Escape Room Puzzle Games You Can Play at Home

Fast games are the backbone of the evening. Card and tile games such as Flip 7 and Mobi play in a few minutes, so a child who loses a round is straight back in for the next one. Dexterity and throwing games like Tossit get everyone up and moving, which helps if the little ones have been sitting still for a while. These are all available from The Happy Puzzle Company alongside its own titles.

Home escape room games take the idea of a real-life escape room and pack it into a box. You work through a story by solving a chain of puzzles, cracking codes, reading hidden clues and combining objects until you reach the final answer. Most are built for two to six players working together, which makes them a good fit for a family evening or a small get-together.

If you like the Genius Square, the same puzzle idea runs through a small family of games. Genius Star adds a bonus mechanic and a different set of pieces, Genius Gems and Genius Connection change the shapes and the goal, and Bee Genius is pitched at younger children who are new to shape puzzles. Each one keeps the roll-and-fill pattern while giving you a fresh challenge.

Solo puzzle games are useful when you need to keep one child occupied without a second player. The Genius Square and Genius Star are self-contained, so a child can roll, place and solve on a tray table or a picnic blanket without anyone else joining in. Card games such as Flip 7, available from The Happy Puzzle Company, come into their own when the whole family wants a quick round at a campsite or in a holiday cottage.

From about six upwards, children can handle puzzles with a bit more thinking. The Genius Square and Genius Star ask them to roll dice and fit shapes into a grid, which keeps them busy without needing anyone to read a long rulebook. Games like these also work solo, which is useful for a quiet half-hour or a long car journey.

The pace of a word game shapes who enjoys it. Fast tile and card games reward quick thinking and keep younger players in the mix, because rounds are short and nobody sits waiting. WordSnap XL word game XL, an exclusive title from The Happy Puzzle Company, is built around building and spotting words at speed, so it works for a mixed group where you want everyone reaching for letters at once.