CODY BORST

Multidisciplinary Designer & Engineer

DENVER, COLORADO

ABOUT CODY BORST

Cody is an award winning designer & engineer specializing in immersive and themed entertainment.

For over 15 years he has been creating interactive experiences and environment exploration games for the amusement Industry.

Founder of Escape Realm: Escape Room Design & Fabrication
Designer of Sneaky Cards & Sneaky Cards 2 Social Gaming
Founder of The Arcane Society - Immersive Design Collective
Speaker on Immersive Design & Creative Engineering

Cody Borst Profile
Sneaky Cards
The Arcane Society
Escape Realm

ESCAPE GAMES

From design to fabrication, Cody uses a wide range of skills to bring these beautiful immersive adventures to life. Cody has hand built over 20 escape rooms and licensed 34 of his game designs that are currently operating across the country.

ESCAPE ROOMS

Ruins of the Mystic Temple
Paradox - The Incredible Time Machine
Frost Base Z
Rampancy
The Crimson Storm
Grim Stacks
PipeWorks
Spygames
Orbital Escape
Cashout
Knight & Rook Investigations
Arcane Society - Location Based Puzzle Hunt
Rescue (Theme Redesign & Puzzle Design)
Winterfall (Theme Redesign & Puzzle Design)
Book of Souls (Puzzle Fabrication - Sound Design) 
Room 303 (Design Review)
M1nd 6ym (Prop Fabrication)
Curse (Prop Fabrication)

ROLES & SERVICES

Creative and Technical Director
Pre-Production Expeirence Design 
Writing & Story Telling
Scenic & Production Design
Prop Fabrication & Industrial Design
Game Controll System Programing 
Lighting Effects
Water, Air, CO2, Numatic, & Motor Effects
Sound Design, Mixing, & Implementation
Voice Over Directing & Recording
Puzzle Flow & Creation
Document Design & Review
Programming and Electrical Logic Control
Game Mechanics
Business Consulting (Marketing, Pricing, Throughput, Demographics, User Expeirence, Costomer Service, Etc)

ESCAPE ROOM CLIENTS

Escape Realm
Rabbit Hole Recreation Services
Denver Escape Room
Mystic Escape Room
The Puzzle Effect
303 Escape
Sky Town Escape
Phoenix Escape Room
Unlocked Escape Room
Bend Escape Room
Gilbert Escape Room
Bakersfield Escape Room
Fresno Escape Room
Frisco Escape Room
Costa Rica Escape Bus
M1ND 6YM
Puzzah!
The Museum of A.I.
Unlocked LA

VIRTUAL & AUGMENTED REALITY

Oculus, Facebook, Visual LLC, Epic Games, Dual Reality Games
Working closely with the community relations division of Oculus, a Facebook subsidiary, and the relations manager of Epic Games to further develop developer relations and the VR industry. Alongside several other studios and developers, Cody helped create the VR standards and best practice guidelines for emerging virtual reality experiences.

CARD GAMES

Sneaky Cards & Sneaky Cards 2 - Published by Gamewright
Sneaky Cards breaks the boundaries of the table top and tasks you with challenges to complete in your everyday life. Each card presents a unique opportunity to engage with your surroundings and the people in your community. Sneaky Cards has grown to be an international smash hit, selling in major retailers and has made its way to over 50 countries.

COMMUNITY

The Hopper Boulder - Design Team & Mind Trust Member
Museum of A.I. - Experience Designer & Consultant
Maker Bolder - Event design for site wide puzzle hunt
Google - Dual campus event for interactive puzzles and scavenger hunt
Colorado Escape Enthusiasts - Community Group Admin & Founder
Denver Immersive - Speaker & Member
Arcane Society - Founder & Designer
Denver Startup Week - Panel Speaking and Installation Art
Junk Yard Social Club - Mind Trust Member
Camp Christmas - Digital Design & Puzzle Consultant
Omniscient Through The Lens Entertainment - Puzzle & Expeirence Designer

ACADEMIC

CU Boulder Experience Design Masters Program - Guest Speaker and Host
Denver Immersive Summit - Featured Speaker on Accessibility in Immersive Design
CU Denver Architecture Undergraduates Program - Guest Speaker on Environmental Play
Gazamo Network - Online lecturing on core principles of design and architecture in gaming

EDUCATION

Fields of Study
MIT Computer Science, Stanford Game Theory and Psychology; Harvard Business and Entrepreneurship
Primary disciplines have been courses in game design, engineering, computer science, psychology, business, visual arts, and other STEM related fields. Research discipline in game mechanics and game theory, with published papers on the physiology and subneural response to VR integration.

Stanford, OCW
Technology Entrepreneurship; Business & Management
Focusing on the process technology entrepreneurs use to start companies. Cody learned how to take a technology based idea and finding a high-potential commercial opportunity, gathering resources such as talent and capital, figuring out how to sell and market the idea, and managing rapid growth.

MIT, OCW
Computer System Engineering
Multi discipline design through computer science and systems engineering. This course covers a wide range of digital computer systems and their commercial and industrial applications.

PUBLICATIONS

Plato Magazine - 4 Page feature and interview with Cody, issue 117
RePlay Magazine - Escape room design interview
Casual Game Revolution Magazine - Feature and interview Spring 2017 issue 

Cody’s work has also been featured on sites such as: Boing Boing, West Word, The Guardian, Upworthy, Best of the West, BuzzFeed, Dice Tower, Today In Board Games, Casual Game Insider, Southwest Airlines, Hilton Hotels, Institute for the Future, Live Escape Game Reviews, Puzzle Drifter, The Hook, Bored Panda, I Heart Chaos, Kid Screen, Games by Play Date, The Rising Tithes, Discover Explore Learn, Bearded Meeple, Deckaholic, The Game Isle, Indie Tabletop, Creative Commons, The Examiner, Major Fun, Engaged Family Gaming, I Slay The Dragon, Father Geek, Board Game Geek, Meeples Games, Kill Screen Daily, ASTRA, and The Awesomer.

AWARDS

Escape Rumors: 2020 Achievement Unlocked Award
Room Escape Artists:  2019 Golden Lock Award
Top Escape Room Project: 2019 Escape Room Finalist
Kill Screen’s Playlist Selection: The first non-videogame winner of the Playlist Selection
Live Escape Room Review’s Skeleton Key Award: Best overall competitive Escape Game
Kidscreen’s Best of Toy Fair: Best overall new card game
The Dice Tower’s Seal of Approval: Sneaky Cards
ASTRA’s Best Toys for Kids: Sneaky Cards
Major fun! Award: Sneaky Cards

Immersive Design Awards

CONTACT CODY DIRECTLY

Cody Borst - Denver, Colorado