Charlie Bond & James Hamer-Morton of Deadlocked Escape Rooms (S11E9)

About this episode

Charlie Bond and James Hamer-Morton discuss their unique approach to creating escape rooms and the parallels with indie filmmaking.

“We really wanted to make a game that would encourage creators to make more weird stuff.” Low budgets, tight spaces, and a DIY mentality. As it turns out, indie filmmaking and creating escape rooms have a lot in common. James Hamer-Morton & Charlie Bond of Deadlocked Escape Rooms in Reading, UK, know this better than anyone. They joined us on REPOD to talk about creating their quirky, puzzle-driven games. James and Charlie actually met as actors on the set of a film, and they’ve been partners in life and business ever since. David even wrote a post about one of their projects, Echoes of Darkness: A Star Wars Fan Film . These origins really honed their “do-it-yourself” ethos. As Charlie puts it, “It originally stems from a lack of funds. But also it’s enjoyable to do it yourself, and to learn a new skill in the process.” Where Deadlocked really shines though is in their creativity. Their games have quirky mechanics and stories. They’ve employed clever tricks to make the sets feel larger than they are. Relying on quick wits and creativity have allowed Deadlocked to stay nimble. During the pandemic, they created a wonderful virtual game called The Insiders that gave them global…

People in this episode

Hosts: David Spira, Peih-Gee Law

Guests: Charlie Bond, James Hamer-Morton

Topics covered

• escape rooms
• indie filmmaking
• DIY mentality
• creativity
• puzzle-driven games

Keywords

• escape rooms
• Deadlocked
• DIY
• puzzles
• creativity
• virtual games
• RECON

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Deadlocked Escape Rooms, RECON

Books & works: Echoes of Darkness: A Star Wars Fan Film

Places: Reading, UK

More episodes of Reality Escape Pod - Escape Rooms & Immersive Games

• Live Cinema & Zone 51 with Rémy Strobbe (S11E8) · May 26, 2026 · 59 min
• Troy Armstrong: Sound Design, The Escape Game, & The Great Big Gameshow (S11E7) · May 19, 2026 · 1h 10m
• Imagineer & Puppeteer, Terri Hardin (S11E6) · May 12, 2026 · 1h 26m
• Commit Chaos: Rik Stapelbroek of Prison Escape (S11E5) · May 5, 2026 · 1h 11m
• Room Escape Divas with Errol & Manda (S11E4) · April 28, 2026 · 1h 17m
• The Future of Storytelling with Charlie Melcher (S11E3) · April 21, 2026 · 1h 20m