That sounds so cool. I particularly like the 'not being locked in' bit – that way claustrophobia doesn't need to set in, nor panic. 😀 I wonder if it will expand to here or if it already has what you wopuld google to find it?

Yes, that's pretty much it; they're based on a popular Eastern (Japan, China, Korea) style of computer and video game where you're put into a virtual room with little to no explanation and then tasked with finding a way out by manipulating items in the environment, picking up objects and using them.

This type of game — usually short 30-minute affairs — has been expanded into more full-length works by creators such as Kotaro Uchikoshi, who brought the world the as-yet-unfinished Zero Escape series, consisting of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (aka 999) and Virtue's Last Reward — two games that combine visual novel storytelling with room escape sequences in the traditional mould: you get locked in somewhere, and there's only one way to get out, so you have to find it.

The "real life" incarnations of this sort of game are pretty similar, though you tend not to actually get locked in; instead, you're given a set amount of time to achieve some sort of goal. In one game, we had to find the password to a computer and find some information; in another, we had to find a USB stick that had been hidden somewhere in the room.