Message From the Future – Escaperoom

Message from the Future – Designing a Climate-Themed Escape Room Experience

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For my graduation project in the final year of Communication & Multimedia Design at Hogeschool Utrecht, I collaborated with the Waterline Museum (Waterliniemuseum), Nieuwland, and Praktijkpioniers. The goal was to improve the visitor experience at Fort bij Vechten and attract a younger audience (ages 19–26). The challenge: how do you make sustainability engaging for a generation that seeks immersive, social, and memorable experiences?

The Research & Design Approach

My research question was:
“How can I improve the visitor experience of Fort bij Vechten in a way that attracts a younger audience?”

To tackle this, I used the 5E Experience Design Model (Excitement, Entry, Engagement, Exit, Extension), combined with design thinking. I worked with user research, surveys, interviews, benchmarking, and multiple user tests.

My research showed that young people are drawn to interactive, story-driven experiences, and many of them express deep concern about climate change. Escape rooms emerged as an ideal medium: immersive, fun, and perfect for delivering meaningful stories in an engaging way.

The Concept – Message from the Future

The result was “Message from the Future”, a story-driven escape room concept that links sustainability to the history and themes of Fort bij Vechten—especially its connection to water. The storyline uses water as both a historical and future-focused symbol: from a tool of defense during the war, to a critical challenge in the face of climate change.

In the escape room, players travel to the year 2182, where the Netherlands faces extreme climate disasters like floods, wildfires, and water shortages. Through puzzles and storytelling, they uncover a hidden message from the future urging us to act now:
“Create a sustainable future together.”