線上遊戲炫麗場景、吸引的故事場景，如今全以真實樣貌，出現在玩家眼前！
You are in a locked room. All around you people are turning things upside down as they search. In the lamp by your side, under the bed… anywhere and everywhere there could be clues waiting to be discovered. “Alternate reality games,” which originated overseas, are hitting their stride in Taiwan. Now the exotic scenery and appealing stories that have characterized online gaming are appearing right before players’ eyes in actual, physical form!
周五午後，RMT實境遊戲場館裡，二十多位玩家摩拳擦掌等待挑戰密室脫逃遊戲「謎走時空」。磅礡的音樂響起，一身勁裝的主角出現在影片中，解說遊戲規則。分成3組的玩家，手拿遊戲道具，迫不急待地限時在2小時內解開謎題。
On a Friday afternoon, in one of the alternate reality game venues belonging to the company RMT, a couple dozen players roll up their sleeves and get ready to go as they wait to challenge the “real room escape,” Scenario 4 of the game series Quests Through Time and Space. As the majestic music rises to a crescendo, the game master appears in a video, carefully explaining the rules. The players, divided into three teams, holding the very real game props in their hands, can hardly restrain themselves as they look forward expectantly to trying to solve the puzzle within the two-hour time limit.
遊戲一面展開，RMT實境遊戲公司百坪空間的另一側，牆面則貼滿遊戲人數、場景設計的討論字條，成員們熱烈討論著新一檔的遊戲主題。
充滿臨場感、伴隨大量音樂、考驗玩家解題能力的大型實境遊戲，躍然跳出網路世界，成為時下最熱門的娛樂遊戲。2012年，張晉瑋、邱宥琳兩位台大工商管理學系畢業、年僅二十多歲的新世代，帶動台灣悄悄刮起一股實境遊戲的娛樂狂潮。
Large-scale alternate reality games (ARGs), filled with a sense of immediacy and the thrill of being “at the scene of the action,” and always accompanied by powerful music and elaborate set design, test the problem-solving abilities of their aficionados. Leap-frogging over the Internet world, they have become the newest fad in gaming. In 2012, Zhang Jinwei and Yolanda Chiou, both graduates of the Department of Business Administration at National Taiwan University and still less than 30 years old, fired the starting gun on a craze for alternate reality games in Taiwan.
密室遊戲畢業作，啟發創業
2012年5月，日本一款名為「逃出狼人村」實境脫逃遊戲來台，從小就愛玩遊戲的張晉瑋參加後，意猶未盡，決定找來同樣狂熱著迷實境遊戲的邱宥琳合作，改編歐洲童話推出「闇黑童話」真人角色扮演遊戲，希望在畢業前留下自己的代表作。
Locked-room entrepreneurship
In May 2012, a Japanese ARG known as Escape from the Werewolf Village came to Taiwan. Zhang Jinwei, who had loved playing games ever since he was a child, took part in the event and was left hankering for even more. He looked up Yolanda Chiou, similarly fanatical about alternate reality games, and they began to work together to create their own diversion. They adapted a mélange of European fairy tale episodes into a locked room escape game they called Happily Ever After?!, hoping to make their mark even before graduating.
經過四、五次的反覆測試，遊戲舉辦地點就決定選在人潮眾多的華山藝文中心。儘管是初次嘗試，張晉瑋滿懷信心地評估，創新好玩的遊戲型態想必能夠吸引大量人潮，只要票房售出七、八成，80萬的成本就可回收。
After four or five trial runs, they decided to hold their event at the Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei. Despite this being their maiden voyage, Zhang confidently estimated that with this entertaining game format they could attract a large enough crowd to achieve the 70–80% ticket sales that they needed to recover their costs of NT$800,000.
但情況卻不如預期，直到「闇黑童話」舉辦首周票房依舊冷清，張晉瑋才發現，「台灣民眾根本不了解密室脫逃遊戲。」團隊只好採取緊急應變措施，祭出臉書打卡送折扣的手法招攬群眾，靠著社交網路的口碑行銷，終於成功拉抬人氣。3周下來，遊戲共吸引一千多人到場，讓台灣多出了密室脫逃的遊戲選項。
But things didn’t start off quite as he had anticipated. Throughout the first week that they staged Happily Ever After?! ticket sales stayed poor. It was only then that Zhang realized, “People in Taiwan simply are totally clueless about locked room games!” The team had no choice but to make some emergency adjustments, including offering discounts for checking in at the game venue on Facebook. Relying on interpersonal and online networks and word-of-mouth marketing, they finally began to draw crowds. During the subsequent three-week run, they attracted more than 1000 people to the venue, and in so doing added the “locked room escape” genre to the list of entertainment options available in Taiwan.
然而，張晉瑋與邱宥琳的學生身分，在與合作廠商洽談的過程裡，幾番遭遇波折。於是，「闇黑童話」結束後，張晉瑋決定籌資成立RMT實境遊戲公司。公司名稱是發想自於電影《蝙蝠俠》中的角色「謎題人（Riddle Man）」，每每向解謎者宣戰時留下訊息「Riddle Me This」的情節而誕生。
RMT成立以來，推出的遊戲包羅萬象，有取自希臘神話、結合體力競技與腦力激盪的實境遊戲「海格力斯」，也有驚悚度破表、令人毛骨悚然的鬼屋遊戲「美子」。2013年7月，因應電影《破案天才伽利略》上映，RMT與片商合作推出的「逃出404號房」密室遊戲，更一舉打開知名度。
Despite their success, Zhang and Chiou discovered that their status as students had caused problems for them in the process of dealing with their business partners. Therefore, when Happily Ever After?! was over, Zhang decided to raise some capital to found an alternative reality game company that they christened RMT (for “Riddle Me This!”—the trademark taunt of Batman nemesis “The Riddler”). Since its founding, RMT has staged a wide variety of spectacles, including Hercules (based on Greek mythology, and combining physical skills with mental challenges) and Miko (a chilling and thrilling haunted house game drawing on the motifs of Japanese horror films).
In July 2013, coordinating with the appearance in theaters of the Japanese detective feature film Galileo, RMT and the movie distributors produced a locked room game called Escape from Room 404, giving the company a huge additional boost in name recognition.
為了宣傳造勢，RMT特地將場景設定為和電影主題相關的海邊旅社。內容講述，一群人來到海邊旅社下榻，發現多年前旅社員工在404號房離奇失蹤，自此無人敢再踏入一步。好奇心旺盛的他們，重回404號房展開探險，猛一回神已被困住，若不解開密室謎題，將無法離開……，緊張冒險的解謎遊戲就此展開。
懸疑的情節加上電影主角福山雅治的人氣加持，「逃出404號房」為期2周、每天舉辦4場的場次天天爆滿，由於迴響太過熱烈，原本晚上8點就該結束的活動，最後甚至加碼舉行到半夜，吸引了三千多名玩家。
「逃出404號房」成功造勢後，開始有企業陸續找上門，包括雅虎、富邦等多家大型企業都曾委託RMT設計專屬遊戲，用來培養員工感情或凝聚團隊精神。至今RMT推出的四十多檔遊戲中，就有6成是為企業打造的客製活動。
Thanks to the thriller-like plot and the star power of the film’s leading man Masuhara Fukuyama, Escape from Room 404 sold out every session, four sessions a day for two straight weeks. In fact, the response was so overwhelming that plans to call it a day at 8 p.m. were scrapped, and new runs were added well into the night. Over 3000 people played.
Following the success of 404, major companies started to show up at RMT’s door. Big names like Yahoo and Fubon Bank began commissioning RMT to design scenarios specifically for them, games designed to build a spirit of teamwork and camaraderie. Thus far, of the more than 40 games that RMT has designed, about 60% have been tailor made for corporate activities.
2014年4月，RMT再次挑戰自己，推出規模最大、足以容納3組人馬共遊，以穿越時空為題材的實境遊戲「謎走時空」，現場打造出12個充滿科幻、中古世紀風格的不同場景，每個月吸引六百多人上門挑戰。
In April of 2014, RMT decided to challenge themselves to take their “game” to the next level, and came out with their largest scale ARG series yet: Quests Through Time and Space. It offers 12 different scenarios, including science fiction and medieval themes, transcending limitations of space and time, and each game permits three teams at once to play. Still running today, each month the venue attracts over 600 players.
RMT成功打造實境遊戲後，類似業者紛紛出現，例如六福村等大型遊樂業者也開始推出實境遊戲。目前台灣至少有6家以上同型的工作室或團隊，平日周間都有遊戲進行。密集的場次，還促使博客來超商售票系統為此特闢「真實逃脫」專區，滿足蓬勃發展的客群。
Once RMT had successfully proven that there is a market out there for ARGs, like-minded businesses began popping up. Also, large amusement parks like Leofoo Village began staging their own ARGs. At present there are at least six enterprises in Taiwan—workshops or teams—putting on games on weekdays and weekends. The increasing density of the events on offer has even prompted the website books.com.tw to add a special ticketing header for “Real Escapes” to meet the demands of a burgeoning clientele.
「活動咖」集合，遊戲中找創意
事實上，源自美國矽谷的密室實境遊戲，已風行國外多年。近年，日本《全員逃走中》與韓國《Running Man》等實境節目爆紅後，擁有大型佈景、充滿競技趣味的遊戲類型大受歡迎。台灣則是近年透過國外公司引進，才開創出實境遊戲風潮。催生出原汁原味遊戲的本土團隊RMT實境遊戲公司，憑著幾位學生時代就是「活動咖」的成員，加入實境遊戲的行列。
The love of the game
The key to RMT’s success in making original games with real substance has been in having a design team made up of people who, even in their student days, were already ardent gamers.
今年25歲的張晉瑋從小就愛實境遊戲節目充滿緊張、刺激的挑戰過程，大學時甚至還主動應徵實境電視節目助理，累積實戰經驗。著迷線上推理遊戲的邱宥琳加入團隊前，已在系上舉辦實境推理活動，累積下不少經驗。
Zhang Jinwei, now aged 25, since childhood has loved watching reality game shows, whose challenging courses brim with tension and excitement. When in university he worked for a while as an assistant for a reality TV program, picking up much valuable experience. Yolanda Chiou, meanwhile, a huge fan of online detective/mystery games, had already organized ARGs within her university department even before joining the RMT team, learning a great deal in the process.
兩人籌辦第一場遊戲前，彼此並不熟識，卻因同樣熱愛實境遊戲而結緣。RMT成立後，也吸引了一批志同道合的夥伴，他們有的過去是遊戲設計師，有的來自理工科系背景，「就像漫畫《海賊王》一樣，冒險的旅程裡會有越來越多的夥伴加入。」張晉瑋說。
Before designing their first locked room game together, they were not all that familiar with each other, but made their connection purely out of a mutual love for ARGs. After the founding of RMT, they gathered around them a group of like-minded individuals, some of whom had previously been professional game designers, others who came from backgrounds in the physical and industrial sciences. “It’s just like that Japanese manga One Piece, in which the hero finds that the farther he goes along his dangerous journey, the more comrades join him along the way.”
「無關年紀，心態年輕、充滿創意好奇，是加入RMT的必備特質。」張晉瑋說，團隊氣氛總是輕鬆、快樂，公司固定的腦力激盪時間RMT也以遊戲進行。過去RMT就舉辦過「以物易物」的挑戰活動，成員必須想方設法，利用手中的東西交換成遊戲設定目標，也曾全員來到戶外，親自嘗試大型遊戲。「唯有親自體驗過，才能知道遊戲的樂趣。」張晉瑋說。
為了鼓勵團隊記錄靈光乍現的創意，RMT還特別設計了「Parking lot」（停車場）的制度，不管概念、遊戲提案成熟與否，都能匯集在此，而後再集眾人智慧，發展成有趣的遊戲設計。
Zhang says, “The preconditions for joining RMT are not related to age, so long as the person is young at heart, is filled with a sense of wonder and curiosity, and has strong creativity.” Having people like this around means that the work atmosphere is always relaxed and upbeat, and even the company’s fixed “brainstorming sessions” are run like games. In order to encourage team members to record every fleeting inspiration, RMT has set up a system they call “Parking Lot.” All creative notions, whether they are mature game proposals or just rough ideas, are gathered together here, and there are collective brainstorming sessions to develop them into fun game designs.
輕鬆好玩之餘，RMT也不忘貼近市場。在第一檔實境遊戲「闇黑童話」一度歷經售票不佳的驚險時刻後，張晉瑋記取教訓，深知行銷與貼近消費市場的重要性。因此，每款遊戲推出前，都會來到RMT萬隆創始店先行試玩實驗，搜集玩家意見，逐步修正。
While keeping things around the office lighthearted, RMT does not fail to keep a sharp eye on the market. After the game Happily Ever After?!, Zhang’s first endeavor, very nearly was a box office bust (as described earlier in this article), he learned his lesson about the critical importance of understanding marketing and staying close to the pulse of the consumer market. Since the founding of RMT, every game is given trials at RMT’s original venue, the opinions of the test gamers are absorbed, and changes are made. Only then is the new product offered to the public.
「密室脫逃實境遊戲最迷人的地方，是讓玩家有身歷其境的感受。」因此，從遊戲開始前的影片介紹到場景配樂、氣氛，都經過RMT團隊的精心設計，就連玩家人數，挑戰關卡的難度，都是成員仔細討論後的決定。
張晉瑋表示，若挑戰關卡太過簡單，玩家容易感到無趣，解謎難度太高，遊戲時間一久，玩家也容易沮喪。而遊戲若設計成只有單一關卡，參與的玩家就有人容易被晾在一旁，感到無趣。因此，必須將遊戲拆分成多個小挑戰，讓每個人都能參與。
儘管懸疑緊張、挑戰玩家極限的密室脫逃遊戲大受歡迎。不過，RMT的目標卻不只如此。除了推出密室脫逃遊戲外，RMT也發展出角色扮演、現場推理與極限冒險等多樣類型遊戲，希望為台灣帶來更多的遊戲內容。
還獨自滑著手機、平版電腦玩遊戲嗎？最熱門的實境遊戲已悄悄在台展開。你，準備好解謎了嗎？
While locked room escape games, with their thriller-like atmosphere that pushes players to their limits, have proven popular, RMT has no plans to stop there. Besides continuing to come out with new games in the escape genre, the company is also developing role-playing games (RPGs), live detective games, and extreme adventure games, hoping to further expand the menu of diversions available in Taiwan.
Are you still playing games by yourself on your phone or tablet computer? Is your idea of “gaming” pretty much limited to running your finger across a touch screen? Alternate reality games, played by real people in real spaces with actual physical props, are now available instead. Are you ready to take the challenge?
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