HIDDEN is an outdoor escape room game that allows players to explore Singapore’s neighbourhoods & history
Singapore is not short of escape rooms, ones that are usually built indoors and feature puzzles for participants to solve for them to beat the game and “escape” the room.
However, there is one business that is taking the concept of escape room outdoors, and that is HIDDEN.
We spoke with HIDDEN co-founders, Lim Yee Hung, 40 and Loh Jun Wei, 40, to find out how they captivate “thousands of people” weekly with their game that blends the physical world with the virtual.
Returning home inspired HIDDEN
Having been in the United Kingdom for 14 years, Yee Hung had spent his time there as a terrain analyst in London for Deloitte and a property developer, particularly specialising in theme park projects.
One of his projects was Castle Black from Game of Thrones, for which he signed a license with HBO to turn it into a theme park.
When COVID-19 hit, Yee Hung sold off his projects in Britain and returned to Singapore, where he taught himself to code and built HIDDEN with his co-founder and ex-JC classmate, Jun Wei. The duo launched in May 2022, a time Yee Hung called “perfect” during the circuit breaker period.
“People loved that it got them out of the house, having fun learning about their own backyards, while still being compliant with social distancing rules,” he said.
Despite spending close to two decades away from Singapore, Yee Hung said he never really lost touch with home. Instead, returning made him realise just how much the country had changed while he was away.
“When I left Singapore in 2007, Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay, and Jewel didn’t exist. The population was under five million. Coming back, it was a very different Singapore: over six million people, a new skyline, and a new energy to the city,” Yee Hung recalled.
At the same time, many of the places from his childhood had disappeared too, from the neighbourhood shops he used to frequent, to the flat he grew up in and the fields where he played football.
That sense of loss eventually became the inspiration behind HIDDEN Singapore. To Yee Hung, the game was a way of preserving both the Singapore that no longer exists and the present-day Singapore that could one day disappear too.
It was my way of preserving the Singapore that’s gone and the Singapore now that we will no doubt miss 10 years from today, because Singapore changes so, so fast.
Digging through Singapore’s archives to build HIDDEN
Drawing from his experience working with global brands like HBO, Yee Hung wanted HIDDEN to go beyond surface-level storytelling and create experiences that genuinely immerse people in Singapore’s history and culture.
“When you’re working at that level, it’s not enough to just capture the vibe. You’re expected to do the research, really understand the source material, the characters, the story, and the world. And more importantly, your work has to add to it, not just reference it,” he shared.
While working on the Castle Black theme park project, Yee Hung became deeply familiar with the Game of Thrones universe, even down to the exact spots where key scenes involving Jon Snow took place. That experience taught him the importance of treating source material with depth, care, and respect.
It was a philosophy he carried over when building HIDDEN.
Instead of creating generic sightseeing trails, Yee Hung and Jun Wei spent around six months developing and coding the game. This included researching Singapore’s archives, piecing together historical materials and identifying the core narrative behind each neighbourhood.
Rather than developing a standalone app, they intentionally chose to have a chatbot integrated into WhatsApp as the platform to make the experience more accessible, especially for older users, while also making interactions feel more immersive by allowing players to “chat” directly with in-game characters.
How the game works
All this being said, you might be curious how the game actually works. HIDDEN turns Singapore’s architecture and neighbourhoods into a real-life immersive game.
Led by Void Deck Cat, the game’s in-house mascot and WhatsApp chatbot, players receive clues that guide them on quests across Singapore. By analysing architecture and their environment, they solve puzzles while unlocking historical photographs and stories.
As players explore different locations, they can text their answers to the chatbot or ask for hints if they get stuck.
Players start at a designated location, where they scan a QR code to begin. Each adventure has its own theme and starting point. For example, the MONOPOLY: Katong-Joo Chiat experience begins at the Singapore Visitor Centre.
All public adventures are self-guided and take around 60 minutes to two hours to complete. Each experience is priced from S$29.90 and comes with merchandise as well as freebies from local merchants exclusive to that adventure.
While the game can be played solo, Yee Hung recommends playing in groups of two to five so everyone can actively take part in solving clues. There are currently seven public adventures and seven corporate adventures available across Singapore.
As players move through neighbourhoods, they interact with Void Deck Cat via WhatsApp, receiving clues that prompt them to observe their surroundings.
Along the way, players can also unlock perks that direct them to local independent businesses such as pineapple bakery Kele for breaks and surprise rewards. In MONOPOLY-themed games, players even receive MONOPOLY money to spend at participating merchants.
At the end of the game, players submit their final answers and receive a summary page showing their completion time, missed clues, and the photos taken during their journey.
Strong reception locally and abroad
Building on its strong early traction since launch, HIDDEN has gone on to win the TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Award in its first year and has continued to receive it annually.
Yee Hung also shared that the experience has attracted more than 100,000 players to date, including both locals and tourists, with many returning to try different adventures.
In addition, HIDDEN has secured major partnerships with brands such as Hasbro and the National Gallery Singapore, for its MONOPOLY and FRAMED tours respectively.
However, Yee Hung noted that the early days came with significant business challenges. These included convincing people to try a completely new concept, designing experiences that would genuinely delight players, and persuading local businesses and venues to participate in an untested format with no established track record.
With limited marketing budgets at the start, the team relied heavily on organic growth. “Word of mouth is free and so much more powerful,” he said.
On the operational side, Yee Hung also highlighted the technical demands of running HIDDEN at scale. The team had to ensure their systems could handle thousands of simultaneous chatbot interactions without crashing, which led them to build proprietary technology capable of managing the “heavy lifting” seamlessly.
They also had to carefully pace game sessions to avoid overwhelming their independent F&B partners with sudden surges of players.
In November 2024, HIDDEN expanded beyond Singapore into its first overseas market.
Yee Hung shared that the company became the first Singaporean business to sign a partnership agreement with a Māori tribe, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua in New Zealand, to develop outdoor adventure games rooted in Māori cultural stories. One of these projects is Hidden Aotearoa.
He noted that while the technology framework remains the same, the approach to storytelling changes completely depending on context. “The backend tech stays the same, but the cultural lens shifts entirely,” he said.
Reflecting on building Hidden Aotearoa for a New Zealand context, he added: “We learnt from our Māori partners that we mustn’t try to tell other people’s stories for them.”
In the future, Yee Hung sees continued global expansion on the cards. “I want HIDDEN to join the likes of Lego and IKEA, to become a global brand, bringing joy to people in cities all over the world,” he said.
Featured Image Credit: HIDDEN
