Escape the Snake tomb

Escape the Snake tomb

Age Range
Number of Participants
10-15 minutes

Quick overview

Groups must work together as teams to cross a marked out area and collect items upon the way, while at the same time ensuring they don’t touch the floor.

Game type

Energiser/Trust Builder

Participants per team


Supplies you’ll need

Masking Tape or large ropes, Pieces of Cardboard (15cm by 20cm) enough for one per person, Cones, Collectable items like a ball, jenga bricks etc., A timer, sweets.


Mark out a large area and in the middle mark out a large spiral. To make the task harder spread cones around the floor. The large Spiral in the middle will be a huge snake and the cones are snake pits. Spread out some collectable items in the area, these will be the treasures of the tomb. A rough guide on how to lay out the floor is here:


Game run-through

Explain to the group that their job is to escape the snake tomb before it collapses. To do this they must get their entire team from the starting position to the other side before the timer runs out. Once they get to the timer the group must turn it off, thereby completing the task.

The big problem, however, is that the area within the marked lines is filled with venomous snakes that attack anyone who touches the floor. If a team mate touches the floor the whole team must go back to the start as this is the only place there is an antidote and the whole team needs to help their ‘injured player’ get back.

The saving grace is that your team have been equipped with ‘snake resistant platforms’ (the cardboard pieces), and everyone has one each. The team must use these to cross the zone.

To win extra rewards (and tempt them into harder strategies) the tomb has a number of treasures and for every treasure the group collects they receive a bonus reward – for every treasure the group gets one sweet for every member of their group. If the group touches the floor as they carry treasures, the treasure is dropped where they touch the floor and must be recollected.

The team is not allowed to go within a shoe’s distance from any of the cones as the snakes in these dens are too large for the ‘platforms’ to be useful.

The huge curled up snake cannot be stepped on or over as this will draw the attention of the snake and the team must again return to the start. The treasure at its centre therefore can be worth bonus points and you may like to put multiple treasures there to tempt the group into the riskier spiral route.

You can choose a time limit that will best suit the space but a good basic one is 10 minutes.

Fun additional rules

  • The ‘platforms’ are only snake resistant when they are being touched. If the group is not touching the cardboard, you as the leader can confiscate the board, making the game harder for the group. You can then ransom the boards back to them by getting them to do forfeits like 10 animal noises in 20 seconds, having one of their team blindfolded etc.
  • Two teams are going at once, competing for treasures and finishing the fastest. In this variation you’ll need an additional timer and more treasures. To encourage the teams to still go for treasures you can make all the treasures additionally grant teams an extra 30 seconds to their time limit. This addition to their time is only applied once all in a team have completed the task, but adds a fun twist as groups must weigh up whether to go for a straight forward escape or maybe get one up on their opponent by collecting additional time boost. The winner is the group with more time left on their timer at the end of the game.