Area residents looking to book their next birthday party, outing with friends or even a creative first date will have an innovative new option as Matt Hoppes launches his newest venture, Billtown Escape Rooms, located at 926 Washington Blvd., Suite B-1, which will hold its grand opening June 2.

Hoppes will no doubt be a familiar name in the community as the founder of River Valley Internet back in 2013.

Now in its 12th year, River Valley Internet covers a wide area from parts of Muncy to Flemington, and from Liberty to Lewisburg.

Once again taking the initiative, Hoppes saw a need in the region for more variety in the entertainment industry.

“Almost everybody that I’ve ever talked to enjoys some kind of a puzzle and competition,” said Hoppes, who attended Pennsylvania College of Technology for network technology.

“You’re with friends, and there’s a little bit of a competitive nature that happens, so this is a very fun, hopefully friendly way to kind of put your wits together, solve puzzles, build camaraderie, and just have a good time for the hour,” he said.

“I got introduced to escape rooms, and I kind of knew about them, but I had never done one, and as soon as I did one, I was like, ‘this is this is amazing. Why don’t we have one in Williamsport,'” he said.

“Then I came to find out we did have an escape room, but it was just constantly booked, and it was something that people enjoyed, and talking with other people in the escape room industry, I just felt like it was something that Williamsport really could use,” Hoppes said.

“We don’t have a ton of things for date nights or birthday parties for older people or for just friends to get together and do,” he said.

“Here, you’re in an adventure, you’re using your brain, you’re solving puzzles,” he said, adding that escape rooms offer an excellent option for team building exercises.

But Hoppes’ endeavor is no ordinary escape room, as it incorporates V.R. Technology into the mix.

“I wanted it to be an immersive experience, so we’ve got the two physical rooms, and then we have the virtual reality room,” he said.

“I intended to just build two physical rooms, and then, being a tech guy, I started wondering if there’s some kind of V.R. solution that we could use, and I found a company that does it for a very affordable price, and we tried it, and I had several people try it, including myself, and every one of us was blown away because within the first minute, you forget that it’s not real because you’re walking around the room, because you’re you’re virtually touching things,” he said.

And, though there was some initial concern about those who suffer from V.R.-related motion sickness, Hoppes said the combination of the headset and being physically active in the environment virtually eliminates the odds of such an occurrence.

“It’s literally an escape room where you put on the virtual reality headset, but you walk around the room, you interact with things in the room, you interact with other people in the room. It’s just like being in an escape room, except we can do all kinds of stuff that you can’t do in, like, a regular escape room, for example, there’s a space station one, and stuffs’ floating around you, and you have to grab it, or stare off the edge of the balcony, down onto Earth,” he explained.

“We have a time travel one where, at one point, some of your teammates are in the current time and some of your teammates are in the future time, but you’re in the same room,” Hoppe said.

“If you think of Back to the Future, things change over time, so instead of just being in a room, you’re now in a room but also in two different time periods, and you have to interact with each other between those time periods,” he shared.

“The VR is not better than the physical room, but I think it was a great complement to help bring something new to the area,” Hoppe stressed, adding that the programmability of the VR sets allow for expanded playability.

Currently, Hoppes’ VR Room has eight different scenarios available, along with two games designed for children 9 and under.

“I didn’t want to do anything too gory or anything, but there are some jump scares in the escape rooms, so these two games are designed for children in mind who might be sensitive to that,” he said.

Additionally, Hoppe can customize the escape rooms to fit any time frame required by the customers, making them ideal for team-bonding exercises and other corporate needs, while his VR capabilities allow for him to bring the experience anywhere with a clear 20×20 space.

Without giving too much away, Hoppes said he wants each experience to feel like a definitive storyline, rather than just trying to connect seemingly unrelated clues.

One of the physical rooms will be set in the old west, where participants will be asked to help the townsfolk gain access to a bank before a set of ne’er do wells can carry out their dastardly plans, while the other is an island escape adventure, where escape requires repairing an old radio transmitter.

For more information or to book a room, visit their website at www.billtownescaperooms.com or their Facebook page.