How we got smarter and learned to open quests twice as fast

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    In July 2015, the first franchisee from Kaliningrad joined Quest House. According to our calculations, the quest was supposed to open in 3 months, and after 3 more months we planned to launch the second location. Haha In fact, everything turned out differently - the first location was opened only six months later, and the second - a year later.

    Under the terms of the franchise, the partner pays us 10% of the quest’s revenue, so each unopened franchisee is a monthly loss of money.

    Looking ahead, I’ll say that even a year at the opening is not an anti-record. We have several partners who bought a franchise, disappeared, and for six months now (this is not a joke!) They have not taken the phone and are not responding to letters. In case they are reading this post now - please call Ekaterina from the development department.

    And yet, a year and a half after the start of the franchise, we were able to reduce the time for opening partners and make this process manageable. But before I reveal all the secrets, I want to talk about how we built quests before and why this is not worth doing.

    A new scenario for every city


    If you think about what the quest consists of in reality, the first thing that comes to your mind is the script. It includes three elements: the legend of the location, the plot and a set of puzzles.
    LegendPlotRiddles
    A brief description of the story, which introduces the players to the essence of what is happeningThe sequence of events that will develop during the questA set of puzzles to solve to get out of the room

    There are two chairs for approaching the choice of scenario: take the old one already implemented in some city or write a new one from scratch. Each approach has its pros and cons.

    Why we used to write separate scripts for each branch


    In mid-2015, when the first partners began to join us, we wrote a unique script for everyone, thought it was very cool and insanely proud. Of course, there were objective reasons for this.

    We did not have a database of ready-made scripts. At that time, only 2 of our own locations worked in Novosibirsk - Breaking Bad and Ghostbusters. These are good quests, but we could not be sure that they would become popular in other cities. Franchisees did not want to risk money.

    We opened branches in “advanced” cities.Most of the franchise applications came from cities where several quests of large federal networks with large budgets were already working. Because of this, the entry threshold turned out to be high - in such a city it is pointless to open a low-budget location with a bunch of paper tips and a couple of combination locks.

    In quests, word of mouth works well, so reviews very much affect occupancy. In some cities, up to 40% of armor is recommended. In such circumstances, a couple of bad reviews from experienced teams could “sink” the location. It was necessary to invent something new and unusual.

    To reach a wide audience and not to limit ourselves, we took famous films and series. So the location “Missing Prophecy”, “Breaking Bad” and “Hunters” turned out. In popular universes, there is always room for writers to turn around. Although, of course, this is a big responsibility - it is important not to distort or distort anything. For example, readers of Machaon Publishing House have not yet been forgiven for a new Harry Potter translation .

    Additional complexity with the implementation of scenarios based on epic films is a big budget. There were situations when a partner came with ₽ 400,000 who wanted to build a location on “The Lord of the Rings”. In this case, we explained that with this money only the “Lord of combination locks” would be obtained and tried to agree to start from something less ambitious.

    How the genre affects the success of the location


    Before finally deciding on a scenario, it is important to first select a quest genre. Usually, we conduct a small analysis of the city of franchisees before giving recommendations and insisting on a specific solution. According to the results of this analysis, an idea of ​​the situation in the city is formed.

    For example, last week we entered into an agreement with a franchisee from Cherepovets. His first idea was to open the horror. “OK!” We say, “Let's see what quests you already have in the city?”

    We carry out express research, look at information on aggregators, study groups in Vkontakte. Result:
    GenreNumber of locations
    Horror10
    Detective quest1
    Adventure quests3
    Children's quest1
    Humorous questsNo one

    Once again we look at the table and it’s immediately clear which quest should not be opened, because it will become “another one”.

    At the same time, the approach to writing a unique scenario for each partner had obvious disadvantages.

    Individual Scripting Issues


    Lingering approvals. People who want to build a location, as a rule, have already been to other quests, got excited about the idea and even partially thought out what scenario they want to see. During the discussion, it can be hot, here is a rating of the most debated topics:

    1. Riddles-accordions that franchisees want to see in the quest, but we know for sure that they won’t enter the city due to the high average level of locations.
    2. Disputes from the series “We Want“ Harry Potter “, but We Only Have 200,000 ₽, Let's Cut Some Other Way.”
    3. The cost of puzzles. Spectacular riddles are often expensive and our task is to explain to the franchisee why such a riddle is better than 3 combination locks.

    Long and expensive construction. The main difficulty with new scenarios - it is not always clear how much money and time will be spent on repairs. In this case, usually, there is still no well-established work within the team of builders and technicians, there are no verified contacts of props in the city.

    There were times when the builders on the site disappeared and disrupted the deadlines. Once, several partners who opened the quest together at the repair stage quarreled among themselves and completed the project.

    Kazan is a sad example of how the construction of a cool quest can drag on. Unfortunately, our colleagues have not yet completed the location based on the game Neverhood:

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    Additional costs. In order to fully launch the quest, in addition to the script and the finished building, you need:

    1. Design project of the common area and all rooms of the location, from 35 000 ₽.
    2. Electronics and wiring diagrams, from 30 000 ₽.
    3. Photosession in the location for placement on the site, from 3 000 ₽.
    4. Audio support of the quest - music, sounds and voice cues, from 5 000 ₽.
    5. Video support - for those quests that use monitors, from 1,500 ₽.
    6. Promo video for location advertising, from 5 000 ₽.

    Total - 79 500 ₽, to minimize the quest to run.

    Obvious solution


    At one time, we drew attention to the fact that many of our colleagues from other networks chose a different path - they opened the same quests in all cities. Yes, not all of their locations lived for a long time or at least paid off, but during the time we opened 5 branches, they managed to open 15. It became obvious that the approach using ready-made scripts was viable. The main thing is that the set of such scenarios should include all possible opening options: in small cities (Arzamas, Ulan-Ude), millionaires (Moscow, St. Petersburg) and in tourist centers (Sochi, Sevastopol).

    By that time, we had already formed our own base of 32 scenarios. We could choose and recommend to the city a proven script in a suitable genre. It was foolish not to scale the available resources.

    The first “boxed" quest was "Breaking Bad." This is an adventure quest based on the eponymous series, which proved to be excellent in Novosibirsk. We chose it for several reasons:

    • the average level of complexity and technical equipment that is suitable for most cities - mechanical and electrical puzzles, plus a couple of chemical tricks,
    • a ready-made design project that is easy to scale to other rooms,
    • simple electronics that we could manufacture in Novosibirsk and send to another city.

    The last point is very important, because often franchisees get stuck at the stage of selecting an electronic engineer on the spot. A good electronic engineer is like a girl from Vkontakte - it is difficult to find and easy to lose.

    We gathered information for ready-made successful scenarios and at the same time began work on scaling others. We got these Google folders:

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    Here we have collected all the information on the location, which can be useful, up to the shopping list in Ikea and Leroy Merlin.

    We pass to the most interesting!

    How shortened opening time


    I just double-checked the opening times for unique scenarios on our network. From the moment of signing the contract to the first paid, the average time is 190 days, the median time is 173 days.

    Compare with the statistics of box quests:
    Arzamas, "Breaking Bad" - 100 days,
    Ulan-Ude, "Freddy" - 138 days,
    Kemerovo, "Missing Prophecy" - 115 days.

    It may seem that a difference of one to two months is not significant, but it is not. Everyone benefits from this extra month.

    The payback period of franchisee investments is reduced, they quickly reach operating profit and open new locations. As a management company, we earn more on royalties.

    Recent experience building a turnkey quest in Slovakiashowed that we still have something to work on - opening times can be reduced to 45 days. To do this, we want to expand the electronics manufacturing workshop and organize field construction teams that can help franchisees on the spot.

    PS Yesterday, we held and recorded a webinar where we discussed with a potential franchisee how we will change the classic format of quest rooms in 2017 . If you are interested in the life of quests “from the inside” - I invite you to see.

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