New Jersey man surprised his girlfriend with a virtual escape room proposal

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Friday, September 25, 2020
Surprise proposal in a virtual escape room
Inspired by his love for a good challenge, Jeff Chen designed an online escape room to propose to his girlfriend.

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey -- Inspired by his love for a good challenge, Jeff Chen knew that his proposal had to be a creative and exciting challenge of its own.

With the help of James Warner, founder and game developer of Paruzal, Chen was able to design an online escape room to propose to his girlfriend, Sophie Chu.

"I came up with this idea after doing a lot of brainstorming and thinking about the things that mutually interest us. We really enjoy playing games and because of the pandemic this was a great way to get family and friends together to celebrate our engagement," said Chen.

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The virtual escape room, designed specifically for this special moment, had clues throughout the game related to their relationship which ended in the big question: "Will you marry me?"

"I was very surprised when in the last riddle I was spelling out "Marry Me". My brain just stopped functioning and I was like: "Is he proposing to me right now or is this just a game?" said Chu.

Reality sank in for Sophie when Jeff pulled out the ring and officially asked her to marry him.

"It was a big surprise that it happened this way," said Chu.

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For Warner, who designs these scripted and illustrated open world escape rooms, witnessing special moments like this is what inspires him to continue creating these unique virtual games.

"Being able to experience all of that as a bystander it was a beautiful moment to watch all of that unfold and be invited to be a part of it," said Warner.

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