UNLOCK! Short Adventures: Secret Recipe of Yore

Three Adventures. One App. Zero Escape Room Tickets Required.

The smell of something strange drifting from a eccentric chef's kitchen. A cryptic recipe card that makes no culinary sense. And a ticking clock counting down while you scramble to piece together what on earth impresses a cook who seems to operate by their own laws of logic. That's the flavour of Secret Recipe of Yore — a self-contained escape room adventure you can play through in under an hour, right at your kitchen table.

What It Is

Space Cowboys' UNLOCK! Short Adventures: Secret Recipe of Yore is a standalone entry in the beloved UNLOCK! series — cooperative card-based escape room games that pair physical card puzzles with a free companion app. No spoilers in the rulebook, no sprawling setup. You shuffle through a deck of numbered cards, hunt for hidden combinations, decode symbols, and race against a timer that's always just a little more urgent than you'd like. The Secret Recipe of Yore scenario puts players in the middle of a delightfully absurd culinary mystery, tasked with cracking the code of a kooky chef's most prized (and baffling) recipes. Think less Michelin star, more mad scientist.

The UNLOCK! series has earned its reputation as one of the most accessible and replayable entry points into escape room gaming — and the Short Adventures format trims the experience to a tight, satisfying runtime without sacrificing the satisfying aha moments that make the genre so addictive.

Who It's For

This one plays well with one to six players, ages ten and up, making it a strong pick for family game nights, date nights, or a quick puzzle session with friends who want something more engaging than a trivia app. The Short Adventures format is intentionally approachable — light enough for newcomers to escape room games, but clever enough that seasoned UNLOCK! fans will still find it satisfying. Expect to be done in under an hour, which makes it ideal when you want a complete, rewarding game experience without committing an entire evening.

Features & Highlights

The compact card-based format means nearly zero setup — open the box, download the free UNLOCK! app if you haven't already, and you're playing within minutes. The app handles the timer, sound effects, and hint system, so the cards handle the puzzles and the atmosphere handles the rest. Because it's a Short Adventure, it's designed to be a complete experience in a single sitting — no half-finished campaign to remember next week. Component quality is clean and functional, with the illustrated card art doing a lot of heavy lifting in keeping the theme alive through every puzzle beat.

Specifications