The story behind the box.From one box to twenty.
We are Kraak de Kist: three friends with a passion for escape rooms. What started as one home-built escape box grew into a game that comes to you, from living room to company hall, for 2 to 120+ players at once.
It started with one box and a good idea
We are crazy about escape rooms. Puzzling together, the time pressure, that moment when the penny drops: as friends, that was what got us excited. But we kept running into the same problem: a classic escape room stops at a group of six to eight people.
What if you want to play with your whole company, school or family at the same time? There had to be another way. So we built an escape room in a box: a game you can play anywhere, in the canteen, the church hall or the garden, with as many teams as you like.
That first box was a hit. Today we have twenty boxes ready to go, we drive all over the Netherlands and groups of 10 to 120+ participants compete against each other at once. And we still build, tinker with and improve everything ourselves.
A love of escape rooms
Three friends who never skipped an escape room, but never had enough space for the whole group.
2021, the first box
We built our very first escape box. Friends and family put it through its paces. It worked.
Today, 20 boxes across the Netherlands
Fourteen Art Heist boxes and six Blackbeard boxes, ready to play at any location in the Netherlands.
Why The Art Heist exists
1988. Two men steal three Van Gogh paintings from the Kröller-Müller Museum, and they get away with it. We first heard this story years ago through family, and it never let go of us.
When we came up with our first game, we knew straight away: this is the one. In The Art Heist of '88 it is up to you to recover the paintings. A game built on a story that really happened, and that still plays out just a little differently.
The people behind the box
Three friends, one obsession: puzzles you crack together.
Chris Evers
Co-founder
David Noordhoek
Co-founder
Emile Daalmeijer
Co-founder
Two companies, one passion
The box is not their only adventure. Alongside Kraak de Kist, Chris, David and Emile together run 2nd Ride, a winter sports shop at the same address in Ede where you also pick up the boxes. Two very different businesses, but with the same drive: doing business out of passion.
In winter they would rather be on a board themselves; the rest of the year they build and tinker with the boxes. Winter sports and escape rooms may sound like an odd combination, but to them it is exactly the same thing: sharing an experience you will be talking about for a long time.
Based in Ede, available across the Netherlands
You can pick up at three locations. Rather not drive? We deliver throughout the Netherlands.
Ede
De Halte 219, 6711 NZ Ede
Next to 2nd Ride
Voorthuizen
Hoofdstraat 107-1, 3781 AC Voorthuizen
Oud-Beijerland
Israëlsdreef 38, 3262 NA Oud-Beijerland
We deliver and collect, throughout the Netherlands, at your location.
Time to crackthe box.
Check availability and bring the game to your location. Whether there are four of you or 120 people at once.