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January 14, 2026
Creating the Quantum Escape Room in Eindhoven
We just opened the Quantum Escape Room in Eindhoven.
Last year Diederick Croese of Quantum Delta NL approached Sherlocked with the idea of an experience that would spark curiosity and enthusiasm for the quantum computing field in The Netherlands.
Our little country has the ambition of being an important player in the development of quantum physics, quantum computing, sensing, security, and all sorts of related research. But not enough people appear to be studying for this field. Also, many people don’t feel invited because it seems complicated, challenging, and abstract.
To us this sounded amazing. Quantum physics holds so much mystery and intrigue that it lends itself incredibly well to an immersive experience like an escape room.
Also, the thing that quantum scientists are doing every day is solving puzzles! The only difference between those puzzles and our kinds of puzzles is:
- they’re incredibly difficult and not per se fun
- there might not be a solution to many of them
The idea of turning nature’s deep scientific mysteries into accessible and fun ones tickled our imagination.
Also, this project created an opportunity for us to learn about quantum physics as part of our job!
Table of Contents
The UFO Building
Diederick also brought in the team from Next Nature in Eindhoven. They had recently taken over the daunting task of transforming the massive UFO-shaped building that was previously the Evoluon into an inspiring museum dedicated to the future of humanity, and they wanted to join forces to make the Quantum Escape Room possible.
The first step was to educate ourselves. Quantum Delta organised a series of inspiration sessions with a whole league of enthusiastic people working in different corners of quantum science, looking for principles and ideas that might lend themselves well to be turned into a puzzle.
The Physics Wall of Fame
his late father’s signature on the physics wall of fame
We visited the Quantum Experience in Amsterdam as well as the Quantum Lab at Leiden University, where -even before we went into the Lab- we were greeted by a wall filled with the signatures of the past centuries’ great physicists like Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, Schrödinger, Fermi and Oppenheimer. What a way to set the scene!
We were treated to a fantastic “Quantum for Dummies” class by Patrick Emonts, and we were able to ask all the questions we could think of.
It’s all about Optics
We also got to visit their spectacular optics lab, which, as soon as we saw it, we thought “this is a game!” and indeed, it ended up in the experience using the same lab equipment they actually use.
A Message from the Future
Together, we landed on a story for the escape room. When players arrive, they are greeted by a message sent back from the future. This is not, strictly speaking, possible according to the current laws of physics, but we’re positing that these laws may eventually change.
The message states that the players are at a crucial junction for humanity in front of them is a quantum computer that is performing an important calculation. One that is crucial for the future.
However, a fatal error is about to creep into the calculation! That’s why the players have been summoned. They have exactly 25 minutes to prevent this fatal error from occurring, and by doing so safeguarding the future for humanity!
Now, Escape Rooms are no stranger to lofty, larger-than-life and dare we say, unrealistic plotlines. We’re usually quite critical of them ourselves. However, the almost mystical aura around quantum mechanics, sparked us to loosen the reins and have a little fun with the story.
Enter the Quantum Cube
A large, minimalist white cube structure housing the Quantum Escape room, illuminated with blue uplighting and featuring introductory text on its exterior walls.
Next, the players enter a spectacular room that loops like it’s straight out of a science fiction film. At its center hangs a golden quantum computer ‘chandelier’, surrounded by a number of space ship style consoles. Each of these consoles represents an aspect of quantum computing that we focused on: sensing, communication and optics.
The chandelier at the Centre of it all provides an exciting ‘sprint to the finish’ endgame.
Did we mention this whole experience was to be unhosted, unmonitored and self-resetting? A challenge, but a welcome one, as we’re always curious to explore new variations to the often tricky business model of escape rooms.
What’s next?
Now that the game is live, we’re all ears for feedback from the first players. In February our team will return to Eindhoven to tweak as much as we can, based on that feedback.
And the story continues - Quantum Delta has asked us to start preparing to develop a second edition, which would be a travelling escape room, to be deployed in Geneva later this year. No idea yet if we can make that deadline work, but there are harder things… like quantum physics.
