A three-person studio above a coffee roaster on Homer Street
We are a puzzle writer, an illustrator and a developer in Yaletown, and we make escape games you can play without leaving the couch.
How this started
In the winter of 2024 the three of us were playing a paper escape game that a friend had printed for a birthday. It was clever and it was also, in places, a mess: a clue that depended on a colour printer, a hint that gave away the next puzzle, a final envelope that two people opened by accident. We spent the drive home rewriting it. By spring we had written our own.
Maple Escape Play Studio Inc. was incorporated in British Columbia that autumn. We took a small office at Suite 410, 1090 Homer Street, mostly because the room above the roaster smells great and the landlord did not mind us taping puzzles to the walls.
What we believe about puzzles
- A puzzle should be obvious afterward. If the answer makes people groan and laugh, it is fair. If it makes them shrug, it is not.
- Hints are part of the design, not an apology. We write the hints first, then the puzzle, so the sticking point is always the one we meant.
- Everyone at the table gets a turn to be right. Mixed groups are the normal case, not the edge case.
- Nothing to buy on the way in. The browser games are free, and the kit goes out by email. If we ever charge for something, the price is on the page in Canadian dollars, taxes explained.
Where the games get tested
Living rooms in Vancouver, Burnaby and Kelowna. A cabin near Whistler with no Wi-Fi. A video call with testers in Ottawa and Halifax who tell us when a 7:30 p.m. Pacific start is unkind. A Grade 4 classroom in East Van, once, with the teacher's permission and a lot of noise. We pay our testers in pizza and in credits on the finish screen.
Who we are, roughly
Our writer used to make crossword variety puzzles for a regional paper and still keeps the rejected ones in a shoebox. Our illustrator draws every room by hand in ink before it is scanned, which is why the lighthouse office looks like a lighthouse office and not a stock photo. Our developer built the game engine so that everything is a real button, because her brother plays with a switch and she was tired of games that ignored him.
We are not a big company and we are not trying to be one. Two browser games and a kit this year, maybe two more next year, and we answer our own email.
Studio details
- Maple Escape Play Studio Inc., Suite 410, 1090 Homer Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 2W9
- Studio hours Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00 Pacific. The games are available at any hour.
- contact@mapleescapeplay.com · (604) 555-0128