Make Your Own Escape Room Game

48 text puzzles to deal, choose and print, plus five finished chains with a story, hiding places and a three-digit lock code, all with answers under a cover.

Make Your Own Escape Room Game

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  1. In this code the word CODE is written AMBC. The same code turns a place in the house into BMMP. What is the place?
  2. Which number comes next? 3, 4, 6, 9, 13, 18, and then? Add the two digits of the missing number.
  3. Which number comes next? 1, 3, 5, 7, and then?
  4. Read only the first letter of each word: Sam Often Cooks Kale.
  5. A note has four short sentences. Read the first letter of each sentence: Bring the map. Open the gate. Walk to the tree. Look down.

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All 73 puzzles

Chain 1: Detective's office (Easy) 5

  • Detective's office, sheet 1 of 5. Detective Finch is missing, and the case file is locked in her strongbox. Her desk calendar is open at the month with the shortest name. How many letters does that name have? Answer: 3. May is the shortest month name. First digit of the lock code. The players get sheets 1 and 2 at the start.
  • Detective's office, sheet 2 of 5. A note is stuck in the typewriter. Read the first letter of each word: Bring Every Document. Answer: BED. B, E, D. Hide sheets 3 and 4 at a bed, under the pillow or the cover.
  • Detective's office, sheet 3 of 5. The case files on the shelf are numbered 5, 10, 15, 20, and the next one is gone. What is the first digit of the missing number? Answer: 2. The files go up in fives, so file 25 is missing. Second digit of the lock code.
Show all 73 puzzles (70 more)

Chain 1: Detective's office (Easy), continued

  • Detective's office, sheet 4 of 5. Finch's notebook swaps every vowel for a number: A is 1, E is 2, I is 3, O is 4 and U is 5. The last page says: CH2CK TH2 SH42. Which one word names the place? Answer: SHOE. The page says CHECK THE SHOE. Hide sheet 5 in or beside a shoe, with the locked box close by.
  • Detective's office, sheet 5 of 5. The last digit of the code is a single digit. It is odd. It is bigger than 6. It is not 7. What is it? Then line up the digits from sheets 1, 3 and 5, in that order, and open the lock. Answer: 9. 7 and 9 are the odd digits above 6, and it is not 7. Third digit. The lock code for this chain is 329.

Chain 2: Pirate chest (Easy) 5

  • Pirate chest, sheet 1 of 5. Captain Brine locked the chest with three digits and left a trail for the crew. The captain stacked the coins in piles of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 5. Four of the piles are even. Which pile is not? Answer: 5. 5 is the only odd pile. First digit of the lock code. The players get sheets 1 and 2 at the start.
  • Pirate chest, sheet 2 of 5. On the map, every letter slid one place forward in the alphabet, so A became B. Slide each letter back to read where the crew looked next: CBH. Answer: BAG. C goes back to B, B to A and H to G. Hide sheets 3 and 4 in a bag or a backpack.
  • Pirate chest, sheet 3 of 5. The ship's parrot knows one sentence. Read the first letter of each word, then write the word you get as a digit: Treasure Waits Onshore. Answer: 2. The letters spell TWO. Second digit of the lock code.
  • Pirate chest, sheet 4 of 5. Three planks of the deck each lost a letter. Fill each gap with the missing letter of the alphabet, then read the three letters in order: A B _ D. T _ V. O _ Q. Answer: CUP. A B C D, T U V and O P Q. Hide sheet 5 under an upturned cup, with the locked box close by.
  • Pirate chest, sheet 5 of 5. The ship left port on a Monday and came home on the next Sunday. How many days was it away, counting both of those days? Then line up the digits from sheets 1, 3 and 5, in that order, and open the lock. Answer: 7. Monday to Sunday is one full week. Third digit. The lock code for this chain is 527.

Chain 3: Locked laboratory (Medium) 5

  • Locked laboratory, sheet 1 of 5. Professor Quill locked the formula away just before the lights went out. The colony in dish one triples every hour: 1, 3, 9, 27, and then? Add the two digits of the missing count. Answer: 9. 27 times 3 is 81, and 8 plus 1 is 9. First digit of the lock code. The players get sheets 1 and 2 at the start.
  • Locked laboratory, sheet 2 of 5. The professor's code folds the alphabet in half: A swaps with Z, B with Y, C with X, and so on. The label on the last jar reads XOLXP. Decode it. Answer: CLOCK. X swaps with C, O with L, L with O and P with K. Hide sheets 3 and 4 behind or under a clock.
  • Locked laboratory, sheet 3 of 5. Five test tubes are numbered 12, 18, 21, 27 and 28. Four of those numbers can be divided by 3 with nothing left over. Write the last digit of the one that cannot. Answer: 8. 28 is not in the 3 times table. Second digit of the lock code.
  • Locked laboratory, sheet 4 of 5. Read the first letter of each sentence in the lab journal: Power went out at nine. Lights failed in every room. All the samples were safe. Nobody saw who came in. The door was locked from inside. Answer: PLANT. Power, Lights, All, Nobody, The. Hide sheet 5 under the pot of a house plant, with the locked box close by.
  • Locked laboratory, sheet 5 of 5. The last digit of the code is a single digit. It is bigger than 1. It is even. It is what you get when a whole number is multiplied by itself. What is it? Then line up the digits from sheets 1, 3 and 5, in that order, and open the lock. Answer: 4. 2 times 2 is 4. The other even digits, 2, 6 and 8, are not a number times itself. Third digit. The lock code for this chain is 984.

Chain 4: Museum night (Medium) 5

  • Museum night, sheet 1 of 5. The doors locked behind the last tour, and the way out is a three-digit code. The museum opened on Thursday the 1st. Night tours run every Sunday. What is the date of the third tour? Add its two digits. Answer: 9. The Sundays fall on the 4th, the 11th and the 18th, and 1 plus 8 is 9. First digit of the lock code. The players get sheets 1 and 2 at the start.
  • Museum night, sheet 2 of 5. Five name plates hang in the hall: STALE, LEAST, SLATE, TABLE, TALES. Four of them are spelled with exactly the same five letters. Which one is not? Answer: TABLE. TABLE has a B where the others have an S. Hide sheets 3 and 4 under a table, taped to the underside.
  • Museum night, sheet 3 of 5. The guard's log is written three letters ahead, so A became D. Move each letter three places back to read VLA, then write the word as a digit. Answer: 6. The word is SIX. Second digit of the lock code.
  • Museum night, sheet 4 of 5. The night guide whispers three words: Truly, guards ignore. The first letters say nothing. Read the second letter of each word. Answer: RUG. tRuly, gUards, iGnore. Hide sheet 5 under the corner of a rug, with the locked box close by.
  • Museum night, sheet 5 of 5. The gallery rooms are numbered 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, and the next number plate has fallen off. Add the two digits of the missing number. Then line up the digits from sheets 1, 3 and 5, in that order, and open the lock. Answer: 8. The gaps grow by one each time: 1, 2, 3, 4, then 5. 12 plus 5 is 17, and 1 plus 7 is 8. Third digit. The lock code for this chain is 968.

Chain 5: Cold case (Hard) 5

  • Cold case, sheet 1 of 5. Twenty years on, Detective Finch's oldest case is still locked in a box. Her code note uses a growing shift: the first letter was moved 1 place forward, the second 2, the third 3 and the fourth 4. Undo it to read GQXV, then write the word as a digit. Answer: 4. The word is FOUR. First digit of the lock code. The players get sheets 1 and 2 at the start.
  • Cold case, sheet 2 of 5. Skip every second word of the witness statement. Read the first letter of the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th words: Before we open, nobody opens that trunk. Answer: BOOT. Before, open, opens, trunk. Hide sheets 3 and 4 inside a boot or a tall shoe.
  • Cold case, sheet 3 of 5. Three witnesses describe the locker number, a single digit from 1 to 9, and exactly one of them is wrong. Witness 1: it is bigger than 4. Witness 2: it can be divided by 3 with nothing left over. Witness 3: it is 1, 4 or 9. What is the number? Answer: 6. 9 fits all three statements, so nobody would be wrong. Only 6 makes exactly one witness wrong, the third. Second digit of the lock code.
  • Cold case, sheet 4 of 5. One of these five words breaks a rule that the other four follow. Compare the first and the last letter of each word: GONG, KICK, SHELF, EASE, TREAT. Answer: SHELF. The other four begin and end with the same letter. Hide sheet 5 on a shelf, between two books, with the locked box close by.
  • Cold case, sheet 5 of 5. The case was opened on March 1 and closed exactly 100 days later. On which day of the month was it closed? Then line up the digits from sheets 1, 3 and 5, in that order, and open the lock. Answer: 9. 30 days on is March 31, 60 is April 30, 91 is May 31, and 9 more days is June 9. Third digit. The lock code for this chain is 469.

Letter-swap ciphers 8

  • A is 1, B is 2, C is 3, and so on up to Z is 26. Turn these numbers into letters: 20-8-18-5-5. Write the word you get as a digit. Answer: 3. The numbers spell THREE.
  • Every letter of this word slid one place forward in the alphabet, so A became B and B became C. Slide each letter back to read it: CPPL. Answer: BOOK. C goes back to B, P to O, P to O and L to K.
  • Every letter was moved three places forward, so A became D. Move each letter three places back to read VHYHQ, then write the word as a digit. Answer: 7. The word is SEVEN.
  • Every vowel in this note was swapped for a number: A is 1, E is 2, I is 3, O is 4 and U is 5. The note says: L44K 5ND2R TH2 S4F1. Which one word names the place to look? Answer: SOFA. The note says LOOK UNDER THE SOFA.
  • In this code the word CODE is written AMBC. The same code turns a place in the house into BMMP. What is the place? Answer: DOOR. Each letter was moved two places back, so move each one two places forward.
  • The shift grows as you go: the first letter was moved 1 place forward, the second 2 places, the third 3, and so on. Undo it to read FKJLY, then write the word as a digit. Answer: 8. The word is EIGHT.
  • This code folds the alphabet in half: A swaps with Z, B with Y, C with X, and so on. Decode the word HSLV. Answer: SHOE. H swaps with S, S with H, L with O and V with E.
  • Whoever typed this word had every finger one key too far to the right on a standard QWERTY keyboard, so an A came out as an S. Which word did they mean to type? VPSY Answer: COAT. Read one key to the left of each letter: V gives C, P gives O, S gives A and Y gives T.

First-letter messages 8

  • A note has four short sentences. Read the first letter of each sentence: Bring the map. Open the gate. Walk to the tree. Look down. Answer: BOWL. Bring, Open, Walk, Look.
  • A shopping list hides a number. Read the first letter of each item, then write the number as a digit: Noodles, Ice, Nuts, Eggs. Answer: 9. The letters spell NINE.
  • The first letters of this note say nothing. Look one letter further in, at the second letter of each word: Amy must agree. Answer: MUG. aMy, mUst, aGree.
  • Forget the first letters. Read the last letter of each word: Grab one card. Answer: BED. GraB, onE, carD.
  • Read only the first letter of each word: Sam Often Cooks Kale. Answer: SOCK. S, O, C, K.
  • Read the first letter of each sentence in this note: Somebody was here before you. Papers are all over the floor. One drawer is still open. Only the cat saw who it was. Nothing else is missing. Answer: SPOON. Somebody, Papers, One, Only, Nothing.
  • Read the first letter of each word, then write the word you get as a digit: Fresh Oranges Usually Roll. Answer: 4. The letters spell FOUR.
  • Skip every second word. Read the first letter of the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th words: My aunt is never really that rude, but often she refuses. Answer: MIRROR. My, is, really, rude, often, refuses.

Number and letter sequences 8

  • Each run of letters follows its own rule. Find the three missing letters and read them in order: G I K _. E C _. N P R _. Answer: MAT. G I K M skips one letter, E C A runs backward, and N P R T skips one letter.
  • Fill each gap with the missing letter of the alphabet, then read the three letters in order: G _ I. _ B C. S _ U. Answer: HAT. G H I, A B C and S T U.
  • These are the first letters of something you know by heart: O, T, T, F, F, S, S, and then? Work out what the missing letter stands for and write it as a digit. Answer: 8. One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight.
  • Which number comes next? 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and then? Add the two digits of the missing number. Answer: 5. Each number is double the one before, so 32 comes next, and 3 plus 2 is 5.
  • Which number comes next? 1, 3, 5, 7, and then? Answer: 9. The numbers go up by 2 each time.
  • Which number comes next? 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, and then? Add the two digits of the missing number. Answer: 9. These are 1 times 1, 2 times 2, 3 times 3 and so on. 6 times 6 is 36, and 3 plus 6 is 9.
  • Which number comes next? 3, 4, 6, 9, 13, 18, and then? Add the two digits of the missing number. Answer: 6. The gaps grow by one each time: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, then 6. 18 plus 6 is 24, and 2 plus 4 is 6.
  • Which number comes next? 10, 8, 6, 4, and then? Answer: 2. The numbers go down by 2 each time.

Odd one out 8

  • Four of these are animals. Which one is not? DOG, CAT, CHAIR, HORSE, COW. Answer: CHAIR. A chair is the only one that is not alive.
  • Four of these are fruits. Which one is not? APPLE, PEAR, VASE, PLUM, GRAPE. Answer: VASE. A vase is the only thing here you cannot eat.
  • Four of these numbers are even. Which one is not? 2, 4, 7, 8, 6. Answer: 7. 7 is the only odd number.
  • Four of these numbers are what you get when a whole number is multiplied by itself: 16, 36, 48, 64, 100. Take the odd one out and add its two digits. Then add the two digits of that result. Answer: 3. The odd one is 48. 4 plus 8 is 12, and 1 plus 2 is 3.
  • Four of these numbers can be divided by 3 with nothing left over. Which one cannot? 12, 27, 9, 8, 33. Answer: 8. 12, 27, 9 and 33 are all in the 3 times table.
  • Four of these words have a number hiding inside them, like the ONE in STONE. Which word hides no number? STONE, WEIGHT, OFTEN, PILLOW, CANINE. Answer: PILLOW. stONE, wEIGHT, ofTEN and caNINE.
  • Four of these words read the same forward and backward. Which one does not? LEVEL, NOON, KAYAK, TOWEL, RADAR. Answer: TOWEL. TOWEL backward is LEWOT.
  • One word breaks a rule that the other four follow. Look at the order of the letters inside each word: ALMOST, BEGIN, DESK, CHIMP, FLOOR. Answer: DESK. In the other four, the letters run in alphabetical order. In DESK the K comes after the S.

Calendar puzzles 8

  • The 1st of the month is a Monday. What is the date of the third Saturday? Write its first digit. Answer: 2. The Saturdays fall on the 6th, the 13th and the 20th.
  • A leap year comes every four years, and 2024 was one. How many leap years are there from 2001 to 2038? Answer: 9. 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028, 2032 and 2036.
  • Count the months from January, which is month 1. What number is May? Answer: 5. January, February, March, April, May.
  • How many months of the year have 31 days? Answer: 7. January, March, May, July, August, October and December.
  • How many months of the year have a name that starts with the letter J? Answer: 3. January, June and July.
  • In a year that is not a leap year, which month does day number 230 fall in? Write the number of the month, with January as 1. Answer: 8. July ends on day 212 and August ends on day 243, so day 230 is August 18.
  • January has 31 days. How many full weeks of 7 days fit inside it? Answer: 4. 4 weeks are 28 days, and 5 weeks would be 35.
  • Today is a Wednesday. What day of the week will it be 100 days from now? Count the letters in that day's name. Answer: 6. 98 days is exactly 14 weeks, so 100 days on is two days after a Wednesday: FRIDAY, which has 6 letters.

Short logic puzzles 8

  • A three-digit code uses the digits 1, 2 and 3 once each. The 2 is in the middle. The 1 is not first. What is the last digit of the code? Answer: 1. The code is 3, 2, 1.
  • The clue is under the BLANKET, behind the PHOTO or inside the TEDDY, and only one of these three notes tells the truth. Note 1: it is under the blanket. Note 2: it is not under the blanket. Note 3: it is not behind the photo. Where is the clue? Answer: PHOTO. Notes 1 and 2 disagree, so one of them is the true note and note 3 must be false. That puts the clue behind the photo.
  • Four kids stand in a line: Ava, Ben, Cal and Dee. Cal is last. Ava is not first. Ben stands right behind Ava. What is Ben's place in the line? Write the digit. Answer: 3. Ava cannot be third, because Ben would then be fourth, and that is Cal. So Dee is first, Ava second and Ben third.
  • I am a single digit. Double me and add 1, and you get the same as when you triple me and take away 5. What am I? Answer: 6. Double 6 plus 1 is 13, and triple 6 minus 5 is 13.
  • I am a single digit. I am bigger than 5. I am even. I am not 6. What am I? Answer: 8. 6, 7, 8 and 9 are bigger than 5, only 6 and 8 of those are even, and it is not 6.
  • The key is in the CUP, under the MAT or in the JAR. It is not in the CUP. It is not under the MAT. Where is it? Answer: JAR. Two of the three places are ruled out.
  • Mia is older than Leo. Leo is older than Sam. How many of the three are younger than Mia? Answer: 2. Leo and Sam are both younger than Mia.
  • One of three kids hid the key, and only one of the three tells the truth. Ann says: Bo hid it. Bo says: I did not hide it. Cy says: I did not hide it. Ann always hides things under the STOOL, Bo under the TRAY and Cy in the BASKET. Where is the key? Answer: BASKET. If Ann or Bo had hidden it, two kids would be telling the truth. Only Cy as the hider leaves one truth teller, Bo.

How this list was compiled: Written for this site on 2026-09-19: 48 loose puzzles in six kinds and five ready-made chains of five sheets, 73 puzzles in all. Every puzzle is text only and resolves to one digit or to one short word, and every word answer is an ordinary spot in a home where a sheet of paper can be hidden; nothing hot, wet, high up or locked is used as a hiding place. Every answer was computed before it was printed here: each cipher was encoded and decoded again, each first-letter message was read back, each sequence and calendar answer was calculated, each odd one out was tested against its rule, and each logic puzzle was run through every possibility to make sure exactly one answer fits. The calendar puzzles use the ordinary calendar: month lengths, the seven-day week and a leap year every four years between 2001 and 2038. The levels (Easy, Medium, Hard) and the plan of about 45 minutes for a chain are our estimates; no puzzle was tested with a panel of players. The detective, the pirate captain, the professor and the museum are invented for this page, and no boxed game, venue, film or show is referred to. Nothing was copied from a puzzle book, a printable pack or another site. Licence: own work

How it works

To make your own escape room game you need puzzles that end in something a lock can use. Here are 73, all plain text: 48 loose ones to deal and print, and five ready-made chains with a story, hiding places and a three-digit code. For a first game, start with a chain and change it later.

Read the full guide

How to make an escape room game in four steps

1. Choose. In the dropdown under the button, choose a chain such as Pirate chest and its five sheets come up in any order, each with its sheet number at the start. Or build your own set, as described below. 2. Print. Press Print with the answers covered and every puzzle gets a line to write on. Press Show all answers and print again for your key. 3. Hide. Cut the sheets apart, hand the team sheets 1 and 2, and hide the rest where the host line under each answer says. 4. Lock. Set a three-digit lock to the chain's code.

How a chain works, and how to build your own

Every puzzle resolves to one digit or to one short word, and every word is an ordinary spot in a home, such as BED, SHOE, RUG or SHELF. In a ready-made chain, sheets 1, 3 and 5 give the digits of the code in order, and sheets 2 and 4 name the places where the next sheets wait. Two chains are Easy, two are Medium and one is Hard, each planned for about 45 minutes by our estimate, not by a test. To create your own escape game, tap A digit in the Answer is row, take away the puzzles you do not want with × and press again until three suit you, then tap A hiding place and choose two the same way. The rows you kept stay when a filter changes. Your code is the three digits in playing order.

The list on the page and what the phone remembers

All 73 puzzles are printed under the tool with answers and working: the five chains first, sheet by sheet with their lock codes, then the loose puzzles in six kinds. Keep that list away from the players. The page opens on the loose puzzles so chain sheets stay out of a random deal. At a dead end the button puts the page's opening choice, 48 loose puzzles, back. The phone does not repeat a puzzle until the pool runs out.

  • Solve every sheet yourself before you hide it. A host who can explain a puzzle can give a fair hint.
  • Agree on hints at the start: three per team, and a hint is the first sentence of the working.
  • Tape each sheet in place, below shoulder height and away from anything hot.
  • No combination lock? Seal the prize in an envelope and open it when the team says all three digits in order. On a four-digit lock, put a 0 in front.
  • With eight or more players, run two chains of the same level at once in different rooms, one team per chain.

Questions and answers

What do I need for a DIY escape room at home?

A printer, scissors, tape, a prize, a timer and either a box with a three-digit lock or a sealed envelope. These are escape room puzzles for home, so no special props are needed. Short on space? At home escape room ideas still work seated: keep the sheets in your hand and pass the next ones when the team says the word.

Can you show some escape room puzzle examples?

An Easy first-letter message: read only the first letter of each word in Sam Often Cooks Kale, and you get SOCK. An Easy sequence: 1, 3, 5, 7, and then? The answer, 9, is a digit for the lock. Hard puzzles use a shift that grows with every letter, a keyboard typed one key to the right, or three witness statements of which exactly one is wrong. 28 puzzles are Easy, 28 Medium and 17 Hard.

Are these escape game questions free to print?

Yes, with no sign-up. Hosts and teachers often call the puzzles questions, and this page works as a set of escape room questions and answers: a closed cover prints as a blank line, an open one prints the answer. To keep a file, look for Save as PDF in your browser's print window.

What else can we hide and hunt?

For lists of things to find around the house, see family scavenger hunt ideas. For teams with a camera, see photo scavenger hunt ideas. Rhyming trails for a holiday morning are on Easter scavenger hunt clues and Christmas scavenger hunt clues. For a whole evening around the game, family fun night ideas has a Home Escape Room Night.

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