Looking for the perfect group challenge? Chances are you may have come across escape rooms.
An escape room is a game where players work together to find clues and solve puzzles to achieve a particular goal within a limited period of time.
The concept originated from first-person action video games where players could interact with their surroundings and use a mouse to navigate through different scenarios. Escape rooms began in Asia and entered the US in the early 2010s.
Escape rooms have boomed in popularity in part because they are ideal for birthday parties, school activities, and corporate events, building teamwork and leadership skills.
Here are a few of the top escape rooms in the Bay Area that we'd recommend checking out:

The Escape Game
Guests can choose their 60-minute adventure and decide whether they'd rather recover a priceless painting, make the grade in an indoor school playground, escape from prison, hunt for gold or solve a marketplace mystery.
All of The Escape Game's rooms are built from scratch from Nashville with robotics and an extensive prop warehouse.
There are many surprise twists to delight all your senses and each visitor plays a key role in solving the challenges.
No matter your age or preferences - whether you're in the mood for something spooky, funny or educational - there is sure to be an escape room for you in the Bay Area.
Choose your own adventure and solve a puzzle with old friends or make new ones.
ClockWise Escape Room
Groups can solve high-tech challenges around four exciting storylines that appeal to diverse audiences.
ClockWise Escape Room's themes take you inside a machine abounding in gears and gizmos, a paranormal experiment in a dark dungeon, a nightmarish bachelor party in Vegas, and an asylum disguised as a government experiment gone wrong.
The Asylum escape room features handiwork and inspiration from Russian designers.
With an Oakland escape room, this power couple's goal is to expand to other locations in the Bay Area.
StemChef Candy Lab Escape Room
StemChef helps children develop a love of learning through food-based science.
Located in BlackHawk Plaza in Danville, StemChef is a cross between an escape room and an interactive science museum, where kids work as a team to solve puzzles and uncover hands-on science concepts that culminate in a delicious dessert or beverage related to a rotating monthly science theme.