BEING tasked with escaping from your own grave could be one of the creepy games on offer under plans to open a new live-action puzzle centre in Shipley.

The latest worldwide craze of escape games sees players tasked with solving puzzles to break out of a room in a race against the clock.

Centres have sprung up in Bradford, Leeds and Huddersfield, but business partners Clare Staples and Mitch James hope to take the idea to the next level by drawing inspiration from the ambitious versions on offer in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, where escape games were born.

The pair, who have applied for planning permission to convert vacant premises in Shipley’s Commercial Street into escape game centre X-It Games, say they hope to offer visitors a more elaborate and immersive experience than people are used to in the UK, with the whole project set to cost them around £60,000.

Miss Staples, of Saltaire, said she had been a fan of UK escape games but had been blown away by those in Budapest, with panels to press, secret openings behind bookcases and “less just the padlocks that we tend to have here”.

She then took Mr James there for a research trip, and they tackled 12 different games in a weekend with friends.

Mr James, of East Morton, said: “We want you to be really immersed in your experience.”

Miss Staples said they would plan to open one themed room at first, with more to follow.

While the pair are keeping the details a closely-guarded secret, they said the first room would have the tagline ‘Welcome to your afterlife’. “The idea will be that you have 60 minutes to cheat death itself,” said Miss Staples.