LOS ANGELES - July 14, 2022 – iam8bit Presents and Skybound Games, together with escape room specialists Coin Crew Games, are excited to announce that Escape Academy is available worldwide. For seasoned Escapists, puzzle game fans and gamers in search of a good mystery, Escape Academy brings home the thrill and teamwork of in-person escape rooms into an immersive mystery game filled with a colorful cast of characters and a plethora of puzzles to unravel. Escape Academy is available on Xbox Game Pass and for digital purchase on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store for $19.99 USD.
Escape Academy is one of the first video games to authentically capture the time-pressure and mind-bending action of escape rooms and transform them into an immersive digital experience. This title brings the teamwork, exploration and intense scenarios of IRL escape rooms straight to consoles in this epic mystery featuring a prestigious school, relentless rivalries and an abundance of puzzle-solving. Escape Academy can be experienced in single player or with friends in a cooperative multiplayer mode. Players can fly through levels with friends in an online dual-screen multiplayer mode, or in-person locally with everyone working together to achieve elite Escapist status – all without leaving the comfort of the living room.
“We set out to build an experience based on the familiar style of escape room - and quickly found that we were set free in the digital space to build literally anything,” says Wyatt Bushnell, Co-Founder, Coin Crew Games. “Creating a digital escape room removes all physical constraints - no worrying about player safety, or whether they're going to rip a painting off the wall. We can just focus on building something that's fun. Let's make the player climb a water tower that’s slowly filling up with water or leaking gas into a room. The Crew loved that freedom when developing Escape Academy.”
“Working on Escape Academy let us combine our expertise building physical attractions with our video games chops, and the result is something really unique.” said Mike Mohammed Salyh, Co-Founder, Coin Crew Games. “We’ve spent a lot of time watching players solve our escape rooms (both digitally and IRL) and studying what makes them tick, and I’m really proud of how true to the medium Escape Academy feels. It was a lot of fun bringing ‘escape’ to this larger-than-life format.”
After completing the base game, fans can look forward to continuing their Escapist journey with the Escape Academy Season Pass. This paid Season Pass will include two major DLC expansions to the game post-launch: Escape from Anti-Escape Island and Escape from the Past. Each expansion will take players on a wild adventure featuring familiar faces, additional allies, and nefarious ne’er-do-wells. Both DLCs will include five brand new escape rooms each for a total of ten hand-crafted rooms. Additionally, players can check out an expanded Escape Academy experience with the Escape Academy Deluxe Edition, which includes the base game and Season Pass! Play over 20 masterfully hand-crafted Escape Rooms in this Deluxe Edition bundle.
To learn more about Escape Academy please visit the official website escape.academy, and download assets from the press kit here.
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About iam8bit
Founded in 2005, iam8bit is a creative production emporium that has quietly redefined the entertainment industry, time and time again. Collaborating with a plethora of partners and narrative-busting IPs, iam8bit punctuates the importance of engaging with fans directly. By creating the videogame industry's very first community events, the company injected the idea of experiential immersion into game and film marketing (back when it was simply known as "theatre"). iam8bit also played a crucial role in the vinyl renaissance, minting its first record in 2010, and is the industry leader in premium physical editions of top-tier games. In 2020, iam8bit evolved into financing and publishing games, with several yet-to-be-announced PC, console and tabletop games on the horizon under its iam8bit Presents imprint. The company is based in Los Angeles and co-owned by Jon M. Gibson and Amanda White. Visit iam8bit.com or follow @iam8bit on Instagram or Twitter.
About Coin Crew Games
Coin Crew Games, an ‘arcade-first’ games studio, is on a mission to bring people together to play. With innovative concepts and research-driven design, Coin Crew Games is developing multiplayer experiences and games to be played both in and out of home. Founded in 2018 and based in Los Angeles, Coin Crew Games is best known for the arcade machine “Hot Wheels: King of the Road” found at every Dave & Buster’s and now the upcoming puzzle-adventure game “Escape Academy”. To learn more, visit www.coincrew.games or follow on Instagram and Twitter.
About iam8bit Presents
iam8bit Presents is a new publishing label from the Los Angeles-based creative emporium iam8bit that aims to create meaningful experiences by bringing whimsical, soulful games to players everywhere. iam8bit Presents offers a soup-to-nuts approach from financing to publishing, and works to foster meaningful, supportive relationships with developers who share their attention to detail, obsession with aesthetics, and commitment to quality.
About Skybound Games
Skybound Games, a division of Skybound Entertainment, collaborates with creators to publish, produce, develop, and license exceptional video game IP across a variety of genres and platforms. The Skybound Games publishing slate includes Telltale’s The Walking Dead, Before Your Eyes, Rainbow Billy and The Big Con among others.
As a strategic partner of Striking Distance Studios, Skybound Games brings its global marketing and distribution capabilities to the highly-anticipated survival-horror game The Callisto Protocol.
The Skybound Games team also manages physical distribution of several award-winning indie games including Boneloaf’s Gang Beasts, and alongside partner iam8bit, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Untitled Goose Game and more.
Skybound Games can be found on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and at www.skybound.com.
MEDIA RESOURCES:
Media Contacts:
Lizzie Killian
PR Lead, iam8bit
Ranese Southerland
PR Manager, Skybound Games
Elizabeth Gabriel
fortyseven communications for Skybound Games and iam8bit
Patrick Ward
104 West Partners