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Wizards of Ox Workshop Built at Cedar Hollow

Magic Software

We write the software behind our magic: the controllers that run our escape rooms, the characters who answer back, and illusions that work on the phone in your pocket. Every piece is designed, built and tested by the Wizards of Ox Workshop at Cedar Hollow.

Try the Invisibility Cloak Discuss a Project
How we build magic software

Story First, Then the Code

Guests rarely see our software, and that is the point. They see a phone box ring in an empty wood, a mirror wake up, a cloak vanish. Behind each of those moments is a small, carefully made system, and we build every layer of it ourselves.

1

Start with the moment

Every build begins with what a guest should feel, not with a feature list. The software exists to make that moment happen, then stays out of sight.

2

Build the whole thing

We write the apps, wire the props and voice the characters. Small computers hidden inside each prop drive the lights, sound and hardware; the app in the guest's hand tells them what to do.

3

Let it run itself

Timers, hints, characters and cues are all handled by the software, so a room plays without a games master and picks up exactly where it left off.

4

Prove it in the woods

Everything runs at Cedar Hollow with real guests before we build it for anyone else. The woodland is our test bench.

Escape room · The Beaver's Den

A Room That Turns Into a Game

The Beaver's Den is a glamping pod and an escape room in one. Its controller runs the crystal ball, the lanterns and the hearth for a quiet night in, then switches the whole room into The Queen's Hunt with a single tap.

The Beaver's Den controller, Room tab. Header reads BEAVER'S DEN, Crystal Ball Controller. A toggle for The Queen is awake, two cards for Lanterns (Illuminate / Dim) and Hearth (Stoke / Rest), and a Den Song player with a tune from Myriam.
The everyday Den. Wake the crystal ball, dim the lanterns, stoke the hearth. The room answers a tap.
The Beaver's Den controller, Escape tab. The Queen's Hunt artwork with the White Queen in furs. Status reads 'The Den is quiet'. Below: 60:00 timer, You have one hour, a gold Start Game button and an Escape Complete confirmation.
One tap starts the hunt. Sixty minutes on the clock. The controller runs the timer and confirms the escape.
The Beaver's Den controller, Help tab. The Queen's Hunt header above six Hints buttons numbered 1 to 6, then five Answers buttons, then a dropdown answer For old time's sake.
Hints when the woods get cold. Six progressive hints and five answers, held back until a team needs them.
How the Room Controllers Work
Escape room · The Call Beyond the Lamp Post

A Telephone Box That Runs Itself

A real 1920s telephone box stands in the woods at Cedar Hollow. The Telephone Exchange app rings its Bakelite handset, voices the characters down the line, paces the puzzles and keeps the clock. No games master, no staff in the wings.

The home screen of the Telephone Exchange app. The owl-and-logo Cedar Hollow Oxford branding sits above the title The Telephone Exchange, with a gold Start Escape Room button below and a smaller Call the Telephone Network option underneath.
Start the room. One tap and the phone box in the woods begins to ring.
The Help screen of the Telephone Exchange app titled Need a Little Help, with portraits and short descriptions for Maya, Professor, White Queen, Chief of Police and Mrs Beaver, each with a gold phone-call button beside them.
Call a character. Five characters, each voiced live down a real Bakelite handset, each with a hint to give.
The in-game screen of the Telephone Exchange app, titled The Call Beyond the Lamp Post. Five glowing hint orbs numbered one to five sit above a live timer reading fifty-nine minutes and forty-eight seconds, with a Use Only If Stuck button below.
The game keeps itself. Hints, timer and progress are tracked as the team plays, so the room never stalls.
Read the Telephone Exchange Case Study
New · The Illusion Trail app

The Invisibility Cloak

Our newest software turns a phone into an invisibility cloak. Hold up a green cloth and the camera sees straight through it: the room shows through the cloth, and whoever is holding it looks cut in half.

Prop the phone up and it memorises the empty scene. Step in with the cloth and the app finds it, tunes itself to its colour, and paints the room back in wherever the cloth is, live, frame by frame. If the phone gets nudged, it notices and offers to set the scene again. Then it films the trick, with sound, ready to save or share.

It runs in your phone's browser, so there is nothing to install, and everything happens on the phone itself. No video ever leaves the device.

Made for the Illusion Trail at Cedar Hollow. Works anywhere with a green or blue cloth.

Open the Invisibility Cloak Walk the Illusion Trail
The Invisibility Cloak app's start screen. Under the owl crest and The Wizards of Ox Illusion Trail logo, the title Invisibility Cloak sits above three numbered steps: prop your phone so it can't move, frame the empty scene, and step in with the cloak, green side to camera. A gold Start the camera button glows above a skyline of Oxford's spires at night.

Want Magic Software of Your Own?

Hotels, glamping sites, attractions, escape rooms and events. If your space has a story, we can build the software that brings it to life: guest apps, room controllers, characters who talk back and illusions that run on a phone.

Discuss a Project Try the Invisibility Cloak See the Workshop