London, Aug 2025
These days London is a bit of a quiet spot for new escape rooms, which makes this pop-up game from puzzle collective Dreamcat all the more exciting – though sadly I only managed to catch it near the end of its run, and I believe all slots for the few remaining days are now taken. This is in fact an amateur creation that’s free to play, with a suggested charity donation, built and run on a volunteer basis. Don’t assume from that that this is a Blu-Tack and string sort of construction knocked together in an afternoon – they’ve created an experience that compares well to a great many professional rooms, in appearance, sophistication and gameplay.
I have to declare an affiliation of sorts here – Dreamcat is sponsored by a software development company that also employs most of its members, and many years ago I worked there too, though I hadn’t previously met most of the designers.
The premise is that you’re volunteering for a new lab procedure that will help you experience lucid dreaming. Naturally, nothing will go wrong… The way we were brought into the game illustrated some of its strengths up front, an in-character introduction that focused on lightly humorous tongue-in-cheek immersion.
I found the game interior surprisingly elaborate and expansive, to the point where I’d soon lost track of where I was in relation to the outside world. Of course, this isn’t a super-slick Disneyland experience – it’s clear that it’s been built on a tight budget and intended for a limited-time run, with much use of found items. I got the impression that they also have the luxury of not needing to idiot-proof the rooms as much as most commercial companies need to. But none of that has prevented them from creating a series of varied, interesting environments.
This is a game of several stages. Some are more puzzle-centric than others; others focus less on solving and more on interaction or pure fun. For me some pieces landed more successfully than others – one more tech-centric step was a bit confusing (though brief), and another felt a little too linear for the recommended team size. However, all parts had something to enjoy, and it both started and ended very strongly indeed.
Where there were puzzles to solve, they were well designed and often impressively original. Where the game threw in other elements, they were entertaining and high-energy, and added to the experience. The whole thing was brought together by wit and humour, and by the way it doubled down on the more handmade and makeshift elements of the game, turning the budget constraints from a limitation into a strength.
I believe it’s increasingly accepted as a truism among escape room owners that, as player expectations have risen, building any kind of decent escape room requires a budget of fifty thousand, or a hundred thousand, or more. Lucid Labs is an emphatic demonstration that something memorable and delightful can be made for far less – at least, when it’s done with enough creativity, talent and whimsy. It sounds like this was a one-off, and the designers have no immediate plans to relocate this game elsewhere or to build further rooms – but I certainly hope there’ll be more from them in the industry sooner or later. 
