Birthdays, milestones and every other excuse
Any reason to get the group together
A milestone birthday, an anniversary, a proposal, a team social, or just an excuse to lock your favourite people in a room and see what happens. Escape rooms work because everyone is involved.
Weekend and evening times go well in advance, and a milestone usually has a fixed date. Book as soon as the date is set.
Why Rush
Because everyone actually joins in
There is no sitting around, no awkward small talk, just 60-plus minutes of working together on something fun. We have hosted surprise proposals, milestone birthdays and end-of-year celebrations for groups of all sizes.
Any occasion
Milestone birthdays, anniversaries, proposals, team socials, end-of-year. If it is worth celebrating, it works here.
Nobody left out
Everyone is hunting clues and solving puzzles together. Nobody checking their phone, nobody hovering at the edge, nobody making conversation out of nothing.
Any size
Each room fits up to 6, and we run multiple rooms at once for bigger groups so everyone starts and finishes together.
We have done it before
Surprise proposals, 18ths and 21sts, 30ths, 40ths and 50ths, reunions and work socials. Tell us what you have in mind.
Rooms we would pick
A room for every kind of group
Pick the theme that suits the occasion, from a family-friendly treasure hunt to a fast spy mission, a surreal Wonderland or a full horror hit.
Secret Agent ManSouth YarraFast and funny, and it works across a wide age range in one room.
Game of the DragonSouth YarraThe largest capacity we run, for keeping a family group together rather than split.
Alice in WonderlandSt KildaStrange rather than frightening, and fine for the youngest guests on the list.
Strangest ThingHawthornEighties nostalgia, which lands with the fortieth and fiftieth crowd better than anything else.
HackSawHawthornSixteen and over, so one room within a larger booking rather than the whole party.
Treasure IslandSt KildaA pirate hunt with no age restriction, which is where the youngest guests go.
Plan your group
How many guests on the list?
Enter the guest count for a quick estimate. The per-head figure falls as each room fills, so a large milestone costs less per person than a small one.
Estimated at standard rates, reaching $70 a head once a room holds six. Guests aged 9 to 13 are $42. Anyone who does not play is not charged.
Book your roomGood to know
The practical bits
Can you help with a surprise?
Absolutely. We have hosted plenty of surprise proposals and birthdays. Let us know the plan when you enquire and we will work around it.
What about a work social or end-of-year?
Escape rooms make a great team social. For weekday corporate events we have dedicated packages on our team building page, or just get in touch and we will sort it.
What ages are suitable?
Nine of the sixteen carry no age restriction at all, which is the pool to work from when the guest list spans three generations. Tell us the youngest and oldest guests and we will pick around them.
What are we celebrating?
Send through the occasion, the date and roughly how many, and we will build the room schedule around it.
The milestone problem is the age spread, not the number
A thirtieth, a fiftieth, a retirement or a twenty-fifth anniversary all bring the same difficulty to the door. The guest list is not a peer group. It is a grandmother, a couple of teenagers, some colleagues, a few old friends and at least one person who has come out of obligation.
Almost every activity that suits that room suits it badly. Dinner works but seats people into fixed conversations for three hours. A bar splits along the lines the group already had. Anything physical excludes somebody. The reason an escape room does better is that it gives a mixed group a shared task with no prior knowledge required, and nobody's age or fitness gives them an advantage in it.
How to divide a group nobody would have put together
Rooms take up to six, so any milestone worth throwing is already across several. The temptation is to sort people by how well you know them. Sort them by what they can enjoy instead.
- Nine of the sixteen rooms carry no age restriction at all, and seven of those nine have no fright element. That is the pool for a room containing both a fourteen-year-old and a seventy-year-old.
- Three rooms are rated for teenagers and up. Tense but not horror, and usually where the younger adults want to be.
- Four are restricted to sixteen and over. Genuine horror. Fine as one room within a larger booking, wrong as the whole party's experience.
- Mixed families work best kept together rather than split by generation. Children contribute more than adults expect, and grandparents notice things everybody else has walked past.
Whatever the split, book every room to the same start so the party comes back together at once. Ratings for all sixteen are published on the scare scale.
Which milestone you are actually running
Eighteenths and twenty-firsts
A peer group with parents attachedUsually two distinct groups in one booking. Give them separate rooms at the same time, and the parents get a genuinely good hour instead of supervising one.
Thirtieths and fortieths
The competitive onesThe age band most likely to want a result, a scoreboard and an argument about who solved what. Match the rooms on difficulty so the head to head is fair.
Fiftieths, sixtieths and retirements
The widest spreadThree generations in one booking is common here. Stay in the unrestricted nine, keep the groups mixed rather than sorted by age, and expect the quietest person present to solve the thing that unlocks the room.
Anniversaries, engagements and proposals
Small and specificRooms play from two, so this does not need a crowd. If you are planning something inside the session rather than around it, email us well beforehand rather than mentioning it at the briefing, so we have time to help properly.
Where the party actually happens
We are not a function venue and we will not pretend otherwise. There is no party room, no food storage and no cutlery at any of the four sites. Cake and simple decorations in the foyer are sometimes workable when we are quiet, and rarely on a weekend or a public holiday.
For a milestone that involves speeches, a meal or a cake with candles, book somewhere for that and use the game as the hour before it. Every venue sits within a short walk of places that do this properly.
Sixty minutes in a room, then ninety at a table, is a considerably better shape for a milestone than three hours of the second thing on its own. The group arrives at dinner already talking.
Numbers and venues
The size of the party decides the venue before anything else does. South Yarra runs six rooms, St Kilda four, Hawthorn three, and Chadstone three with two of those seating four rather than six. Details for each are on the venue group booking pages.
For a very large milestone, rooms can be run in two waves, with the second starting after the first finishes. It lengthens the afternoon rather than capping the guest list.
What it costs
Weekdays. $50 an adult across Monday to Thursday, all day with 3 or more playing. A weekday milestone costs materially less than the same party on a Saturday.
Weekends and public holidays. $74 a player, down to $70 where a room is full.
Younger guests. Anyone between 9 to 13 comes in at $42.
Rates in full sit on prices and deals. For three rooms or more, or anything you want held together, email enquiries@rushescapegame.com.au.
Questions
My father is seventy-three. Is this ridiculous?
Not remotely. There is no physical requirement beyond walking and the occasional crouch, and older players are consistently better at the observational puzzles than anyone expects. Tell us if stairs are an issue, since St Kilda is upstairs.
We have twenty-two people across four generations.
Four rooms at St Kilda or five at South Yarra, mixed rather than sorted by age, one start time. Email us and we will lay the rooms out with you.
Some guests will not want to play at all.
That is fine and it is normal. They are welcome to wait in the foyer, and you only pay for the people who go in.
Can we do something for the person the party is for?
Tell us who it is and what the occasion is when you book. We cannot decorate a room, but the team can make sure the right person gets the attention at the end.
Is this better midweek?
Cheaper and far easier to get several rooms at one time. If the milestone is not tied to an exact date, a weeknight is the better booking.