Open your quest as much money as required. We determine the target audience and set up advertising. Equipment costs

The target audience is the same - young people from 20 to 30 years old with an average income or corporate clients.

Market and competition analysis

In reality, quest rooms are definitely not a boring type of business, which, by the way, is growing rapidly at the present time. True, to organize such leisure time you will have to spend a lot of money - rent a room, select the surroundings, ensure the presence of special effects (the latter is the key to the success of any, even weak, scenario).

The start of any entrepreneurial activity involves the development of a business plan, which should begin with drawing up the current complete picture of the existing market.

The summary information should include the following information:

the attractiveness of various themes for quests based on their attendance;
the number of quests booked for a certain period of time (day, month) in several companies (at least 5);
main market trends;
workload of existing competitors;
the approximate amount of revenue among the companies in respect of which the analysis was carried out;
percentage of occupancy in each room.

In addition, you should make a list:

websites of similar organizations;
quests (open and planned);
groups on social networks on this topic, indicating their numerical composition;
organizations of a similar nature that are offered for sale, and their value.

You can find detailed information about opening this type of activity in the following video:

Production plan

The significant advantages of an quest room are the following: there is no need to find a room with a huge area and install expensive decorations. An exciting and poignant plot is the key to success.

The optimal size of the area is not less than 40 sq. m. At the same time, you need to pay attention to inexpensive premises, otherwise the monthly rental payment will eat up the bulk of the profit. For example, these could be small shopping centers or sleeping areas. Good transport accessibility (bus stops, tram lines, metro stations, etc.) is another significant plus, since the bulk of visitors are young people who often do not have personal cars.

After this, you should proceed to the next stage - carrying out repairs and creating the necessary design in accordance with the scenario. In addition, you need to equip the room by various means that create a comfortable environment for clients. For example, the hall can be equipped with a soft sofa, a cooler and various sweets. At first glance, it seems that these are little things, but they are what will add up general idea About company.

The basis of any quest is a scenario. Often the process of its creation is transferred to a team of specialists (director, screenwriter, editor, etc.). For a task to be interesting, it must be based on some kind of secret or riddle, and you need to come up with an outcome that is not only logical, but also not entirely obvious. Most the best option– these are several plot options, focused on the age, interests of the audience, their experience in similar games etc.

Before sending a story to the masses, it should be carefully checked and tested, then any identified shortcomings should be corrected, additional characters and storylines should be added or removed.

Opening a room requires significant investment in good repairs and furnishings. The most important thing is to create a spectacular ambience, therefore, the room must be equipped in the same style in accordance with the objectives of the scenario; it is also necessary to have sound and visual special effects that will make what is happening realistic.

Financial plan

This section of the document involves a description of the initial and monthly costs that are necessary to organize the project:

Opening such a business requires one-time start-up costs in the amount of 1 million rubles. necessary for repairs and equipment purchases.
The monthly costs are approximately 60-120 thousand rubles. - This wage employees, premises rental, taxes and other expenses.
Approximately once a quarter it is necessary to update the scenarios and surroundings, which requires about 300-350 thousand rubles.
In total, the annual costs will be about 3 million rubles.

At the same time, the monthly revenue of a promoted quest room (promotion requires at least 3 months) is from 400 thousand to 1 million rubles. Thus, we can conclude that the project will pay for itself in 1 year on average.

Organizational plan

The simplest way to officially register a business is, as it is fast, cheap and convenient. The type of activity that must be indicated is: “Other services in the field of entertainment and recreation.” After this, you need to make sure that the premises meet the requirements of such regulatory authorities as: SES, fire inspectorate and Rospotrebnadzor. This type activities are not licensed.

The preparation and procedure for launching such a business can be represented using the following table:

No.	Stage name	Implementation period
1	Business plan development	January 2016
2	Official registration	February 2016
3	Renting premises in a suitable area	February 2016
4	Its renovation and decoration	March 2016
5	Quest development	March-April 2016
6	Advertising campaign	April-May 2016
7	Start of activity	May 2016

Marketing plan and advertising

Most potential clients are looking for quest makers via the Internet, so having an optimized website indicating available quests, schedules and prices is just what they need. In addition, you can connect social media, contextual advertising, as well as banners on a regional forum or on a city portal.

An equally important role is played by the so-called “word of mouth”, the general level of development of similar projects in the city and the presence of a good reputation with your direct competitor - if the client liked the quest organized by another company, then there is a high probability that he will contact you.

Promotion of such entrepreneurial activity involves certain expenses - about 40 thousand rubles. monthly.

There are several main options for advertising:

Outdoor advertising– banners, billboards, video stands, etc. All this can significantly increase the recognition and popularity of the project.
Internet– social networks, specialized forums, contextual advertising.
Flyers and Leaflets. They should be distributed near the seats large cluster potential clients - universities, large shopping centers, youth parks, etc.
Promotions and charity events– a regular customer will be very pleased with the cumulative discount card, and for winning the script competition for a future quest, you can organize a free game.
Television, making a video and its subsequent publication on the Internet.

Risk analysis

Risks follow any entrepreneurial activity, therefore, when drawing up a business plan, the main ones must be analyzed. Thus, such a project may be subject to the following main types of risks:

wear and tear of equipment and decorations;
the occurrence of an emergency;
unstable demand.

So, typical of this type of activity:

strong dependence on reputation (for example, 5 years of good work will be instantly forgotten if one of the visitors gets lost or gets injured in some way - a decline in demand for the service is guaranteed);
unprofessionally composed script (boring, uninteresting).

One way or another, the most important thing is the risk associated with the safety of clients. Each person is individual, therefore, even in the most safe place injury may occur.

In order to nip possible complaints in the bud, an introductory safety briefing should be provided, after which each participant signs in the log. It would be even better to have a written refusal from each client to make any claims in the future.

Quests in reality are a popular trend in the markets. This is a business that does not depend on the season and requires relatively small start-up capital. Most of the costs go towards renting and renovating suitable premises. Typically, quest rooms are located in the center, because the main target audience is tourists and city guests.

How to open an quest room in your city: instructions

To create a quest room legally, select one of the forms of ownership - individual entrepreneur or LLC. If you do not plan to open an entire network at once, choose an individual entrepreneur. The paperwork here is simpler and the requirements for individual entrepreneurs less harsh than towards societies.

As for the taxation system, a simplified one is suitable - income minus expenses.

Business on quests in reality: what are the nuances

In addition to the quest rooms themselves, there are projects that are organized in the city or outside the city. Remember that it is more difficult to start such a business, since you will need to obtain a number of permits from authorities local government, agree on the time and procedure. And also carefully draw up a contract for clients to take everything into account possible risks. If the main target audience is children, the list of requirements will be many times higher.

What you need to open: choosing a room and equipment

The type of room and its area depend on the scenario you plan to use. Usually it ranges from 50 - 100 m², sometimes more. As we have already said, it is best to choose a site for an quest in the city center. This will attract tourists and simplify transport accessibility for corporate companies, for example, employees of business centers.

This way you can immediately understand what repairs and equipment will be required for the game. Furniture, decorative elements and equipment are purchased using the same principle.

The more complex and interesting the plot, the more you will spend on refurbishment of the premises. At the same time, a complex and non-trivial idea will help you stand out from competitors and gain loyal customers and positive reviews.

Documents and permits for opening a quest room

This type of business does not require licensing. However, it is necessary to understand that the owner of the quest provides services to clients. He must do this efficiently and ensure the safety of his visitors.

There is a practice of providing participants with a formal agreement, which states that the company is not responsible for the safety of the client. However, if a quest participant is injured due to the fault of the organizers, he will be able to prove this in court. In addition, such precedents will negatively affect the company's image.

If a contract for the provision of services is not concluded, the relationship between the company and clients is governed by consumer protection law. The document directly states the contractor’s responsibility for the safety of clients when using special means and tools.

Question about applying special requirements to quest rooms Lately is actively discussed among entrepreneurs and lawyers. They will be related not only to security issues, but also to copyright protection.

We determine the target audience and set up advertising

Since the main clients of quests are young people under 30, advertising is best broadcast through social networks and other popular platforms. The best way to start promoting your business is through VKontakte and Facebook groups. In the future, create a beautiful, high-quality website.

Post not only the price list and information about services on social networks. Make the group alive: add photos, arrange polls and competitions. Connect targeting so that as many users as possible learn about your quest room.

How much does it cost to open a quest business?

Launching a quest room will cost an entrepreneur 2,000,000 rubles. This is the minimum threshold. This takes into account the costs of creating and developing an idea, renting premises and renovations, advertising and promotion.

When opening an quest room from scratch, analyze whether it will be profitable in your city. If a couple of years ago it was easier to gain a foothold in this niche with proper advertising, now the situation has changed.

There are no exact statistics, but major cities, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, there are several hundred quest rooms.

One of the options to reduce risks when starting a business is to choose franchise cooperation. In this case, you are given the right to work under a well-known brand in the market within a single concept. Another way is to purchase a functioning quest room. The main thing is to make sure that the business generates income, and that the quest room is popular and in demand among clients.

In the article, we figured out the specifics of the quest business. How relevant is this direction and what difficulties can you encounter? The choice is yours!

Do you want to start an entertainment business and don't know which idea to choose? In this article we will look at the option of opening a quest room, we will analyze Is it profitable to open an quest room? and what is needed for this.

Introduction

Quest rooms appeared in the CIS countries about 5–7 years ago. They instantly became popular due to the fact that this is a truly interesting and unusual entertainment that allows friends or family to have fun, experience a lot of emotions, and develop ingenuity and logic.

Classic look of the quest room

The principle of an quest room is that a small group of people are let into it and locked. There are various clues and puzzles in the room, solving which you can escape from the room. As of the end of 2017, in the territory Russian Federation There are about 1,200 similar rooms in operation, but the market demands about 2 times as many. In addition, quests with different scenarios will not compete with each other - usually people go through everything possible options that are interesting to them.

There are many types of quests in reality , ranging from children's to professional, designed for competent “survivalists”. The main advantages of the business include low “entry” cost, quick payback, ease of marketing and organization.

Analyzing the market

Before you start developing a detailed business plan, you need to study the market to understand how much this service will be in demand, whether you will have competitors and what price level for such entertainment will be justified. Experts recommend opening such entertainment in cities with a population of over 300 thousand people - there will always be an audience that will like new entertainment. IN small towns and the PGT business may simply not pay off due to its specificity.

The presence of competitors in the city should not scare you, provided that there are not very many of them. You'll just need to either collaborate with them or study the scripts they have so you don't repeat yourself. Practice shows that people visit several quests, comparing them, getting hooked on new ideas, so the wider the range, the more people eventually gets involved in the game.

A typical visitor to such entertainment is:

Young people aged 18 to 35 years.
Medium-high income level.
Corporate clients (entire organizations or large companies often go on quests).
Families with children aged 7–8 years.

Attention:companies use quests to test their employees. IN stressful situations Leaders, logicians, analysts and other bright personalities manifest themselves well.

Interesting stories attract a lot of people

We carry out a SWOT analysis

After you have studied the market, you can begin to analyze external and internal factors business. remember, that external factors are practically unchangeable, so they must be used skillfully when conducting business. These include:

Practically complete absence competitors (the market is filled only in Moscow and St. Petersburg).
Stable interest in new entertainment among people.
Possibility of implementing your own scenarios.
Low “entry” threshold to business.
High profitability (investments often pay off in 3–4 months).

The following points can be highlighted from the disadvantages:

The need to regularly change scenarios (no one will go through the same quest twice).
The need to follow current quest topics.
The demand for such entertainment is quite fickle.
It is possible that the state will turn its attention to quests in the near future.
The danger of injury of some ideas.

Attention:The main thing in a quest is an interesting scenario. If you do not have experience in composing it, then the scripts can always be found on the Internet. We recommend that you use them as a basis so that you and your competitors do not end up taking scripts from the same place.

Where to open

So, with the strong and weaknesses We have already figured out this event. Let's consider,and where is the best place to do it? There are three main types of games:

Indoors. They usually work on the “find a way out” principle.
On fresh air in the park, in the forest belt, on the streets.
Mixed types, taking place partly indoors, partly outdoors.

The second type does not require virtually any investments, but with the first and third you will have to make initial payments. It is not necessary to purchase/rent a game room in the city center or in expensive business centers - either an apartment or a utility room such as a basement is suitable for this.

Take team photos and publish them in groups to increase your rating

You can choose buildings in residential areas, near shops or even in hypermarkets themselves. You can rent separate rooms or small houses, dividing them into several rooms suitable for various quests.

Important:you will need to take safety precautions to prevent injury to participants. Be sure to keep a book in which notes about the safety briefing will be written, and the participants taking part in the quest will sign that they have read the rules.

The principle of organizing entertainment is as follows: you need at least 4 rooms with different themes. They will operate daily from 10 a.m. to 9-10 p.m. The administrator will receive and advise guests (two of them will be needed). At optimal mode the entertainment outlet will operate approximately 300 hours per week. To increase your reach, you can combine indoor quests and outdoor games - this will help you unload the premises and create more complex scenarios based on street knowledge, history, ingenuity, etc.

How to open up

In order to officially open, you must register with the tax office. Usually similar business opens as an individual entrepreneur or LLC if there are several owners and they want to contribute shares. The OKVED code used is 92.72, which refers to “Other activities for organizing recreation and entertainment.” We will also give you the following tips:

The easiest way is to work according to the simplified tax system. Which scheme to choose is up to you (it all depends on the current rates in the region). You can work either according to the Income or Income minus expenses scheme. In most cases, it is more profitable to work under the “Income” scheme, since this is a highly profitable business.
Be sure to buy cash machine, which will help you keep records and not come to the attention of the tax authorities. We recommend that you immediately open a current account so that you can receive payments by cards or by bank transfer - today almost no one carries cash.
As of 2018, the license foris not required, but in the future everything may change, since the government is already considering ways to regulate this area.
To work you will need interesting scenarios. You can develop them yourself, buy them from specialists, or find them on the Internet, modifying them to suit your conditions. But approval for scenarios is not needed.
If you rent real estate, be sure to enter into a formal contract. He will insure you against unexpected eviction and “whitewash” you before the regulatory authorities.

Quests are often visited by the whole family - create an appropriate plot

How to advertise

Be sure to create your own business card website with a description of the quests, schedule, cost, contact information, overview photos, etc.
Create groups on social networks “VKontakte”, Facebook, “Odnoklassniki”, Instagram, etc. Be sure to post photos from quests, news, respond to comments and dialogues. It will be great if you involve users in the discussion of quests and provide feedback.
Contextual advertising on social networks and websites based on geotargeting of your city.
Classic types of advertising: local media, banners, banners, billboards, leaflets, flyers, etc.
Launch a discount program for regular customers, arrange discounts on outdated quests that you already want to change.

Approximate business plan

Let's give an exampleprofitability. Let us note that it cannot be taken as a last resort - it all depends on your capabilities, realities, chosen place, etc. It is more correct to use it as a basis.

In total, every month you will receive approximately 800 thousand rubles. Of course, this is not a constant profit - everything will depend on how quickly you start and attract clients, how you organize your work, etc., but on average this is the income figure.

Now let's calculate the costs. You will need to rent a room of four rooms, renovate them, order decorations, equip the rooms with cameras, etc. You will also need to create a reception desk, put a sofa and chairs for those waiting, buy a laptop, etc. Let’s calculate the existing expenses:

In total, for a year of work you will spend about one and a half million, while you will receive 800 thousand per month. Also, the amount of expenses must include the change of quests and decorations every 3-4 months, additional expenses, insurance premiums, etc. - this will cost another 400 thousand rubles per year. In total, all your expenses will one way or another pay off within three months, after which the business will begin to generate a stable profit.

Try to change plots every 3-4 months

Possible risks

Finally, let’s look at what risks there are in this type of business. If you did everything correctly (registration, official lease, safety log), then you will not have any special problems, unless the state changes the rules of the game and introduces licensing.

Let's look at what you need to pay attention to so that your business does not fade away over time:

Existing scenario for the quest room should be competent, interesting and thematic. We need to create a quest for parents with children, a quest for young people, and a quest for adults. If you don’t have experience and imagination, then hire screenwriters.
Do not skimp on decorations and decoration - this is immediately felt and reduces the satisfaction from visiting the room. Remember that your main advertising is word of mouth, and most of your clients should return to you for new quests.
Train administrators and reward them for Good work. It is advisable to take girls - guys are more likely to go to them, and they will be your main clients.
Change quests after 3 months, finally organizing a promotional week. This will attract visitors who like to save money and buy services at discounts.
Be loyal to customers. The discount program perfectly binds people - they will come back to you again and again.
Try to maintain good relations with competitors. You can easily team up with them to exchange decorations or ideas; after all, you have a common cause and a common target audience. The more people you get hooked on quests, the more profitable it will be for everyone.
Try to think about the future, and not just receive dividends. A quest room often develops into something more - an entertainment area, hostels, etc. It provides a constant income - think about how to use this money to develop and reinsure yourself in case of troubles or a drop in demand.

In contact with

Quest room – the new kind entertainment. The essence of the game is that a team of players closes themselves in a room and for a certain time (usually 1 hour) by solving various logical problems and the puzzler must find the key to the door and get out of the room (solve the main riddle). The interior and decorations create a special atmosphere, similar to the script of Hollywood thrillers. The game has become so fashionable and popular that new quest rooms in the cities of the Russian Federation began to grow at a rapid pace.

How to open an quest room? We invite you to familiarize yourself with step by step instructions to open a business in your city.

Step 1. Search for sources of project financing.

The amount of funds for starting a business will depend on the number of quests that are planned to be held at one address. Each individual quest involves the appropriate renovation and design of the room, the purchase of interior items, the development of a script, etc.

One quest room requires investments from 100,000 to 250,000 rubles. Accordingly, two quests will require investments of up to 500,000 rubles, three quests - up to 750,000 rubles, four - up to 1,000,000 rubles.

Saving at the initial stage will not hurt. Although, the more scenarios (quests) you offer, the higher the potential income will be. And a small number of scenarios suggest that regular customers will quickly get tired of the service.

Step 2. Search for premises - location

The next stage is the selection of premises. Here it is important to adhere to two basic principles: convenient location of the building and low rent. The presence of good transport accessibility (bus stops, tram tracks) will have great importance, because most of young people do not have their own car. Therefore, a room opened on the outskirts of the city will lose a huge share of clients, and will also spend significantly on advertising the service.

It is also worth considering in advance such an issue as the planned expansion of the number of scenarios. Let's say you decide to open only three quest rooms. This requires about 60 - 70 sq. m of rentable area (from 15 sq. m. per scenario). However, as you run your business, you may need to add a few more scenarios. In this case you will need additional areas. Therefore, it is worth renting those premises that will allow, if necessary, to increase the number of quests. Otherwise, you will have to look for another premises if you want to earn more.

Step 3. Business registration

Most best option legalization of business - registration of individual entrepreneurship. This procedure will cost only 800 rubles. state duties. The most suitable OKVED is 92.72 “Other activities for organizing recreation and entertainment, not included in other groups.” As a taxation system, you can choose from three main special regimes: simplified tax system, UTII and patent system. The most optimal tax regime for a quest room is the patent system. You pay only once a year (when registering a patent) and work for a whole year quietly, without accounting. The only drawback is that the patent system is not accepted in all regions of the country.

No licenses or additional approvals for of this business not required.

Step 4. Repair and design of the premises, acquisition of equipment and inventory

Next, you need to renovate and design the premises taking into account the scenario. This is one of the most difficult stages, as it requires serious investments and a lot of time for preparation. Developing a script often requires the involvement of outside specialists. Making something worthwhile and interesting on your own is not easy (you can copy an idea from your competitors, but this will not be the best way out). One option is to purchase a franchise of an existing company, which will provide you with a dozen or so different scenarios. There are plenty of similar franchisor companies on the market. You need to be careful here. Some companies offer extremely unfavorable conditions: either high royalties (deductions for using the brand) or an unreasonably high initial payment.

In addition to developing scenarios, it is worth paying attention to equipping the premises with all possible means of comfort and service. It would not be amiss to place a soft sofa in the hall for guests, a water cooler and supplies of sweets (there are many young people among the clients). These little things often form a general opinion about the company. It takes 3-4 months to prepare an quest room.

Step 5. Advertising and promotion of services

Cheerful companies who want to find interesting entertainment;
Couples who decided to spend unusual time together;
Students who are already fed up with the cinema and are looking for new entertainment;
Tourists who will find your organization via the Internet;
Schoolchildren who have some pocket money and love quests.

There are a lot of options for advertising quests. In most cases, you can only promote a service using the Internet. To do this, you can hold competitions on couponer websites (kukukupon, biglion, etc.). The purpose of such competitions is to gather a large audience of clients into groups on social networks (according to the rules, in order to become a participant in the competition you need to join the group). In return, you provide the winner of the competition with a free visit to the quest room. Also, through couponers you can sell tickets with large discounts (70 - 80%). This option will help gather a decent audience of clients in the first month after opening.

Another way of promotion is cooperation with holiday agencies. Such companies will be more than happy to promote your services in exchange for a percentage of the ticket price. Entertainment such as an quest room sells very well in the form of a birthday certificate.

Business profitability certificate

Fixed expenses:

Rent of premises (80 sq. m.) – 40,000 rub.
Administrator's salary - 20,000 rubles.
Social contributions to the Pension Fund and Social Insurance Fund – 7,000 rubles.
Taxes (UTII) – 5,000 rub.
Advertising expenses – 15,000 rub.
Other expenses - 10,000 rubles.

Total - 97,000 rub.

Income:

The average price for one hour of completing a quest is 3000 rubles. from the company. The main sales are on weekends and holidays~ 10 days in a month. According to statistics, up to 6 companies come to active quests per day off. Potential revenue – 18,000 rub. in a day. For ten days - 180,000 rubles. (excluding revenue on weekdays).

Net profit is: 180,000 – 97,000 (expenses) = 83,000 rubles. per month. Business profitability is estimated at 70 - 85%.

But not those quests that our older brothers used to play avidly on the computer and our younger brothers on the iPhone, but real quests in real life: interesting, exciting and good at switching the brain away from the worries of the day.

Live quests are story-based role-playing games that can be played in a confined space, in an open area, or even in nature. And if initially quests were created and carried out mainly on the streets of the city (it’s time to remember the same Watch or Encounter), today, in addition to them, you can open quest rooms, and simply story-based role-playing games with costumed performances and specific goals in the game .

As business quests in reality they also look interesting: the target audience is young people from 20 to 35 with an average income and above, who prefer active species recreation, as well as corporate clients who hope to use quests to make friends between the technical department “and those clowns from the accounting department.” It is most promising to go to regions where they already know about quests, but there is no dominance yet - this will help to achieve payback in about 3-6 months.

Before we begin

In the last few years, new reality quests and various quest rooms have won the title of one of the most developing areas of the event business - and no crisis can stop them. Of course, marketers are being a little disingenuous when they say that Hard times It is precisely these games with non-standard situations that allow you to forget about everyday life that come to the fore, but there is some truth in every joke. Moreover, this business has an interesting specificity - competitors here do not compete so much as help each other, even if reluctantly: a person is interested in playing the quest only once, and then he starts wondering what else interesting there is in the city.

The first step to create your own quest is to decide on the game format. For example, in quests like escape the room, you need to escape from a locked room by solving various problems - such quests require more investment in the room and can be either an intellectual game of a competitive nature or transfer clients to an alternative reality. Another thing is role-playing games with tasks scattered around the city or detective stories when you need to solve terrible secret, unravel the case and find the killers, while at the same time climbing through garbage dumps, trying to find NPCs, receiving text messages from above and independently determining the further course of the storyline.

By the way, in a growing market, new offers of quests based on the franchise appear every now and then. Here are the notorious DozoR and Encounter, and room-based “Claustrophobia”, Rabbit Hole, Real Quest, Questime, “Room”, “Exit the Room”, in general, millions of them. They allow you to work under famous name and often don’t worry too much about developing scripts and automated game systems. Despite the impressive entry fee, entrepreneurs are not complaining: developing the same scenarios costs a lot of money and requires thorough testing, and website promotion consumes a lot of time.

Main risks: consider that your business is “for fun”, for rooms - a big investment, for city quests - dependence on weather conditions, strong dependence on reputation (suppose you did everything cool for 10 years, and then someone got lost during quest and that’s it, customer outflow is guaranteed).

“Step-by-step instructions on how to open your quest from scratch”

Location

With a room to create your own quest, everything is simple - you either need it or you don’t need it. For example, to open an quest room, you will need a decent place with an authentic renovation, which will cost a pretty penny, and in good transport accessibility, perhaps in the center. Role-playing games can be held in an anti-cafe, similar to the common game libraries, where everyone comes - most often, in this situation, you don’t even have to pay rent, but find some kind of compromise that is interesting to both parties. But for city and search quests, as well as away quests, which themselves will gladly come to a wedding, birthday or corporate event, premises are not needed or at first it is not necessary.

Equipment

The basis of every quest, regardless of its type, is the scenario. Scripts are made according to similar principle, as for films and plays. In companies where quests are actually put on stream, their own team of directors, screenwriters, and editors usually work on creating the next scenario. You can entrust this work individuals with experience: you can find such people either through friends, or on the good old fl.ru. And if you have the patronage of the franchising company, the scripts can be provided to you for free or developed for an additional fee.

Typically, the script should be based on some kind of secret or riddle, and the outcome should be logical, but not entirely predictable. It’s best when the organizers have several types of plot, which are selected depending on the age, interests of the audience, their experience in games, or the presence of certain roles that would equalize the players’ chances.

Before the script goes to the masses, it must undergo thorough checks and testing in the field, based on the results of which the last shortcomings are corrected, additional characters and storylines are added or removed. For testing, you can call your friends or attract groups of volunteers on social networks.

In order to open an quest room, you will also have to invest in good repairs and furnishings. The main thing here is the surroundings, so the room needs to be carefully equipped in the same style and according to the objectives of the scenario; sound and visual special effects are also welcome, which add realism to what is happening.

Live quests may require costumes and game props - these can be found at prank supply stores. And in city quests, first of all, you need to establish a connection with the players: this can be traditional envelopes or SMS. By the way, when there are a lot of players, the process will have to be automated.

Personnel

Let's start with you. Since in order to open your own quest, you can do without additional hiring of agents - 2-3 organizers are enough - you will need a keen interest. Experience in event companies and at least basic skills as an event host are also desirable. Scripts, as we have already said, can be ordered on freelance sites or, for example, organized a competition on social networks.

In general, the more complex and interesting your quests are, the more non-player characters you will have to involve in them. At first, you can attract friends and hire third-party people, for example, with payment for time. In the future, it is better to form a staff of your own agents, each of whom can take part in several quests at once.

Documents and licenses

Well, for the simplest legalization of your activities, it is best to organize a banal individual entrepreneur. What else should you consider? Quest games are not always safe entertainment. If everything is more or less clear with quest rooms, then when playing on city streets, there are injuries and accidents. In order to protect themselves and their players from unnecessary problems, the organizers either change the format of the game, completely abandoning all risk factors, or conduct safety instructions, and on paper completely waive responsibility for the actions of the players. One way or another, if doubt has crept into your soul, it is much better to seek legal advice.

Marketing

Usually, potential clients They are looking for quest makers on the Internet, so an optimized website with available quests, schedules and prices is simply a must have. In addition to promoting the site, also do not forget to connect social networks, context, banners on regional forums and city portals. Well, and of course, word of mouth, the development of quests in your city and the reputation of your direct competitors will play a big role: if a person liked a quest from another company, then he will most likely turn to you next time.

What else might work? Flyers and business cards in crowded places of potential players. Active blog with reports on the latest events. Discounts for regular customers, holding free games on certain days, competitions for best scenario. Don’t be afraid to experiment – the field itself encourages this!

Summary

Real-life quests, be it story-based city quests or quest rooms, are definitely not a boring business and are growing at a rapid pace, especially in the regions. At the first stage, you can get by with minimal investment: just a website, a good script and a couple of people to help. The only exception is the creation of an escape room - here you will have to spend a tidy sum on the premises, and on the selection of surroundings, and special effects, due to which, however, a weaker scenario can benefit. In any case, you will have to tinker with the script and test it in the field at least a dozen times. However, if you turn to a franchise, you will not only be able to open your quest under a well-known name, but also resolve the issue of plots: some franchisees offer ready-made scripts (their cost is included in the amount of the promotion), others are ready to develop them for free, and still others can always order support or development of additional story scenes.