Dear Builders, are you ready for the challenge?
This time, we’re introducing a unique twist: all participants must incorporate objects from "The Artifact Pack" into their escape rooms. With this requirement, we’re excited to see how you creatively use these elements in puzzles, storytelling, and design. Will you craft a high-tech lab, an ancient vault, a futuristic bunker, or something completely unexpected? The choice is yours!
Also, for the first time, we have a guest judge! Wollo, one of the creators behind the Mystery Pack Community Contest, will be joining the Pine Studio team to evaluate your entries.
🏆 Prizes Galore!
To make this competition even more exciting, we are once again featuring several categories to ensure that both seasoned and first-time builders have a chance to shine.
💪Experienced Builders Category
This is the main event, open to participants who already have one or more rooms in their portfolio. The top prizes include:
- 1st place: $500 cash + 2 keys for the upcoming ES DLC
- 2nd place: $100 Steam gift card + 2 keys for the upcoming ES DLC
🐣Rookie Builders Category
Is this your first time competing in one of our Build-A-Room contests? Fantastic! You have a chance to win:
- 1st place: $500 cash + 2 keys for the upcoming ES DLC
- 2nd place: $100 Steam gift card + 2 keys for the upcoming ES DLC
🧑🤝🧑Community Award
After the submission deadline, we'll open a poll for the community to vote on their favorite room. The winner of the Community Award will receive:
- Community Award: $100 Steam gift card + 2 keys for the upcoming ES DLC
🎨 Contest Requirements
- Use “The Artifact Pack”: Your room must feature at least 3 of the 10 objects from the pack. These should be integrated meaningfully (e.g., as part of puzzles or storytelling). You may resize or retexture objects, but their essence must remain recognizable.
- Using more than three objects is allowed, but will not score additional points.
- The objects can be resized and retextured as long as their essence is maintained (i.e., don’t retexture or resize them to make them completely unrecognizable).
- The room must be started from scratch. Reusing existing rooms or parts thereof is not allowed. However, publicly available assets and scripts may be used.
- The room must include an in-game walkthrough covering the solution to each puzzle.
- Rooms must have a video walkthrough.
- Puzzles must be colorblind-friendly and hearing-impaired-friendly.
- The room must be submitted before February 17th, 8AM CET/2AM EST. Bug-fixing is allowed at any point after submission.
📑 Rules
- You can only submit one room.
- Multiple builders can collaborate on a single entry, but only one prize will be awarded to the submitter.
- The room must be an escape room.
- Ideal playtime should be under 30 minutes, but longer experiences are allowed.
- The room can be as big as you wish.
- You are allowed to fix bugs after submission, but you cannot resubmit an entirely different room.
- All references to existing IPs must be edited, parodied, or modified to infer a likeness without directly copying the original IP. Use models, textures, sounds, and other assets that are either:
- Creative Commons (CC) with proper attribution
- From the Escape Simulator library
- Licensed content that you have legally acquired
- Give credit where needed.
- Copies of other players' rooms are not eligible.
- Keep it fun and clean! No profanity, racism, hate speech, sexually suggestive content, etc. Any offensive content will result in disqualification.
- AI-generated content is allowed, but its usage should not compromise originality or puzzle quality.
- The Pine team and guest moderator Wollo will judge the Experienced and Rookie Builder categories, while the Community Award will be decided by a community vote.
📢 How to Enter
To submit your room, make it available (public or unlisted) and share a link in the #💾competition-submissions channel on the Pine Studio Discord server. Remember, you can only submit one room!
The submission deadline is February 17th, 8AM CET/2AM EST We'll then review all the submitted rooms and announce the winners during a special livestream [date to be announced]. Stay tuned for more details on the stream!
📌 Judging Criteria
- Puzzle Design – Logic, originality, and engagement of puzzles
- Room Design – Theme, aesthetics, progression, and atmosphere
- Object Use – Creative and meaningful integration of at least three Artifact Pack objects
- Playability – Deductions for bugs, technical issues, or violations of contest rules (e.g., IP infringement, colorblind accessibility, incomplete walkthroughs)
💡 Building Tips
- Keep it simple! Aim for a playtime of 15-30 minutes.
- Test thoroughly and get feedback from the community.
- Focus on quality over quantity – A few great puzzles are better than many mediocre ones.
- Consider accessibility features like colorblind and hearing-impaired options.
- Most importantly, have fun! Creativity and enjoyment are what make great escape rooms.
We can't wait to see your Artifact Pack-inspired rooms!
Happy building!
-Pine Team