How a City Sleuth partnership works, from application to first Premiere
This is the process as it actually runs, in order, with the parts that take time marked honestly.
1. Apply
The application takes ten minutes. We want to know about your escape room, your city, and why you would be a good fit. The form checks live whether your city is open, pending with another applicant, or already assigned, so you know before you submit. We reply within five business days.
2. Approval and onboarding
Once approved you get access to the partner portal. That is where your games live: the storyline structure, the points of interest, the puzzle scenes, media, and the hint economy. We walk you through it on a call and stay on hand while you build.
3. Route design
You choose the points of interest. The brief is simple and strict: public, walkable, safe at the times people will play, and interesting enough that standing there for ten minutes is a pleasure rather than a chore. A good route is a loop of roughly three kilometres with eight to ten stops. You will walk it more than once; the second walk always removes a stop the first walk loved.
4. Puzzle and scene design
Each stop is a scene: a briefing, a puzzle, a resolution that hands the team the next pin. We provide the storyline framework and the templates; you write the puzzles against the real place. The difference from a room is that the environment is the prop. Anything that depends on something the city might remove, repaint or close is a puzzle you will be fixing in month three.
5. Test
You play it. Then people who did not design it play it, on their own phones, without you nearby. Hint usage and time per stop tell you where the difficulty is wrong. This is the stage that separates a game people recommend from one they merely finish.
6. Launch
We set the Premiere window with you and run the launch marketing: the city landing page, the events listing, email, social, and local outreach. Tickets sell through citysleuth.com. On the weekend itself the app runs the game; you keep an eye on things and enjoy watching strangers argue on a street corner about a clue you wrote.
7. Get paid
You earn a share of every ticket sold for games in your city, Premiere and Open Play alike, paid out on a regular schedule through the portal. Medals for the podium teams are fulfilled by us.
How long it takes
From approval to a first Premiere, most partners should plan for two to three months, with route and puzzle design as the long pole. A second game in the same city is much faster.
If that sounds like your kind of project, apply here.