We meet with Anton Partinov, operator of the mobile escape room "CODEXODUS", at the end of another visit of the game in Sofia. He tells us about his encounters and conversations with people nationwide over the past two years since he's been doing this job.
"The work is interesting because I travel all over the country, I meet a lot of people and I have a great opportunity to testify about God to interested people, and there are quite some," says Anton.
We enter the escape room with Anton to show us its secrets and mysteries. The room represents a monk's cell in a monastery by Mount Sinai. As soon as we enter the room, the atmosphere and background music transfer us back millennia, when monks were inscribing transcriptsof the Bible. One of these transcripts is hidden somewhere in the room, and players have to find it by going through riddles and completing tasks to proceed to the next level of the game until they discover the Bible.
"There is great symbolism behind it, as people seek God their entire life. The game is very well received by the visitors and we manage to establish a good connection with them," tells us Anton.
Once the game ends, Anton guides people to think about the Bible content and the messages in God's Word. There are often discussions with the participants about God, the Bible, and their role in our lives. The escape room was created under the project "150 years since Slavekov’s translation of the Bible", and the main idea of the initiative is exactly this - to direct people's attention to the Bible. Part of the project activities are run by the Bulgarian SDA Union, supported by ASI Bulgaria, and comprises various cultural events. Project partners are, also, the National Literature Museum under the Ministry of Culture, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", the Center for Slavic-Byzantine Studies "Prof. Ivan Duychev", and others.
The room is touring Bulgaria for the third consecutive year, and about 800 players visit it per year. The operating periods are from April to October and so far, it has been placed in more than 10 cities around the country, staying in each town for a month. The next stops of the escape room are in Kazanlak, Shumen, Targovishte, Montana, and Berkovitsa until October 2024.
Information about the location and registration for the game is available on its Facebook page and at https://bible.bg/.