Death Carnival cover
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Escape Car 2019

Death Carnival

Death Carnival was the debut project of the Tehran Escape Group and the first "escape car" experience designed in Iran. The project challenged the spatial dynamics of traditional escape rooms by initially restricting players to the interior of a classic Mercedes-Benz before expanding the playable area. By utilizing a highly constrained physical space that eventually opens up, the game relies on layered puzzles and timed audio storytelling to build continuous urgency and narrative depth.

Phase 1: Constrained Environment

The experience begins as a mundane scenario—players enter the parked vehicle after a shopping trip. The doors immediately lock, and the first half of the game takes place entirely within the confined cabin.

Audio-Driven Urgency

An integrated audio system delivers a real-time message from the bomber: forcing the doors open early will detonate the vehicle. Players have exactly 60 minutes to defuse the bomb, or the car and the surrounding mall will be destroyed.

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Game Poster
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Setting

Phase 2: Spatial Expansion

After approximately 30 minutes of gameplay, solving the interior puzzle sequence allows players to safely unlock the doors. The gameplay then expands, requiring players to search and interact with the physical environment immediately surrounding the vehicle.

Narrative Unfolding

As participants solve puzzles, they uncover the bomber's motive: a grieving father seeking revenge on the attendees of a traditional wedding carnival, whose celebratory traffic jam cost his wife and unborn child their lives.

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Some of participants groups
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Opening day

Physical Climax

The final chain of environmental and mechanical riddles guides players back to the vehicle to unlock the hood, requiring them to physically defuse a prop bomb wired next to the engine block before the timer expires.

Game Story

For some time now, reports have been coming in of multiple car explosions across different parts of Tehran. None of the occupants of the vehicles survived. The police are still searching for the bomber, but so far they have found no leads, and the city remains on edge...