SCOTLAND’S first live escape game company, which offers customers a range of team-building exercises in which players must work together to solve puzzles to escape from a room within an hour, is on track to open its 200th room.

Edinburgh-based Escape, launched in 2014, currently operates 180 rooms but is expanding across the UK and overseas with sites scheduled to open in Edinburgh, Ipswich, Reading, Cambridge, Lincoln, Basildon and Melbourne, Australia in the coming months.

Escape, which operates in countries including Ireland, France, the USA and New Zealand, will have 200 rooms by autumn. The firm has about 150 employees in the UK.

The new Edinburgh venue – Escape’s third room in the capital – opens in Morrison Street on Saturday. It will incorporate the world premiere of a new game room called The Magic Emporium which involves several “magical” challenges and requires players to investigate why a shop for wizards has closed down.

Escape Edinburgh manager Daniel Hill said: “We now have plans in place to open the 200th game room by this autumn, demonstrating the continued growth of the market worldwide.” The Escape model, he added, offered wide-ranging appeals to companies looking for team-building exercises but also students and families.

Mr Hill said he expected The Magic Emporium to be particularly popular with younger audiences. “We hope it will help deliver a tourism boost for the city ahead of the festivals,” he said.

Escape’s other Scottish locations are Haymarket and the New Town in Edinburgh, and Dundee.