The Lincoln County Library has recently launched an online escape room. If you love puzzles and interactive fun, this creative project could be for you.

The escape room centers around winter with the main character being a yeti, making it more than fitting for this time of year. The library’s escape room takes the participant through a number of riddles, puzzles and games in order to win or “escape.”

The activities vary in level of difficulty which makes it perfect for families. The locations, such as the library and Diamondville park, take players all around the area, making the experience feel even more inclusive.

The puzzle that I liked the most was the jigsaw puzzle. After completing it, participants answer a question it relates to in order to progress. When making my way through the escape room I found the logic puzzles such as the water bin puzzle to be the hardest; they really make you think.

Kellie Humphries, the youth services librarian and creator of the escape room, discussed the program. She said that they had done a physical escape room at the library for the last three years. Now that not only because the pandemic is in full effect, but winter too, they thought it would be a nice activity for the community to participate in from the comfort of their own homes.

There were many challenges and victories that came with the program, Humphries said.

“It took more work and less work,” she continued. It took more work in that she had to learn a new program and create the rooms. She said, however, that it took less work in that staff didn’t have to decorate or come up with in person puzzles. She said she watched various YouTube videos to figure it all out.

All and all, putting together the escape room took about two weeks, according to Humphries. During those two weeks, Richard Landreth, director of the Lincoln County Library system, tested the escape room three times to “fine tune,” it.

Landreth said that they will definitely do another escape room virtually and that the library will “never go back to just having one type of service.”

Humphries said her favorite part of making the virtual escape room was finding and making different puzzles. Her favorite puzzle in the escape room is the water bin logic puzzle. Landreth said his favorite was the final word unscramble you have to do to escape.

The entire program was made using Google Docs. “It’s definitely something you could do at home,” Humphries said. The library’s virtual escape room runs through March 1, 2021 and is available at tinyurl.com/yeti-escapes.