Escape Kit Escape Kit

Group Management

Completing a Game

Complete a group to automatically send personalized emails and texts to players, post photos to Facebook, and generate debrief pages

Completing a group is the single action that triggers all of Escape Kit's post-game automation. Players receive personalized emails and texts with a link to their debrief page, and group photos are posted to your Facebook page if connected. One click replaces what would otherwise be manual follow-up.

Before you complete

Make sure the group is ready:

  • At least one player — You can't complete an empty group.
  • Game results recorded — If the room's results form requires it, set the escape status.
  • Photos uploaded (recommended) — Photos aren't required, but players expect them on the debrief page.
  • Email and SMS templates configured — The room needs templates for each language enabled at your location. For events, templates are configured at the location level.
  • Location email set — If any players are set to receive emails, Escape Kit needs a valid email address configured for your location.

Common Mistake: Completing a group before uploading photos. Emails go out on completion — if photos aren't uploaded yet, players see a debrief page without them. Always upload photos first.

How to complete a group

1
Open the status menu

On the group detail page, click the status button (showing Open) and select Complete Group.

2
Review the player list

A confirmation panel shows every player in the group with Email and Text checkboxes. Each player shows whether they'll receive an email, a text, or both.

  • Uncheck Email or Text for individual players to skip their message.
  • Players without an email address or phone number show "n/a" for that column.
  • Use the toggle in the header row to turn messaging on or off for all players at once.
3
Complete the group

Click Complete Group to confirm.

Pro Tip: Text messaging checkboxes only appear if text messaging is enabled for your location. If you don't see the Text column, text messaging is not part of your plan.

What happens on completion

When you click Complete Group, everything else is automatic:

  1. The group status changes to Complete and a completion timestamp is recorded on each player.
  2. Emails go out to every player with email enabled and a valid email address. The right template is selected automatically based on the game outcome and whether photos exist.
  3. Text messages go out to every player with text enabled and a valid phone number, using the matching SMS template.
  4. Facebook auto-posting uploads group photos to your connected Facebook page, if enabled.

Behind the Scenes: Escape Kit selects the email template automatically: if the group escaped, players get the success template (falling back to general if no success template exists). If they didn't escape, the fail template (falling back to general). If no photos were uploaded and the no-photo template is enabled for the room, the no-photo template is used and text messages are skipped. Your team doesn't need to think about which template to use.

Completing an event

Events follow the same flow — click the status button and select Complete Event. The key differences:

  • Every scheduled room must have game results recorded (if required by the room's settings).
  • Email and SMS templates come from your location's event follow-up settings (any room's Messages tab > Event template type), not from individual room templates.
  • If your event email template includes the {event_results} variable, the email includes a summary of results across all rooms.

Troubleshooting

If completion fails, Escape Kit shows the specific issue. Common causes:

  • Missing email templates — A language enabled at your location doesn't have a matching template for the room. Set up templates for all enabled languages under room messaging settings.
  • Location email not configured — Go to SettingsLocation and add your email address under Location Information.
  • Missing game results — A room requires results but none have been recorded. Open the group and update game results.

Need to fix something after completing? See Reopening & Editing Groups.