Get A Clue

Get a Clue! Escape room creator has major attention to detailBy Ty Unglebower

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Most people wouldn’t notice it, admits Steven Winder, proprietor of Clue IQ, an escape room experience in Downtown Frederick.

“I doubt anyone would have any idea.”

Photographs courtesy of Clue IQ

Nonetheless, the large custom-made gate in Clue IQ’s Ex Caliber room is his favorite feature on the premises. To most, it’s just a gate to cooler things, but not to Steven. For him, it’s a prime example of the attention to detail paid to every component in all three escape rooms at Clue IQ.

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Steven created Clue IQ in Frederick in the summer of 2016, after having played at other escape rooms in other towns. He loved the concept of combining mysterious stories and puzzle games in an interactive experience, and wanted to bring it to Frederick.

(Steven’s family owns several businesses throughout Downtown Frederick, including Frederick Fudge and Ice Cream, Frederick Coffee Company, Pasta Palette, Shab Row Tea Emporium and Good Juju.)

Clue IQ is located in an old dry goods grocer warehouse on South Carroll Street. Steven and his family completely renovated the space and custom-built each room, focusing a lot on production quality and level of detail.

At Clue IQ it’s all about having fun. You’re not actually locked into a room with no escape, and it goes beyond simply trying to get out the door. You’ll experience a fully immersive adventure and work to uncover clues and solve puzzles in order to complete your mission. Each room/game has a different theme and is designed to be challenging for adults, though kids are welcome to play, too.

If guests don’t notice the construction aspects of each room, it is a sign of success to Steven. Total immersion in the hour-long game is his goal in pursuit of the ultimate mission: fun.

For Steven, that means making sure each of the escape rooms do more than suggest their respective settings. There must be an authenticity that he feels is sorely lacking in many of the escape rooms he has visited across the country.

Photographs courtesy of Clue IQ

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In Ex Caliber, it isn’t just that gate, it’s also the metal sword itself. And in Blitzkrieg, proper metal bars in the prison cell setting were also custom made for the 100-plus-year-old building. It’s also the period-appropriate computer screens and light fixtures, carpets and furniture filling the spyoriented Conspiracy room.

Nearly everything one sees and interacts with in the three rooms at Clue IQ was specifically chosen for its authentic look and feel.

Items that could not be found were manufactured specifically for use in the escape rooms, either in-house or by local artisans in metal works and fabrication, leather craft, painting, masonry and other types of high craftsmanship.

There is, in fact, only one major aspect of one of the sets that was not made specifically for the folks at Clue IQ and their visitors. (I don’t feel it would be as fun if I were to reveal here which component I’m referring to, so you will have to visit and see if you can guess what I am talking about!)

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The careful selection and construction of props and decorations is no mere passing fad, either. During our conversation, Steven emphasized, “giving that sense of authenticity” as the most important concept several times. A connoisseur of escape rooms all over the country, he feels that far too many look “like an office, with something from Party City” hanging on walls and doors to merely suggest a location. Clue IQ isn’t satisfied with mere suggestion.

And it shows.

Ex Caliber, as one may expect, is an adventure involving the mythical sword of Arthurian legend. Clue IQ game players find the sword actually lodged into a stone, released only when proper steps are followed. Beautifully painted windows call to mind medieval stained glass, each illuminated from behind, giving a simultaneous aura of holiness and magic.

Blitzkrieg takes place during World War II, and is set in a realistic prison cell of that time. The bars, the period posters and pamphlets adorning the partially crumbling walls, the true brick of the building’s structure all blend seamlessly into the narrative: a sense of grunge and risk and danger. A convincing hand grenade sits on a desk in this adventure. (Anywhere else, and I might have been concerned to come across it.)

In Conspiracy, we have computers and phones, file cabinets concealing clues waiting to be discovered, bulletin boards with pertinent information and typical fluorescent lighting so common in many offices. An agent in black smoking a cigarette could have walked in, and not looked at all out of place here.

Photographs courtesy of Clue IQ

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I found it theatrical as one might expect and had to wonder if Steven had a background in set-building for stage or possibly television. “Not at all,” he told me, much to my surprise. “I studied economics.”

The economic outlook of Clue IQ continues to shine, as it remains one of the most popular escape room venues in Maryland. The appeal of such places (beyond terrific sets), according to Steven, is a sense of accomplishment when winning the puzzle, and an ideal way to meet new people or team build with co-workers in a nonconventional place.

“We’ll help out…” by giving a hint, Steven told me. It all depends on what the visitors need to enjoy themselves. He has no use for rooms and games that are so difficult nobody ever solves them: “Where’s the fun in that?”

The real fun is in the details at Clue IQ.

Clue IQ: An Escape Room Experience 103 S. Carroll St., Frederick 240.815.6458 clueiq.com

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