Today we’re announcing the winners of the final Build-A-Room contest of the year! Your goal was to channel all the cozy and comfy vibes into an ‘escape room’, worthy of the holiday season.Which, now we think of it, would just be a ‘room’ you don’t want to escape from at all!
We’ve had a total of 34 submissions, however, in the end there can only be one winner. Scrap that, twelve winners! So, without further ado, let’s go to the winners!🏆
Rookie Builders Category (RBC)
We’re starting with the first timers! This category is meant for everyone who submitted a room for the first time in a Build-a-Room contest! 🥇 Green Ribbons by ChazzyB - won a Meta Quest 3 and the Magic DLC 🥈 Transportation by CuberToy/Cub - won a 100$ Steam gift card and the Magic DLC 🥉 Maggie's Cabin by Ryan - won a 100$ Steam gift card and the Magic DLC
Before we go to the Experienced Builders Category, we’d like to first let the community speak. The community voted and together they’ve chosen their winner. The Community Award winner gets a 100$ Steam gift card + a surprise gift The Community Award goes to The Enchanted Snow Globe by Clomar and won 100$ Steam gift card and The Magic DLC!
Experienced Builders Category (EBC)
And at last, but not the least, we’re moving on to the Experienced Builders Category winners. These are the veterans of our community who’ve built the coziest of the coziest room of them all, and it will probably not be their last. A room no one wants to escape from. 🥇 The Art of Being Cozy by MelonVerse - won 1000$ in cash + Meta Quest 3 + The Magic DLC 🥈 Cats & Christmas by Bartololomeo - won a 100$ Steam gift card and The Magic DLC 🥉 Home Alone by med1nh0 - won a 100$ Steam gift card and The Magic DLC
Did you already know we announced the Magic DLC yesterday? Always dreamt of embracing your magic potential, and follow in the footsteps of great witches and wizards? This is your chance! Grab your equipment in the magic shop and then go onward to the school of magic, where three magical classes await your mastery.✨
A big shoutout to everyone who participated. You've outdone yourselves with creativity and ingenuity, and we couldn't be prouder.👏
Winning Ceremony Recap 📺
Missed the live ceremony? Don't worry, catch the replay here:
Have a great holiday season and a happy new year!
Cheers,
Pine Studio <3
Magic DLC is coming to Escape Simulator!🧙♂️
Hello everyone!
As our last announcement of the advent calendar we’re glad to announce a new Magic DLC will release for Escape Simulator in 2024! Always dreamt of embracing your magic potential, and follow in the footsteps of great witches and wizards? This is your chance! Grab your equipment in the magic shop and then go onward to the school of magic, where three magical classes await your mastery.✨
With the upcoming Magic DLC, four new rooms will be available for you to explore. Where each room tells a story in your magical journey to become a great sorcerer! Be sure to pay attention or everything might become abracadabra to you, and that will make escaping a lot more difficult as well.
Magic Shop 📔
Be it a young student of the arcane, or a seasoned sorcerer, everyone knows that all their wizarding needs can be met here at the Magic Shop. The latest in wizarding fashion trends, ancient tomes, finest wands and floating candy - this magic shop has been the first stop on each and every adventure.
Chronomancy Hall⏳
A symphony of ticking echoes in the marble halls. Clocks of all shapes and sizes count every moment that passes, for most people, irreversibly. But for a sorcerer, the past can not only be observed, but brought back. Control the flow of time, and uncover secrets hidden in the timeline. As the age old saying 'time is just an illusion'.
Greenhouse🌱
Tucked away in the castle grounds, the sunlit greenhouse hosts a myriad of plants and mushrooms which are happily growing. Learn the strict art of potion making - pick the right plants and read the instructions carefully, lest you lose your eyebrows or grow a tail! But hey, maybe it will great on you!
Divination Towers🔮
For many, the future is uncertain, but for students of divination, it is only a matter of understanding the signs. High above the land, in two spires above the clouds, you will find many methods for seeing the future. However, you will have to make sense of these glimpses, to find a way to ultimately escape.
Advent Calendar🎄
With this last announcement we conclude the advent calendar. The past month has been loads of fun with the surprise launch of the free Among Us update, build-a-room #5, Escape Simulator VR demo , loads of giveaways and now concluding with the announcement of 'Magic DLC'. We at Pine Studio hope that everyone enjoyed the past month and in extension the past year.
We want to thank everyone in the community that's played or build in the past year and welcome all the new players that have joined. Be sure to join our Discord if you haven't already!
See you next year!
Pine Studio <3
ES: Among Us DLC - Hotfix #1
Dear players, Thank you so much for the positive feedback and reactions for the Among Us DLC! We heard your feedback and already addressed some of the issues in today's hotfix:
Enabled tokens in the Among Us DLC. Good luck hunting!
Simplified the circuit puzzle
Changed the wording of the Specimen puzzle hint
Fixed turnables in some community rooms
Fixed minor alien hat issue
Fixed some other minor issues
Thank you for all the feedback! It would mean a lot to us if you could take the time to write a review on the Among Us DLC steam page, or the base game if you already haven't.
Pine team <3
Free Among Us DLC is out now!! 🚨
Attention Crewmates!
We’ve received an emergency call from The Mini Skeld! They seem to be running into some issues with the ship. Could there possibly be an Impostor amongst the crew? Time to board the ship and help the crew escape in this new official Among Us-inspired room, available now for everyone!
You and your Crewmates have to work together, solve puzzles and make your way out. However, now that you’re stuck in space, the stakes may be even higher! Or, maybe you and your friends are all just hard-working, puzzle-solving, qualified space adventurers and you have absolutely nothing to worry about.
Taking care of a spaceship is never easy. Especially when you have a lot of things to worry about such as the O2 running out, reactors in meltdown or the worst of all, no internet connection. For the Crewmates that want a real challenge, if you’re able to escape from the ship within an hour, you’ll win a special trophy!
Non-suspicious Steam Sale 💸
To celebrate this Among Us DLC release, both the base game and soundtrack of Escape Simulator are on sale with a 25% discount. If you want more Escape Simulator after playing this free one, you can get the Steampunk & Wild West DLC with 10% off and try our other free branded Portal Escape Room.
No escape from the festive season🎄
December means festivities and holidays! The Among Us DLC is already a lot to celebrate, but we’re not stopping here! We’re counting down to Christmas on Twitter and revealing something every day, so be sure to follow us and keep an eye out. 👀
Join our dedicated community
That's it for today's announcement! You can come talk to us and other community members on our official Discord server or on our subreddit. We hope to see you there!
<3 Pine Studio
Escape Simulator VR demo is live now!
Are you ready to get fully immersed? 👀
Wait, has it really been six months since we officially revealed Escape Simulator VR? Well, guess we owe you an update on how the development is progressing, right? Luckily, we bring good news as the development on this VR version of Escape Simulator is going smoothly and hopefully the wait for its full release will be over sooner rather than later!
VR When? 👀
Well, now, but not entirely. So, 'not yet' is the best answer. However, we do have a nice surprise as Escape Simulator VR is part of the Steam VR Fest. Which means you can actually play the demo RIGHT NOW!
The demo is available till December 11 as part of Steam VR Fest! Since this is our first VR game ever, we are treating the demo more like an open beta. We're curious to hear your feedback, as it will greatly help us in making the final game the best VR experience it can be.
Be sure to download the demo via the store page by clicking the link above and definitely share any feedback you might have about the demo over on our official Discord server!
Escaping the simulator; for real! 😱
As for the VR devices supported, the demo will be playable through Steam VR (or the new Steam Link App) on the most popular devices like Meta Oculus Quest 2, Meta Oculus Quest 3, Steam Index, HTC Vive and more.
Additionally, we aim to support as many VR devices as we can in the future after the official release of Escape Simulator VR. Any feedback and suggestions to improve the player experience on your headset of choice is highly valuable to us and would be greatly appreciated!
You can share any comments and feedback over on our official Discord server or our subreddit.
Advent Month 🎄
We're not even 4 days into December and we already announced two surprises! With the opening of the advent calendar (and our first surprise) we announced the build-a-room #5 contest, where rookie builders and experienced builders can compete with each other by building the coziest escape room of them all!
You can read all about the build-a-room #5 contest here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1435790/view/3814047346173395597?l=english
See you in another reality!
Pine Studio <3
Pine Festive Month & Build-A-Room #5: Cozy Holiday Edition! 🎇
Introducing… the Pine Festive Month!
The holiday season has arrived, and here at Pine Studio we’re celebrating with a special Escape Simulator advent calendar!
On the days marked on the calendar we’ll be opening each door to reveal surprises that could range from giveaways to exciting special events. To find out what’s behind each door as it opens, follow along on our Discord and social media channels!
As you can see, the door for day 1 is already open, revealing…
Build-A-Room #5 - Will you build the coziest room of them all?
It's time to get festive, room builders!
With holidays approaching, it's the perfect time of the year to get nice and comfy. Whether that means you'll be spending your time reading a good book by the fireplace or by getting together with your friends and family, December is the perfect month to kick back and relax a little!
Now, we know the room builders from our community have been eagerly awaiting the next contest, which is why we are pleased to announce the final Build-A-Room of the year! This time round, we want to challenge the builders from our community to channel all of their coziest vibes into a room worthy of the holiday season. Think fireplaces, hot cocoa, warm blankets, wooden cabins, comfy easy chairs and extremely good gameplay of course! Doesn't that just sound wonderful? 😍
Since it's the season of all things cozy, we wanted to shake things up a little for this Build-A-Room and introduce some new prize categories with a special place for new builders to get comfy.
For Build-A-Room #5 there will be: 2 distinct prize categories and a community award:
Rookie Builders Category
Experienced Builders Category
Community Award
🏆 Prizes
As always, we will be rewarding the greatest creations (and their creators) with some astonishing prizes! This time around, room builders will get a chance to win the following rewards in the new categories:
Rookie Builders Category (RBC)
Is this your first Build-A-Room competition? Then we have some great news! A special set of prizes reserved exclusively for first time competitors!
BC first place winner gets a Meta Quest 3 + a surprise gift
RBC second and third place get a 100$ Steam gift card + a surprise gift
Fourth and fifth place get a surprise gift
Who is eligible for this category? This must be your FIRST submission for an official Escape Simulator competition. This means any of the four Build-A-Rooms or the Build-A-Thon competition. You can have other workshop submissions for Escape simulator under your profile. You are automatically qualified for this category if you meet the above standards, in addition to being entered into the Experienced Builders Category. You don’t have to choose which category you want to enter.
Experienced Builders Category (EBC)
This is the main set of prizes. Every submission is qualified for this category and will be taken into consideration. Note that you cannot win in both categories - if you win an EBC prize, you won’t be eligible for any RBC prizes even if you’re a first time competitor.
First place winner earns 1000$ in cash + Meta Quest 3 + a surprise gift
Second and third place get a 100$ Steam gift card + a surprise gift
Fourth and fifth place get a surprise gift
Community Award
After the submission deadline has passed, we will open a poll containing all rooms that were submitted. Voting will last until the Winners Announcement Stream on December 21st.
The Community Award winner gets a 100$ Steam gift card + a surprise gift
Everyone is eligible to win the community award. Vote for the map you had most fun playing, the one that charmed you and stuck to you the most.
📑 Rules
Other than the new prize categories, the rules for Build-A-Room #5 are the same as usual. Entries must have a cozy theme.
Create a cozy escape room that's worthy of the holiday season in the Room Editor.
To submit a room for the competition, post a link to your room in the #🏆challenges channel in the Pine Studio Discord.
You can only submit one room. Multiple submissions will not be counted.
Multiple builders can work together on one room, but there will be only one prize for them.
It has to be an escape room.
The gameplay should ideally be under 30 minutes, but it can be longer.
You can make your room as big as you wish.
You need to record a video walkthrough and post it on YouTube or similar video sharing site.
You are allowed to bug fix your room after submission, but can not resubmit an entirely different
All references to existing IPs (including names, images, models and sounds) must be edited, parodied or otherwise modified to infer a likeness to the original IP without directly copying it.
Use models, textures, sounds and other assets that are either Creative Commons (CC0) with attribution, that are from the ES library, or that you have paid the license for.
Copies of other players' rooms are not eligible.
Keep it fun/clean! No profanity, racism, hate speech, sexually suggestive content, etc.. Rooms that might be considered offensive in any way or form will be disqualified.
The Pine team will choose the winners for the Rookie and Experienced Builder Categories this time! The Community prize will, naturally, be decided by community votes.
Dates:
Submissions are open until December 18th 8PM CEST / 2PM EST
We'll play and review all the submissions before December 21, which is when we will host a stream to announce the winners. More info about the stream will follow later!
General guidelines for your submission
Less is more. Keep the map short. 15 to 30 minutes is ideal. If you aren’t sure if a puzzle is good or not, redesign it, or even better, cut it from your room. It’s better to have 3 amazing puzzles, than 10 mediocre ones.
Test test and test. Join the community in discord. Share your room and test it before submission.
Less is more considering size. Walking simulators aren’t preferred. This is a puzzle game after all. :)
Try to gear your map towards the average audience.
Don’t forget to create a good looking thumbnail and room description.
Ask for help on discord. Most builders are willing to help.
Don’t forget about color blindness and hearing impairment when designing your puzzles.
Try to show what happens when you solve a puzzle in the immediate vicinity. If you solve a puzzle, and a door opens in the other room - that’s bad design.
In the end it’s all about fun. Your room can have the most complex puzzles, or the shiniest graphics and amazing sound design, but if it’s boring it won’t work!
These are only guidelines that might help to make your room better. You can choose to ignore them all and go with your own flow.
It's to time start building your cozy rooms! ⛄
We hope you are excited about this final Build-A-Room contest of the year and we can’t wait to see all of your cozy creations! Don't forget to join us over on our Discord or our subreddit where you can talk to other builders and exchange tips. Our December Festivities will be shared across our Discord and social media channels, so we hope to see you there!
🎄 Pine team
Steam Awards 2023: Nominate Escape Simulator for Labor of Love! ❤
For your consideration! ✔️
The end of the year is approaching fast, which also means the Steam Awards 2023 are just around the corner! Even though Escape Simulator has been out on Steam for more than two years now, we have been adding as much interesting content to the game as possible and we aren't planning on slowing down any time soon! Just this year alone, we released 3 room updates for free and of course, the Portal Escape Chamber DLC, which is also available free of charge. Additionally, we are still improving on the in-game room editor by offering even more tools and utilities to the community room builders!
With that in mind, we would like to bring to your consideration that Escape Simulator is still eligible for a nomination in the Labor of Love category! If you want to show us some additional love and support, please consider nominating Escape Simulator for this category. You can cast your vote by checking the box at the top of this announcement. It would truly mean a lot to all of us here at Pine Studio!
Start escaping today! 🍃
Don't own Escape Simulator yet, but have you (and your friends) been interested to try it out? Good news, because both the base game and the DLCs are part of the Autumn Sale which just kicked off! You can currently pick up the base game with a 25% discount or you can get the Steampunk and Wild West DLCs with a 10% discount!😉
Join our dedicated community!
That's it for today's announcement! We hope you will consider Escape Simulator for the Labor of Love award and if you'd like to talk to other escapists, be sure to join our community! You can come talk to us and other community members on our official Discord server or on our subreddit. We hope to see you there!
♥ Pine team
Our top community room picks for October!
Even more monthly picks? 🤯
That's right, we've prepared yet another batch of freshly picked community rooms for you to check out! In case you missed out last week's special Spooky Edition of our top community room picks, be sure to check it out right here. If you're not up for anything spooky right now, we've got plenty more room suggestions that might be just what you're looking for. So without any further ado, let's dive right into our monthly picks for October!
A mysterious talisman!
Napoleon's Lost Talisman by MajesticWind takes place at a museum featuring an exhibit on the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. We always love a good museum room, but what makes this one special is that it's based on a real-life escape room that was designed by the builder of its digital counterpart. Interestingly, we haven't seen a whole lot of escape rooms that were rebuilt in Escape Simulator so far! Now... who will be the first person to recreate an in-game community room in the real world? 👀
What a twist! 😱
Sometimes, the title of a community room doesn't really require any further explanation from us. Case in point: A Space Room... With A Twist! by bigTbone59. The title pretty much says it all, doesn't it? It's a space room with a twist! What could that twist be? Why, you'll need to find out for yourself, of course! 😉
An insightful escape room
We always love to see it when the room builders from our community manage to create a unique experience and that's exactly what Brush$troke achieved with No Escape. No Escape features a narrative that explores a darker theme by putting players in the shoes of someone who's diagnosed with depression. It manages to tell a very personal and immersive story, which really sets it apart from most other community rooms.
It's a cat-astrophe! 🐈
APOCATLYPSE by ilybitch definitely isn't the first cat-themed room to ever get featured on our monthly picks and we hope it won't be the last one either! APOCATLYPSE features excellent humour and some VERY interesting puzzles. Absolutely purrrrrfect for cat lovers and enthusiasts!
Don't let this sale escape!
Surprise! Escape Simulator is currently discounted with 25% off until November 13. Don't let this sale escape you, and get yourself a copy of the game to start your big brain adventure!
And that's it for all of October's monthly picks! We hope you'll all enjoy these rooms as much as we did. If you would like to talk to some of the amazing builders featured here, then be sure to join us on our official Discord or come talk to us on our subreddit. We hope to see you there!
♥ Pine team
Our top community room picks - Spooky Edition!
Spooky rooms galore!
November has arrived and despite the fact that Halloween has already come to an end, we can't help but feel like some of you might still want to play some very spooky rooms! If that's indeed the case, we hope your ready for this extra edition of our monthly community room picks.
Last month was absolutely filled to the brim with amazing creations by the builders from our community. That's why, for the first time ever, we are splitting our monthly picks into two editions! Today we will be having a look at some especially creepy rooms, whereas the regularly scheduled monthly picks will be posted somewhere over the course of next week! So without further ado, let's dive right into some of the most spine-chilling community rooms of October!
This is Halloween! 🎃
Let's kick things off with a setting that will be very familiar to anyone who has ever seen The Nightmare Before Christmas! Halloween Town by cl0mar takes place in the titular town that's inhabited by all sorts of creepy crawlies. But don't be scared, because they're not mean! It's just how they live in this town of Halloween. Don't forget to take in all of the familiar sights and if you want to add an extra challenge to this room, try playing it without singing along the iconic soundtrack! 🎶
Can somebody please turn on the light?
If you're scared of the dark, you might want to avoid this next room! Abandoned Floor is the third room in CUZT4RD's Dark Room series and as the title of that series implies, you will hardly find a single speck of light in these bone-chilling rooms. Abandoned Floor features a mysterious setting, so if you're up for a thrill, be sure to check it out!
Can you break the witch's curse? 🧹
Next up, we've got Joca's Room Halloween Edition by a.dalpozzolo! In this room, you will need to break a curse that was cast by an evil witch. In order to so, you will need to find six hidden keys that are being protected by magical puzzles. Think you're up to the task? 👻
Ghosts like coffee too, you know! ☕
After going through all of those creepy rooms, you might be inclined to play through something a bit more cozy. Luckily, even ghosts sometimes go on well-deserved breaks too! When they do, you might just find them at the Bewitched Beans Café! In this cozy, haunted room by brushstroke, you will need to brew up some hot beverages and serve them to your undead customers. So wholesome! 🍵
Time to get your spooky on!
And that's it for all of our spooky community room picks! We hope you're all looking forward to our regularly scheduled monthly picks which will be announced over the course of next week. In the meantime, we hope you'll enjoy this extra spooky edition! If you would like to talk to some of the amazing builders featured here, then be sure to join us on our official Discord or come talk to us on our subreddit. We hope to see you there!
♥ Pine team
Dev update: Two years of Escape Simulator already?! 😱
Two years have truly flown by! 🥳
Can you believe it's already been two years already since Escape Simulator originally launched on Steam? After two years of consistent updates and many, many amazing contributions from our community builders, we are truly proud to see how far our little escape room game has come! We are also incredibly thankful to each and every one of you for sticking with us and for checking out every update we've added to the game since its initial launch. In this blog, we'll be looking back at the biggest accomplishments we've seen throughout the past twelve months, but first... let's look at a nice summary in the form of a neat infographic! 📊
As you can see, the past twelve months have been incredible for all of us at Pine Studio and we can't express enough how much we appreciate all of your support. Now that we've looked at some hard data, let's dive a little bit deeper into all of the changes and updates that have been made since the one-year anniversary of Escape Simulator!
Ghosts, cowboys, artists, pirates, game show competitors AND scientists? What's next?! 🤯
It really has been a busy year, hasn't it? Ever since the one-year anniversary of Escape Simulator, we have added four free rooms, one free DLC and one paid DLC to the game! We kicked things off by releasing the free spooky Graveyard room just before last year's Halloween. In December, we launched the rootin'-tootin' Wild West DLC. In March, we added the free room Leonardo's Workshop, in which you can explore the many secrets of the grandmaster of arts and inventions: Leonardo da Vinci.
Mamma mia! It's a ma-ma-masterpiece! 🎨
Next up, we didn't just add a single room, but an entire island. Treasure Island was another free room updated that allows you to live out all of your swashbuckling fantasies! Another surprising location came in the form of the free Versus Room, which has two difficulty modes and takes place on a game show from the 80's. This was part of the Versus Update, which also included Versus Mode, a brand-new way to experience the game with your frenemies!
Who's smarter? You or your friends? 🧠
Last but certainly not least, we added the very first free DLC to Escape Simulator just last month. This cake had been in the oven for a while and we still can't believe it's not a lie! We're talking about the Portal Escape Chamber DLC, of course! It has been an incredible honour for us to work on this Portal-inspired room and we have tried to put as much of our love for this legendary game series into the room as possible. We would like to once again thank Valve for approving this amazing project and making this dream of ours come true. 🙌
Have you already uncovered all of Aperture's secrets? 👨🔬
In addition to all of the new content for escapists, we are still trying to add as many features and props to the in-game room editor. Some significant features that were added during the past twelve months include functional mirrors, in-game walkthroughs and the option to add flowing water! 🌊
Once again, the builders from our community proved their worth and showcased their creativity during the third and fourth editions of the Build-A-Room contest. The stakes were higher than ever with amazing prices like a trip to Paris, multiple Steam Decks, VR sets and even a cash prize of $2,000! Not everything turned out to be a competition however, as our community also proved that team work can lead to great accomplishments. One of our favourite initiatives from last year was the amazing community room The Collab: Museum!
Finally, we were beyond excited to reveal that the much requested VR version of Escape Simulator is officially in development. We can't wait to share more about this upcoming project and we hope you continue to look forward to it. In case you haven't already, be sure to add Escape Simulator VR to your wishlist!
The fun won't stop, because we still have a lot more stuff planned for Escape Simulator! By now you might already be familiar with our roadmap for 2023, but just in case you haven't seen it already, let's have another look!
As you can see, we still have some surprises in store for you this year, but what happens after 2023? Well, we are delighted to tell you that plenty of new plans are already in the works for the upcoming year! We hope you'll continue to look forward to even more awesome content and in the meantime, we would like to thank all of you one final time for your continuous support. Please be sure to join us over on Discord and our subreddit to talk to us and the awesome builders from our community.
Hi all! 
