenced their escape room design process. As part of his design philosophy, Chris says that anywhere in one of their escape rooms, “it should feel like a picturesque, lived-in space, and either tell part of the story, inform part of the puzzle, or be weird, or be funny. It HAS to do one of those things."
They talk to us about the pros and cons of operating in a smaller community. We find out why they decided to release their remote game Lost Temple as a print-and-play. David and Peih-Gee gush over Solve Our Shirts, their latest project, which is an escape room in a t-shirt. Chris and Anne tell us about their plans to expand with a fantasy-themed mini-golf course with additional gamification, a bar, and gaming rooms.
Production Credits
Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Lisa Spira
Music by Ryan Elder
Logo by Janine Pracht
Tuesday Mar 16, 2021
Tuesday Mar 16, 2021
Episode 3 is an interview with game and puzzle designers Juliana Moreno Patel and Ariel Rubin, the Wild Optimists. This brilliant duo designed the world’s first Escape Room in a Box which is released worldwide by Mattel.
Juliana and Ariel met, founded their company, and created their first product all while pregnant, which should give you a good idea of their intense passion.
They are known for their thoughtful designs in immersive gaming and continue to push the envelope when it comes to creating new types of game design.
Production Credits
Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Lisa Spira
Music by Ryan Elder
Logo by Janine Pracht
Tuesday Mar 09, 2021
Tuesday Mar 09, 2021
In this episode, David and Peih-Gee chat with Myles Nye, a Survivor Challenge consultant and designer of team-building games.
Myles took Peih-Gee to her first Escape Room, and we discuss tips and tricks for newbies. Myles talks about improv and how to create experiences that tap into the essence of play. We learn about how Myles became a challenge consultant for the reality show Survivor, and discuss the nuances of designing puzzles and games for television. He puts to rest some of the conspiracy theories about Survivor challenges, and also talks to us about why certain challenges probably won’t make a reappearance on the show again. We also talk about Myle’s love of legacy board games.
Production Credits
Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Lisa Spira
Music by Ryan Elder
Logo by Janine Pracht
Monday Mar 01, 2021
Monday Mar 01, 2021
In this episode, David and Peih-Gee chat with Elan Lee, one of the creators of the ARG (alternate reality game), and co-creator of Exploding Kittens - the most-backed campaign on Kickstarter at the time.
David manages to surprise Elan with interview questions that he’s never been asked before. Elan talks about creating the world’s first ARG and shares stories about what happens when you don’t properly define borders in escape rooms and immersive gaming. We also talk about escape rooms (of course) and Elan’s post-game ritual. We find out that Elan is a huge fan of Survivor and he tells us why he considers Jeff Probst to be one of the world’s best game designers.
Elan tells us that the best-designed games aren’t entertaining in and of themselves, but rather, that the best-designed games make the players entertaining.
Production Credits
Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Lisa Spira
Music by Ryan Elder
Logo by Janine Pracht
Monday Feb 22, 2021
Monday Feb 22, 2021
David and Peih-Gee talk about how they met a year ago on a podcast, what they’re hoping to accomplish with this podcast and their escape room origin stories. While this is technically episode 0, it's labeled as episode 1. It's a puzzle.
Production Credits
Hosted by David Spira & Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Lisa Spira
Music by Ryan Elder
Logo by Janine Pracht