The aim of this study is to understand teacher education students' experience with an introduction to use of escape room as a didactic tool in mathematics, and to gain insight on the impact of such an introduction on teacher education students' development as mathematics teachers. Escape room is a new, game-based, didactic tool in school that offers teachers new possibilities in the mathematics classroom. Twelve teacher education students participated in the study, and data were collected through a qualitative survey, observation, and focus-group interviews. The data were analyzed through use of a framework based on game-based learning and on Dewey's perspective about what to learn and how to learn. The findings show that use of escape room in mathematics teaching was met from a traditional perspective on teaching and learning by the teacher education students, but that they showed glimpses of willingness and curiosity about its use in mathematics in school. The findings also generated hypotheses and probable conclusions that, in relation to Klafki's theory of categorical bildung, offer some understanding of possible influence on teacher education students' development of bildung as mathematics teachers, and their possible position as future change agents for mathematics teaching in school.