I graduated from architecture and became a secret room designer

 　　Ma Long once made a coffin with his own hands, and spent a month with it day and night.

　　During the day, he sat and worked inside, surrounded by red hijabs, red lanterns, and "human tissue" that had just been painted. At night, he propped up a retractable bed and slept in the ancestral hall next door—the room was not big, but there was a Bodhisattva.

　　This house is one of Ma Long's works. As a secret room designer, he has personally created Chinese-style secret rooms, dark-style European-style castles, and mutants who have experienced nuclear radiation. It is normal for Malone to be active in a room with a weird atmosphere, and he even has to think about how to make this atmosphere stronger.

　　When he just graduated from architecture four years ago, Ma Long spent every day on the construction site and in the office, living a repetitive life. At that time, he did not expect that one day, he would leave the wind and sun on the construction site, walk into a small room, create a virtual world, "painful and happy".

From construction site to secret room

　　Ma Long's first job was as an engineering cost engineer.

　　When he just graduated, all the classmates around him entered the traditional construction industry, so he went too, without any love or ideal.

　　It was a tedious job. He needed to run between the construction site and the office to calculate the cost of each project and report it systematically. People in the industry called it "accounting". The hard work of the wind and the sun is nothing, what shakes people is the boring day after day.

　　You have to do it first to know if it is what you want. So after working steadily as an engineering cost engineer for a year, Ma Long decided to resign. "I'm a more imaginative person, and that position is not suitable for me."

　　Soon, when he was free, he was pulled by his friends to help. At that time, his friend wanted to make a secret room, and he happened to know Ma Long's professional counterpart, so he found him—that was the first secret room work he participated in. After coming and going, he became a professional secret room designer.

　　Now, Ma Long is mainly responsible for the art and scene design of the secret room, but the division of positions in the company is not so detailed, such as polishing the script in the early stage, building walls in the later stage, and teaching NPC performances, he will participate in it. His professional experience in architecture has made him a "generalist" in the secret room industry.

　　In addition to making props such as screens and dummy hanging upside down in the air, Ma Long also builds walls. For the secret room designer, it is a basic skill to make a clear water wall fit the theme, and it is a very emotional thing to decorate the wall built by oneself.

　　As for technical tasks such as space utilization, drainage, electricity discharge, and which building materials to choose to have a better texture, it is even more advantageous for Ma Long, and they have long been engraved in the "DNA" of the architect.

　　"Although the starting point is different, the design of the secret room and the interior design are essentially based on the user's needs and experience." This is not only reflected in the player's experience of the game, but also in some places that are difficult to see .

　　Every secret room that Ma Long has worked on has a large number of anti-collision strips. Anti-collision devices will be installed on doors, corners, and places where players are most likely to be scared to run when NPCs come and go. "The lights in the secret room are very dim, and it is easy for everyone to see clearly. After installing the anti-collision strip, even if the customer hits it, it will not be injured. Players will be very painful if they are knocked by the corner of the bed or table. We try to avoid it as much as possible. I hope everyone can How to get in, how to get out." Ma Long said.

　　Nine out of ten construction people like to call their work "moving bricks". Ma Long still retains this habit. When his friends call at work, he will always reply "I am moving bricks at the construction site." . Working with wood chips, cement, and paints of various colors every day, his work clothes are always dirty, "it looks no different from real bricks."

　　If this industry wants to go further, it is inseparable from talents with backgrounds in architecture and art. In terms of recruitment software, some leading secret room companies are actively recruiting people with relevant backgrounds, but in fact, not many architects have entered the secret room industry. According to Ma Long's recollection, in the secret room studios he has come into contact with, there are only one or two graduates majoring in architecture in each of them.

　　As a secret room designer, the income is not very high. In the past, when the market was good, Ma Long's income would be slightly higher than that of the traditional construction industry, but now it can barely stay the same. Inside the traditional construction industry, there is a clear promotion mechanism and transparent development prospects, but the secret room is full of uncertainties-how long is its life cycle, and whether outstanding secret room talents can still enjoy themselves after leaving this niche industry, It's all unknown. In essence, everything returns to the eternal proposition: choose stability or ideal?

　　Ma Long didn't think about it so much, he said: "The secret room is not popular, I will do other things. Now the real scene industry is very popular, and I can also do floral installations and landscapes."

　　Craftsmen are not afraid of losing their jobs.

traces of life

　　Malone always likes to say: "I hate the secret room the most."

　　This is not a joke. Many times, he will have a kind of resistance, because he is really afraid.

　　Especially when working on a horror chamber, in order to design scenes and props that fit the theme more closely, Ma Long had to create an immersive feeling for himself. When he opened his eyes and closed his eyes, there was a terrifying picture—a dummy with a burst brain , The heart, liver and lungs in a glass dish...the more realistic it is, the more you will scare yourself. "Sometimes I will call my colleagues to accompany me to do it together, and help me pass the materials by my side. It would be better to have one more person."

　　The experience of being with the coffin day and night for a month deepened his fear. At that time, they received an order from out of town, and the other party was a few young entrepreneurs who started their own businesses. In order to save money for the other party, they made up their minds and simply lived in a secret room. "Later, I really had a headache every day, and now I don't want to recall that month." Ma Long said.

　　But what troubled him even more was the sense of excitement and accomplishment after the emotions of fear and resistance passed. This made him both scared and reluctant to leave.

　　One of Ma Long's most satisfying works, the theme is the world after nuclear radiation, full of mutated creatures. His first task is to make the props and NPCs in the secret room full of mutation. Every day he is thinking hard, and after work, he will watch related film and television works to find his feelings, and finally found inspiration in "Tokyo Ghoul". "Every protagonist in it has a tail, so I used wires and pipes to make tails and tentacles for NPCs, and then used props such as hemp rope to create a sense of ruins in the whole scene. Players can immerse themselves in it soon after entering. When

　　making props, Ma Long often frightens himself when he turns around. But when the chamber of secrets landed, he only felt "very enjoyable". Whether it is teaching the details of NPC performances, or seeing players immersing themselves in the virtual world created by themselves and running wild in fright, he has a kind of joy that "his work cannot be replaced".

　　This is an unrestricted industry, all absurd, jumping, and unconstrained ideas are allowed. It doesn't stifle people's creativity, on the contrary, it just keeps asking everyone to be a little more bold and special. The secret room is a utopia. Almost all the elements it presents are separated from real life, and only human emotions and wisdom connect the inside and outside of the secret room.

　　Malone once watched a video in which the camera was aimed at a group of special cleaners. "The suicide rate in Japan is very high. People often commit suicide in rented houses. After the police collect evidence, cleaners will come to clean up the blood in the room, the smell of corpses, and traces of the person's life. During the interview, a cleaner said this plainly: 'I seem to have wiped out the last trace of a person's existence in this world.' My God, this sentence really touched me."

　　Here Before, Ma Long always felt that "when a person dies, the ashes will disappear as soon as they are burned", but at that moment Ma Long suddenly realized that even if he left this world one day, his traces would not be completely erased. "My work is like recording and preserving an event, rather than disappearing as soon as it disappears." At that moment, he had more complicated emotions about his career.

The secret room industry, from low threshold to "involution"

　　Escape room is nothing new, it has been around for more than ten years.

　　Zhang Yibo was one of the first people in China to do escape rooms. In 2013, he opened two escape room stores in Shijiazhuang to test the waters. At that time, just a week after he switched jobs to the new company, the company closed down, and he simply began to think about starting a business while he was unemployed at home. The "Hot Mom True Story" that was being broadcast on TV inspired him.

　　Zhang Yibo remembers very clearly that it was the eleventh episode of "Hot Mom True Story", the protagonists were discussing about opening a clothing factory in a secret room. He found it a novelty, he didn't know what a chamber of secrets was before that. After much deliberation, he decided to make a call to his classmates who were working in the South, and only after making a call did he realize that the Chamber of Secrets was already very popular in Shanghai at that time. He suddenly had an idea: "Can we make this thing?"

　　Immediately, Zhang Yibo went to Shanghai for investigation, and it didn't take long for him to decide in his heart, "This industry has a low threshold and investment is not too big. This thing can be done." ". He decided to open two stores in Shijiazhuang first to check the market. One was opened next to the university, and the other was opened in a shopping mall. It took only three months to basically pay back the money. Seeing the huge prospects of this industry, he immediately established the "Easy Code Secret Room" to provide secret room design and construction services for secret room stores.

　　It can be said that Zhang Yibo has almost witnessed the entire trajectory of the development of China's secret room industry. From the initial puzzle solving, to the mechanical secret room, to the current popular immersive secret room, he has participated in every iteration, and has personally watched the industry change from a low threshold to an "inward roll".

　　Although there are more and more tricks in the secret room, and the demand for talents is also increasing, but in his "easy code secret room", there are not many people majoring in architecture. The company has a complete industrial chain, a dedicated engineering team and a sculpture factory, which can take into account the construction of secret rooms and scene settings. "For us, the early planning is the most important link. Now there are only a few young people who draw in our company who study architecture, and they are indeed faster and more precise than those who don't have a major in drawing." Zhang Yibo said.

　　He sometimes even thinks, "For those who major in architecture to do secret rooms, it actually narrows the road for their personal development. They do engineering and design, and the work involved is more complicated. If you want to start from the secret room It may be difficult to transfer out.”

　　Over the years, "Easy Code Secret Room" has achieved good results. In the most popular domestic suspense variety show "Star Detective", there is a notebook provided by them. They also sold the Chamber of Secrets to France, Australia, Malaysia and other countries.

　　The level of development of the secret room industry in these countries is not high, and each of them came to China on their own initiative. "Our advantage is that we can export the whole store, and we also have enough strength in sea transportation." The props in the secret room are all finished in China and then shipped out. According to Zhang Yibo's recollection, the list in Australia contained 21 containers of 9 meters by 8 meters just for props and equipment.

　　Due to the limitation of multinational qualifications, "Easy Code Secret Room" cannot provide construction services, but each set of secret room theme will give the other party 24-29 pictures, and the placement of each prop will be clearly written; during the construction process During the process, staff will be sent to the site for guidance; one year later, they will go to check and accept to solve after-sales problems.

　　Zhang Yibo's most impressive experience was working in one of the biggest secret rooms in Malaysia. The boss has many concerns about the planning of the secret room. There are one-third of the Chinese in Malaysia. On the one hand, he hopes to attract local Chinese to play, and on the other hand, he is worried about the secret room designed by the Chinese. understand. So we worked together for a long time, including small details such as "how to translate the five elements" and "what is the local etiquette for kneeling in China", which made Zhang Yibo feel the collision between different cultures.

　　"Some foreigners' brain circuits are different from ours. When they play the secret room, they like to lift the bed and dig the wall. They always feel that there is something inside. The owner of the shop in Australia bought a clock at a high price, and a player came out In the future, it will be very interesting to put all the parts of this clock neatly on the table—it was dismantled by him—” Zhang Yibo said.

　　When asked "how to describe this job", Zhang Yibo and Ma Long's answers were surprisingly consistent: pain and happiness. Its cost performance may not be very high, but "no one doesn't like to create a world".