In February, I built an escape room adventure for my partner using Home Assistant. Due to time constraints, this version only involved basic lights, speakers, and microphones1. I didn't use other sensors or output mechanisms but this was enough to set a simple escape room game with various levels complete with error, success, and hint signals. Each level had its own theme music and lights setup with a puzzle to solve—displayed on a screen—leading to an item or a pass code for the next level.
While the work involved here was technically trivial, the experience of building this unlocked something more for me. A major joy of programming is the ability to just play with the malleability of computers. With projects like Home Assistant, this malleability extends to physical spaces and opens up many possibilities. I have seen many creative coding projects doing a great job with immersive spatial experiences but never thought of indulging in this area myself. But now I am hooked and believe a few more sensors, display devices, and other gimmicks, could lead to some very interesting spatial indoor games beyond basic escape rooms.
Footnotes:
I initially tried to use speech recognition to listen to spoken puzzle answers for scene navigation. But then I let go of the idea, hid myself in a hearing range, and frantically typed out commands for the same effect