February 14 often lands on a weeknight. Restaurants have been fully booked for days, the special menu costs twice the usual price, and the Sunday movie is one you've already watched together. Here's another idea: stay home, but actually do something together. An escape room on the TV works really well for that, on one condition: each of you needs your own piece of the mystery.
Why an escape room works so well for two
In a classic escape room, whoever finds the answer talks and the other watches. For a date, it's better when each of you holds half the solution. In After Hours at the Museum, the story plays on the TV, and each player gets documents on their phone that the other can't see: inventories, floor plans, sheet music. The answer clicks when both your documents point to the same object.
With two players, each of you takes two of the four roles. The first to join gets the Archivist and the Technician, the second the Egyptologist and the Musician. So you have to describe what you see, get it wrong, check again. That's exactly what makes the evening fun: you're on the same team, playing against the clock and the museum, with no winner or loser between you.
What you need
- A big screen: a laptop plugged into the TV (HDMI cable or screen mirroring). No cable? The laptop screen works too.
- One phone each, with an up-to-date browser. Nothing to install: you scan the QR code shown on the TV.
- An hour and a half to two hours for the full game. The first room takes about fifteen minutes.
New to escape rooms? Pick the Visitor level at launch: the puzzles stay the same, but help comes sooner. Each puzzle also has three hints, so you never stay stuck.
The evening, step by step
- Set up the room. Dim the lights, turn the sound up (the museum guard talks over the radio), charge both phones. From your phone, you can get tonight's link by email and open it on the laptop.
- Start the game. A QR code appears on the TV, each of you scans it and flips your role card. Don't show your screen: that's the whole point.
- Read your documents out loud. Describe what you see, the other fills in with theirs. When you get stuck, take one hint at a time.
- After room 1, if you want to see how it ends, the game carries on where it stopped, tonight or another night: it stays saved for 30 days.
Dinner first and the mystery after, or the other way around: you can pause the game whenever you like.
Not under the same roof on the 14th?
At launch, choose "Each at home": the videos play on both your screens at once, each of you keeps your clues on your phone, and you talk over a video call. Details on the virtual escape room page.
The budget
The first room is free, with no account and no credit card. For the rest, one person buys the game, €12.99, paid once, and the other joins for free. No subscription. Next to a Valentine's set menu for two, the evening stays very light on the wallet.
Give it instead of planning it
Want to make it a surprise? The game comes as a gift card: you write a short note, they get a code by email (or you slip it into a card on the morning of the 14th), and you start the game when the evening comes. It's all on the gift card page.
More ideas for a night in, all year round: date night at home.