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Deer Valley High grad Jason Bach owns family-run escape room in Goodyear

Twiisted Riddles honors owner’s late daughter, grandson

Posted 2/23/20

The first of many questions for visitors to Twiisted Riddles, home of Goodyear’s first escape rooms, is right there on the sign: Why are there two i’s in Twiisted? In an escape room, you …

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Deer Valley High grad Jason Bach owns family-run escape room in Goodyear

Twiisted Riddles honors owner’s late daughter, grandson

Posted

The first of many questions for visitors to Twiisted Riddles, home of Goodyear’s first escape rooms, is right there on the sign: Why are there two i’s in Twiisted? In an escape room, you need to keep both eyes open to find the clues.

An escape room contains a game in which players must work together to discover clues, solve puzzles and complete tasks in order to reach a goal in a limited amount of time. Their creators often use sounds and lighting to create the atmosphere of whatever scenario is playing out.

Escape rooms are great for family-and-friends, organizational team building, and special events. They are a unique way for people to work together, create new bonds, and build relationships.

Owner Jason Bach has run backyard haunted houses around Halloween for a decade. Three years ago, his father was checking out Halloween websites when he came across one that also discussed escape-room franchises.

“We looked into it and, with my background, it just seemed to fit. It was me,” said Mr. Bach, a graduate of Deer Valley High School in Glendale who went on to study special-effects makeup in California.

It was such a good fit, in fact, that Mr. Bach passed on the franchise model in favor of creating his own, unique business. Sadly, things didn’t go according to plan.

“This was supposed to be me and my two daughters starting it and running it,” Mr. Bach said. But his older daughter and grandson were killed in a December 2018 auto accident.

“She was going to do the marketing. She was 31, and my grandson was 5,” he said.

Their memories are the forces driving Mr. Bach to make sure Twiisted Riddles is a success. His new office contains his grandson’s name, Logan, spelled out in Star Wars lettering that had been on the boy’s bedroom wall. He says his daughter’s former employer, Maine-based promotional products distributor Geiger, kept in touch with the family and contributed some promotional work to the new business.

Mr. Bach’s younger daughter is a part owner of Twiisted Riddles, which employs six people — five of them family members.

The clock is running

Twiisted Riddles, 633 S. Estrella Parkway, Suite 120 in the Shops at Serafina across from the new Goodyear Recreation Campus, opened Feb. 8. One-hour sessions are $25 per person, with a maximum of eight participants.

In the Championship Room, designed for beginners, players must cover up a bungled burglary. In the scenario, Crazy Uncle Lou snuck into the Goodyear Dragons’ locker room to steal the team’s championship trophies but was interrupted by security. He had to ditch the trophies and get out. It’s up to the players to save Lou, find the trophies and put them back within 60 minutes.

In the intermediate-level Cursed Room, players have been cursed by an angry fortune teller and have 60 minutes to reverse the hex before it becomes permanent.

A third room, the expert-level End of the Line Room, is expected to open by mid-April. There, players will have to figure out how to stop a speeding subway before it reaches the end of the track.

Mr. Bach anticipates updating the escape rooms periodically to keep the scenarios fresh.

“We’ll keep track of how many people go through each room” he said. “If booking falls off, we’ll flip the room.”

One Creepy Clown

In keeping with Mr. Bach’s haunted-house background, Twiisted Riddles has its own creepy mascot, Twiisty the Clown, who ostensibly updates the business’ Facebook page.

“I just wanted to bring my sense of humor into it,” Mr. Bach says. “I had my tattoo artist design him.”

Mr. Bach worked in the bowling industry for 21 years, about 15 of them in management. He met his wife while working at Peoria Lanes.

Goodyear is one of Arizona’s fastest growing communities, with a population increasing by 5% in just one year — more than double that of other Greater Phoenix cities. What it didn’t have, according to Mr. Bach, was an escape room.

“There are a ton on the east side, but the Southwest Valley was definitely in need of an escape room,” he said, adding that he appreciates the support his business has received from Goodyear’s Economic Development officials.

For more about Twiisted Riddles or to book a room online, visit twiistedriddles.com.