Ever watched a tense bomb defusal scene in an action movie and thought “I could probably do that?”
Beat The Bomb, a new escape room center which recently opened its fourth location in Center City, will give you the opportunity to test your mettle. And the only danger you’ll be facing is the danger of being blasted with paint, foam or slime.
The concept is simple: Players aged 8 and up are placed into a game room and made to solve puzzles and beat games. They have to work together and be quick about it, though—if they don’t complete their missions in time, they’ll be blasted by a sticky substance of their choice.
Beat The Bomb CEO Alex Patterson came up with the idea while working as a marketer at Tough Mudder, which creates competitive obstacle courses. He wanted to combine his experience at the company with his love of sports and video games.
“I had this idea of an interactive, immersive video game that used RFID readers, touch screens and LED lights that would be reprogrammable, so you can play a different game every time. You can come back and always play something new,” Patterson explains. “I wanted to create an experience you just had to talk about, that you could share with your friends, your parents or your kids. I thought it could potentially go viral and market itself.”
Beat The Bomb first started in a 500-square-foot space in a warehouse building, where Patterson worked with game developers and engineers to create a prototype version of the project. After testing with friends and family, he opened Beat The Bomb’s initial Brooklyn location in 2017.
The Philadelphia location is part of a major push for expansion and creating more Beat The Bomb locations across the country, in addition to their Brooklyn, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., locations. Patterson notes that Beat The Bombs are planned to open in Charlotte, North Carolina, in November, with Denver, Colorado, and Houston, Texas, locations planned for 2025.
“We had some real estate deals fall through because of the pandemic, because otherwise we would’ve opened in Philadelphia in 2021,” Patterson says. “But we always had it in mind that we needed to come back to Philadelphia. … It’s a great spot for us and the city. It’s very easy to bet on the locals to be very family- and friend-oriented customers.”
