Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Tokatly.
Hi Chris, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Our company, Portal Adventures, started in 2017. Myself and my two brothers, Anthony and Benjamin have always been close and wanted to work together since we were kids. We have always been drawn to the entertainment industry as we spent lots of the rainy days in Oregon playing video games and watching movies together. The Escape Room industry appeared out of thin air in the early 2010s and it felt like the perfect new medium to express this dream. Since then we have been bringing the movies and video games into real life with our own original hand crafted Portal Adventures.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our experience has been mostly positive. Lots of smiling guests to take the edge off. There have been some tough moments though, the most obvious being the covid lockdowns. Our business suffered particularly badly because we offer only in-person physical entertainment. Other than global pandemics, the majority of our strife just comes from trying to balance family and business. It’s not always easy and we make sure to constantly have meetings outside of work to check in with one another and make sure we’re still moving in the right direction. We all work well together well and believe equally in the goal of Portal Adventures, so we press on with bigger and better ideas.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m the creative director at Portal Adventures. My job is to design most of the puzzles, stories, themes and gameplay systems of each adventure. It’s about putting myself in the shoes of the average player and trying to imagine what they would enjoy. When it comes to this type of entertainment, once a player has solved one particular type of challenge, they’re going to want something new in order to continue feeling engaged. I’m always trying to figure out how we can 1-up ourselves when it comes to designing fresh challenges without making our older adventures seem simple. Like any creative job in entertainment, I have to stay up to date on current trends. I spend quite a bit of free time playing niche independent video games with friends trying to discern what kind of fun new concepts people are connecting with.
What matters most to you? Why?
Quality entertainment. There are a lot of ways to be entertained these days, but increasingly many of the options are like junk food and they leave you feeling a bit empty. We want to offer people an adventure that really means something and an experience you can’t find on a screen.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://portaladventures.com
- Instagram: @portaladventuresbeaverton
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/portalescape/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@portalescaperooms
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/nZ6WGFD2QI
