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First, what is a puzzle hunt? A “puzzle hunt” is a type of game in which a team (or multiple teams, usually competing against one another) solves a series of puzzles. It can take place across multiple locations, be site-specific to one location (i.e. meaningfully integrating the area into the play structure as opposed to simply taking place there) or be played remotely via the internet. The term “puzzle hunt” is quite broad and can encompass many different styles of games and events. Let’s look at a few examples across the spectrum: Facilitated in person or play-on-demand, short duration, low-medium level of difficulty: Puzzled Pint is a monthly gathering that takes place simultaneously in many cities. Players typically get together at a bar and solve about five puzzles in small teams. These are typically "paper-and-pencil" puzzles with a unifying theme, making this "hunt" somewhat comparable to games in the tabletop escape room genre, only these are pure puzzles containing no story or immersive elements. Puzzled Pint is free and non-competitive, so if you're not in it for the social aspect you can even print out the puzzles and solve them at home. Puzzled Pint is a good introduction to “puzzle hunt style” puzzles—not necessarily easy for a beginner, but generally still solvable after a beer or two. Facilitated in person (but can be downloaded for later play), medium duration, medium level of difficulty: DASH (“Different Area, Same Hunt”) is an annual event that takes place in multiple cities. Similarly to Puzzled Pint, this event can be organized locally and the puzzles remain the same across locations, meaning there are no site-specific elements, despite it taking place outside. DASH is typically a full-day event (6-8 hours) and players compete in teams of 3-5 using the ClueKeeper app. The difficulty level of the puzzles is not far off from Puzzled Pint, but the entire event is about three times as long, and may require walking up to four miles. Facilitated in person and online, long duration, very high level of difficulty. The MIT Mystery Hunt is a massive annual event that usually takes place on the MIT campus (though 2021’s hunt was entirely online due to COVID-19 restrictions, and that seems to be the case for 2022 as well) but contains many online elements, lending itself to large numbers of remote solvers. Teams can grow up to as many as a hundred people, competing to solve many dozens of puzzles over an entire weekend. Puzzles tend to be of a high difficulty level and contain multiple layers, with some even requiring specialized knowledge. The winning team gets massive bragging rights, along with the enormous task of creating the following year’s hunt. (Similar to Puzzled Pint and DASH, puzzles from previous hunts are archived and can be accessed online after the event.) Facilitated, site-specific, medium duration, medium level of difficulty: The Great Gotham Challenge is a site-specific event that takes place in New York City. This puzzle hunt is played by teams of 4 over approximately 4 hours, and often mixes elements of immersive theater into the experience. The winners typically take home a prize, and the variety of tasks and encounters involved (often with actors and physical objects) makes it feel more like a competitive outdoor escape room than a paper-and-pencil puzzle hunt. The difficulty level is significantly higher than that of an escape room, but closer to DASH than the MIT Mystery Hunt. Facilitated, site-specific, short time frame, low level of difficulty: Mystery City is a company based in Amsterdam that makes “city games,” otherwise described as outdoor site-specific puzzle hunts, often with a historical theme. More like an outdoor escape room, these games last about two hours and are available for small teams to book and play on a set schedule, rather than organized as large events. Players are handed a bag of items to use along their journey and hints are facilitated by a live game master. Unlike most puzzle hunts, these tourist-friendly city adventures don’t require outside knowledge to solve, and instead rely on integrating elements of the environment into the puzzles. Play-on-demand, site specific, short time frame, low level of difficulty: 2nd Sight is a site-specific play-on-demand game that I designed in collaboration with Crux Club. This narrative-driven experience combines elements of the environment with augmented reality to tell a made-up story using real local landmarks. It takes about two hours for a person or small group to solve and requires nothing except an app on your phone and the streets of New York City. Play-on-demand, online only, long time frame, low level of difficulty: Colby’s Curious Cookoff is a play-on-demand online-only puzzle hunt that can be played solo or in collaboration with others (on separate devices). The puzzles are a lower-to-medium level of difficulty, making it fairly accessible for newer players, even if it is not something you can play in one night. There are many hours of content in this hunt, but it is easy to split up over multiple days since there is no time limit and the puzzles are self-contained. (Side note: this game is super fun and you should play it!) Having outlined some context for how broadly the term “puzzle hunt” can be used, I’ll add that the most commonly used definition among the puzzle community lies somewhere closer to the MIT Mystery Hunt corner of the genre—games notorious for being too difficult for most people. And when I say “most people” in this instance, I don’t mean people who’ve never done a puzzle—these hunts are often too obtuse even for those with plenty of experience in escape rooms and tabletop puzzle games, because they’re designed to be solved by those already familiar with the puzzle hunt format. While it is understandable for enthusiasts to be the core audience, there is frequently a unique vocabulary of expected knowledge and techniques involved that can come across as exclusionary to newcomers. Puzzle hunts can also sometimes be quite lengthy, lasting from many hours to many days, and containing dozens of puzzles—a big commitment for a person not already devoted to the hobby. For casual players that are used to escape rooms and tabletop games but are interested in exploring the world of puzzle hunts, it seems a shame to have so many barriers to entry, but I have played several location-based outdoor puzzle hunts in recent years that have made a bigger effort to be accessible to non-expert puzzle hunters. Puzzle hunts can be frustrating, but they can also be really fun, and just like with escape rooms and tabletop games, the difference lies entirely in philosophy and execution. There is no reason why a puzzle hunt can’t be enjoyed by both beginners and experienced players if that is the intention of the designer. Objective The first question to ask yourself when designing anything is “why am I doing this?” Consider what your primary directive is with the project. If the answer is “to facilitate player fun,” then make sure your design reflects that, and create puzzles that feel like fun and not like work. If your answer is “to give people a challenge,” remind yourself that “challenging” and “fun” are not mutually exclusive, and aim to design a game that is both, with a difficulty level and player accommodations that are appropriate for the core audience. Context A lot of design decisions will be determined by the type of game you’re trying to make. Here are some questions needs to be addressed before you start: Is the hunt casual or competitive? Is it a paid event or is it free to play? Will multiple teams be playing at once or will they be staggered across different times? How big will the teams be? How much time should it take the average team to complete? Is it played online/remotely or in person? If in person, is it site-specific? Will it be facilitated by live humans or accessed via an app/website to be played on-demand? What sort of help will be available to players who get stuck? Will there be any incentive to avoid taking hints, such as time/score penalties? (Not recommended for non-competitive hunts.) Last but not least, who is your target audience? Are they experienced puzzle solvers? A corporate team-building group? Or a couple of tourists looking for a unique way to spend an afternoon and learn about the city they’re visiting? Expectations Regardless of who your audience is, make sure they know what they’re getting into. Without spoiling anything, players need to have at least a general idea of what to expect, such as: What are the rules? Are external resources allowed, or even necessary for solving the puzzles? Is it necessary to bring anything or will supplies be provided? How long will the experience take? How much ground should players expect to cover? (2 miles? An entire city?) Will it involve interacting with actors? (Please don’t snatch unsuspecting people off the street for the sake of surprise.) Etc. With all this in mind, what are some best practices for making an outdoor puzzle hunt a smooth and enjoyable experience for a broader audience? The following thoughts are based on observations from designing and playtesting 2nd Sight, as well as my own experiences as a player. Use your environment If you’re creating a site-specific hunt, take advantage of the location and make the scenery part of the game. Find interesting structures or places of historical significance and link them into the puzzles, or ideally, try to shape the story around them. This will always be more interesting than handing players a puzzle they could do at home on their computer. Just be sure to avoid any elements that could be temporary (for example, the decorative carvings on a stone building are more likely to still be there in a few months than a poster in a store window.) Apply some structure Some puzzle hunts are literally just a collection of puzzles to be solved one after another (or simultaneously) without any through-line or narrative. This is fine, but an overarching premise or story is more likely to engage a broad audience. This could be as simple as having an end goal besides just “solve all the puzzles,” or as complicated as a multi-layer mystery with actor interactions. No matter your budget, a well-introduced kickoff can get players excited and motivated to accomplish their goal. It can also be helpful to present a short-term goal (solve the next puzzle/reach the next location) and a long-term goal (find a hidden treasure/reach the final location.) If you do include story elements, don’t forget to present players with a satisfying conclusion once they reach the finish line. Ideally, they should experience not just the personal triumph of having completed all the puzzles, but also witness what effect their actions had on the outcome of the scenario. In 2nd Sight, for example, (SLIGHT SPOILER AHEAD) the initial goal is to help a dead poet’s spirit find out what happened to his lost love. As you solve puzzles and progress through the game, you are granted more insight into the characters’ pasts. Eventually, all the events are revealed, and the game concludes with the reunification of the two dead lovers’ spirits. Keep people moving This is the most important lesson I have learned, and there are many ways to facilitate this: When it comes to puzzle design, avoid long extractions and finicky processes that can slow down a team for the wrong reasons. If a team figures out the next step of the puzzle, they should be able to execute the actions necessary to continue in a short amount of time. (For example, decoding an entire page of text is not a fun way to spend 30 minutes once you’ve already put in the legwork of figuring out the code.) Remember that solving on-the-go feels very different from solving at a desk, so try to keep the tasks as friendly as possible for the context. Also, (and this should go without saying, but) try to avoid logic leaps, and be sure to signpost your puzzles properly. Playtest, playtest, playtest! If multiple teams are playing at once, do your best to avoid bottlenecks. Staggering start times can help with this, but more importantly, try not to design stations that only allow a small number of teams to participate at once. That way, if one team slows down, they don’t slow everyone down. Avoid rabbit holes and make sure players know where they’re going before they head there. Either have players input an answer to confirm the next location, or provide a very clear clue as to the next step. Try to keep walks between stations fairly short (or easily accessible by public transport for a large-scale hunt) and aim to create a route without too much backtracking. For example, if you have two stations uptown and two stations downtown, don’t alternate between uptown and downtown. Organize the route so that it feels efficient and players don’t waste time and energy running back and forth. Make them feel like they’re always moving forward, even if they’re really going in a circle. Help prevent player burnout. If the event is longer than 4 hours, consider including a station that offers food, water, a restroom, and a place to sit down. Although adding a rest stop may seem counter to the idea of “keeping people moving,” dehydration and fatigue can definitely kill momentum, and players will be thankful that you considered their needs. This station can still include puzzles as part of the hunt, but should be designed to keep players there for a longer chunk of time so they have the opportunity to recharge. Don’t make the game longer than it needs to be—there is nothing wrong with short and sweet. (Is it more fun to watch a movie that is brief but exciting or one that drags on beyond its welcome?) In the end, you’ll want people to cross the finish line and rave to their friends about how much fun they had, not whine about how ready they are to go home. Provide a hint system—there is nothing worse than getting stuck and not being able to move forward at all. The hints can be administered by a live game master if it is a facilitated event, or take the form of canned hints in the app or website you are using to host a play-on-demand game. Either way, just make sure the hints are useful and keep people moving forward. (For more on hint systems, watch my talk with Summer Herrick from RECON 2021.) Don’t forget Play other puzzle hunts! As with any kind of game design, first-hand experience can be the best tool for learning what works and what doesn’t. This Puzzle Hunt Calendar is a great resource for finding hunts you probably have never heard of. Have you created or played an outdoor puzzle hunt? What design lessons did you take away from it?

Every month—well, every two months now—on this blog we highlight a handful of tabletop and digital games to spread the word about interesting experiences and support other creators. This month’s roundup leans toward the digital and narrative-driven. In fact, it does not actually contain any tabletop products... but don’t let that stop you from checking out these games. We’ll be back on the tabletop train next month. Reboot by Walking Shadow Theater Company Reboot is an online immersive theater performance with puzzles. The audience solves these puzzles together across Zoom and using various websites, while also interacting with the performers. While the puzzles were on the light side, Walking Shadow Theater Company did a great job with integrating them into the story, which was also enhanced by the plot twists in the writing and the excellent performances. Where it feels like they missed a bit, was in setting expectations and onboarding. Some of us felt put on the spot at the start, having to answer big philosophical questions without any sort of warm-up or introduction to the group. This can feel jarring, especially in a public booking. At the end, we were asked to make a decision as a group and ultimately take a stance on some thought-provoking questions. I really appreciated the nuanced moral dilemma given to us, and the fact that we got to control the ending of the story, but the decision-making felt a bit rushed. This experience made me think back to the moral quandary presented in The Verdict by Logic Locks, where we were given plenty of time to discuss and come to a consensus. Reboot could have benefited from the same, but if you like interacting with actors while doing some pleasant puzzling and engaging in thought-provoking dialogue, you will probably enjoy Reboot. Time: ~75m Difficulty: 1.5/5 Wizards Against Lizards Wizards Against Lizards is another online interactive theater experience with puzzles, but with a very different tone than Reboot. With a hilarious premise and equally amusing performances, this experience is unique for its absurdity alone. The puzzles were not difficult, but felt well-balanced and integrated into the experience. Note that there are also some group improvisational elements involved, so I recommend that at least part of the team be comfortable interacting with actors. This is one to play when you’re feeling goofy and just want to have a good time. Time: ~75m Difficulty: 1.5/5 Down the Rabbit Hole Down the Rabbit Hole is a VR puzzle adventure game with some familiar characters and witty humor, but a reimagined story. You play as a young girl looking for her cat—a refreshing take on the traditional Alice in Wonderland narrative. The rendering of the rabbithole in VR really made it feel like I was entering a different world, and the navigation was unlike one I'd seen before. You switch between controlling an avatar of the girl, to controlling a sidekick character in order to solve certain puzzles, to being the girl herself in room scale and seeing the space from a first person POV. The environments are dreamlike and enchanting, and although part of the main seeking mechanic can get a little obtuse at times, you don’t have to find every single item (if you're a completionist, the good news is that going back to previous areas gets much easier in the middle of the game when fast travel is introduced.) I do wish they would integrate a hint system of some sort, even though I never got stuck enough to need it. All in all, a delightful little adventure with a story that exceeded my expectations with its depth. Time: ~2.5h Difficulty: 2/5 Escape from Mibo Island by Sherlocked Escape from Mibo Island is an adorable virtual team adventure that makes great use of a new platform, which I hope more creators utilize in the future. It was so fun to see our group members’ actual video in their avatars and run around the digital space. This game would be excellent for beginners and kids, and although the puzzles were on the easier side for our experienced team, we still had a great time interacting with the environment—my only real disappointment was that we had to leave so quickly, just after it felt like the game was really ramping up. I could easily see this being one chapter in a larger game/story/world. Time: <45m Difficulty: 1/5 Life is Strange: True Colors True Colors is a game about finding home. As in the previous Life is Strange games, it is the heartfelt story and diverse set of characters that really make the experience shine. This season is centered around a girl who spent much of her life in foster care, and what I really appreciate about the developer of these games is that they always touch on subjects not often found in gaming. While it is not particularly puzzly or mechanically complex, it is satisfying when your choices actually affect the outcome of the story. The narrative is also emotionally compelling, and the game even gives you the opportunity to replay scenes and see the other outcomes, which I enjoyed. If you like narrative-driven games and want to chill out with an engaging and resonant story, you will probably enjoy True Colors. Time: ~9h split between several chapters Difficulty: N/A Night Terrors by Mystery Mansion Regina Night Terrors is a live avatar escape room experience played online. It felt somewhat like a classic escape room in terms of puzzle design, with an exciting twist in its premise: you play as the subconscious voices in someone’s head, guiding them to wake up from their nightmare. This idea is not only unique, but also makes brilliant use of the digital escape room format, and was further enhanced by the acting. Night Terrors was spooky without being scary, and consisted of smooth gameplay with a satisfying ending. This game also has two sequels, which I look forward to playing. A great pick for the Halloween season! Time: >75m Difficulty: 2/5 Firewatch Firewatch is a beautifully rendered digital narrative adventure that tells an emotional story as you explore the forest lands you are tasked with maintaining. The story takes place over conversations with just one person on the other line of your walkie-talkie, and develops an engaging mystery throughout. In some ways, it felt like there was a missed opportunity to do something more here—add some puzzles, interactions, decisions—but I realize that isn't what the game is trying to be. If you like games like Gone Home or Life is Strange, you will probably enjoy Firewatch. Time: ~3h Difficulty: 1/5 What have you been playing lately?

I am a puzzlemaker, so it should not come as a surprise to anyone that I included a puzzle in my wedding reception. Two years later, I thought some documentation was in order, if only to help and inspire those who wish to embed something like this into their own event. If you’re working on a puzzle for your party, you have my permission to use or adapt any part of the mini puzzle hunt outlined in this post. With the inherent stress and expense of planning a wedding, I decided to go with something low-key that would be simple to put together and relatively easy to solve within a limited time frame, with the goal just being to provide an additional source of entertainment for those who would enjoy it. Since only a small number of our guests were interested in puzzles, I wanted to make sure this aspect of the event didn’t interfere with anything else that was going on, so I made the trailhead look like a simple decoration to anyone who wasn’t paying attention, but still fairly obvious to those who have an eye for that sort of thing. The framing around the main “Welcome” blackboard was a message in Morse code: "Play discreetly. Start under the fairy’s drink." This led players to a cocktail dispenser labeled “Fairy Juice,” and an envelope taped to one of the table legs underneath it. The envelope said “TAKE ONE” and had several copies of a piece of paper with a clue. (This was the case for every envelope in the hunt to make sure players can each have their own copy.) The first two lines in the poem prompted players to look at the yellow labels of the drinks, which had the names of the drinks written in code on the back; again, a detail which eluded any guest that wasn’t specifically looking for it. The code allowed players to translate the names below the clue and led them to a gold poster with an expansive family tree, where they were made to count how many times each name appeared. (The inspiration for this puzzle actually struck when I was creating the family tree. I noticed certain names repeating and it felt like fertile ground for a puzzle. I highly encourage incorporating bits of your own personal story into the hunt!) Counting the names resulted in a series of six numbers, which appeared as table labels on small wooden branch pieces. Each branch had a set of letters taped to the bottom, several of which were nonsense, just so it wouldn’t be immediately obvious how to put them together if you didn’t solve the first part of the puzzle. Putting together the letters from the six correct table numbers led to the hiding spot of the next envelope, which contained a floorplan. Luckily, the wedding venue we chose had a handy map on their website for me to use, to which I added four Xs, each representing a location for another envelope. I kept these places subtle as well; one was behind a door, another was stuck into the base molding in the corner of the entrance hall, etc. Each of those four envelopes contained a piece of a jigsaw puzzle (cut from paper), which came together to make a simple but distinctive shape. It was hard to figure out where to hide the final prize (a cone full of chocolates--a bonus party favor) without attracting any attention, so I tried to use the geography of the venue to the best of my ability. The shape I used for the puzzle ended up being the curly heart motif on the front of the fireplace gating, and the prizes were sitting inside, just an arm’s reach away. If someone was curious enough to look over that railing, they would have encountered quite the surprise, so this felt like a bit of a risk, but just covering the plate with a cloth was enough to ward away wandering eyes. By the end of the wedding, most people had no idea there was even a secret puzzle hunt going on, while those who played were able to enjoy the extra treats and the option of another activity besides dancing. Naturally, one thing I was nervous about as a designer was not being able to playtest any aspect of this puzzle, given that it was location-based. While this will always be a concern, the key is to keep things simple and well-clued, and double check everything for errors before deployment. I hope you found this post helpful for your own planning, and if you end up using any part of it, I would love to see and hear about your creation!

“How do you make a puzzle?” is a refrain I hear often but is a difficult question to answer, partially because it’s hard to verbalize the steps, but also because the “steps” can differ significantly from puzzle to puzzle. Last week I took a photo as I was midway through making a puzzle and it inspired me to write out the process in detail, as having a specific example to focus on makes it easier to explain how it all comes together. [DISCLAIMER: If you are participating in the 2020 mystery experience Secret Santa Project or are planning on playing Whisper in the Woods, do not keep reading, or risk part of your game being potentially spoiled!] This walkthrough is for what I like to call a “symbol combination cipher,” and it was originally inspired by the concept of bind runes, which I learned about while making The Tale of Ord. If you are new to making puzzles, perhaps this can help illuminate what one approach looks like, and you can use this guide to try making one of these yourself. If you do, please share how it goes! Maybe this puzzlecrafting post will turn into a series... Before we begin: How does this puzzle work? Each letter is assigned a symbol, and then combined with another symbol to make 2-letter pairs that, presented in sequence, spell out words. Words with an even number of letters will have only combined symbols, whereas words with an odd number of letters have a single-letter symbol at the end. An example phrase is given, in which some letters show up multiple times, allowing you to deduce their various shapes. Once you can translate the individual symbols, you need to play around with the placement of the pairs to make words and translate the solution phrase. Step 1: Decide on the solution phrase More often than not I do this first, because it’s much easier to map out a journey when you have a destination. I usually try to pick a solution phrase that is meaningful or thematically relevant to the puzzle or game. (This is not relevant to this example, which I wrote for simplicity’s sake.) Step 2: Write out the necessary letters You don’t necessarily need to encipher an entire alphabet if your solution doesn’t call for it. Too lengthy of a deduction process might lead to tedium, and you don’t want the puzzle to overstay its welcome. Instead, pick out only the letters you need. For this example it’s going to be ADEKRTU. Step 3: Write an example phrase using the necessary letters Naturally, I also try to keep the example phrase relative and thematic to the puzzle and solution, sometimes even combining them to make a full clue. Try to write a phrase that uses all the letters in your solution, with several of them repeated. It’s okay if the example phrase also uses some letters that are not in the solution, but I try to keep these to a minimum. The phrase I went with here (again, for simplicity’s sake) is BEND BUT NOT BREAK. This contains all the necessary letters and 3 additional letters. Step 4: Tally up how many times each letter appears in the example phrase and adjust if needed Every letter should appear at least once, unless you want to make an even more challenging puzzle that requires filling in some blanks at the end (not recommended unless for a high level puzzle hunt). Several letters must appear more than once so that you can see the repeats and determine the symbols for the repeating letters. Once those are determined, it will be easier to make out the rest. Step 5: Create the symbols For this kind of puzzle, it is best to create symbols that are distinct from one another and not too complex, so that it’s not too difficult to see what’s used in a combination. In this instance I started by creating a symbol for a high-frequency letter (B) and then drew a shape that would work well on top of it. I filled in that letter wherever it appeared and created more combination symbols (see E, U, and R), while recording the individual symbols above. I continued to do this until all the spots were filled. It also helps to have a certain template for the dimensions (like a square in this case) so that it’s easy to line up the points in the symbols and make the combined symbols look more organic. Step 6: Test the logic This is where you check if it’s possible to decipher the letters based on the information given. I usually examine the text letter by letter and check them off as I go: Because of the odd numbered words, we know immediately the symbols for T and K as they are presented on their own. B appears 3 times, making it easy to determine its shape. Once you know B, you can figure out the shapes for E, U, and R. Knowing E, you can determine A. N appears twice, allowing you to find that shape. Knowing N, you can decipher the shapes for D and O. It works! If this wasn’t enough information, however, you could adjust the example phrase or add more letters to it until it was clear what each symbol represented. Step 7: Make a clean copy of the puzzle and playtest it! The examples drawn out here are done digitally, but I drew this whole thing out in my sketchbook before I mocked them up on the computer. Digitizing allows for clearer and more precise symbols, but of course you can also just write out a clean version by hand. Once it’s all put together, hand it off for a playtest and see if someone else can solve it. Can you decipher this final phrase?

This is the fourth post in a series of design diaries about PostCurious' next game, The Light in the Mist, a tarot-card-based narrative puzzle adventure created in collaboration with Jack Fallows. You can find the previous posts here. Please note that these posts may contain some (very slightly spoilery) details about the game--if you want to play it without knowing anything beforehand, it’s probably best not to read this! -- Since I have some background in illustration myself, the question of why I also choose to collaborate with other artists has come up a few times, as well as the question of how to go about doing so when the artist doesn’t have experience with illustrating for puzzle games. With hopes to make this post more helpful to other creators, I thought I would outline why and how such a collaboration might function and what our process was for creating The Light in the Mist. Why work with another person? We all have our individual strengths and limitations, and it’s important to know when to get someone else involved. When conceiving of a game, I usually have a certain vision of what I want to accomplish, and sometimes that vision requires efforts that are outside of my skill set. For example, despite illustrating the entire set of game components for The Emerald Flame, I decided to hire an artist to create the cover, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to convey what I wanted with my limited painting skills. I did, however, design the cover--I created a composite image in photoshop with a layout of the elements and added notes about how I wanted it to look and what items needed to be included for the hidden puzzles in the cover (but the design was, in part, inspired by the artist's existing paintings--don’t underestimate the effect that someone else’s work can have on your own design.) Then, I sent that diagram to Liiga Klavina and asked her to draw it in her style, and the result was far and beyond anything I could have created myself. I knew that hiring an artist was the right decision, and the outcome was absolutely worth the investment. This is often the case when choosing to work with a professional, and it is not limited to artists. (In retrospect, it seems so basic and obvious to work with someone who knows what their doing, but us stubborn DIY-ers sometimes need a reminder.) I had a similar experience when creating The Tale of Ord and needed a page coded in Javascript. At first, I thought it might be a simple enough task to do by myself and took it as an opportunity to learn a new skill. While it was great to learn something new, after spending several dozen hours trying to hack something together, I realized it was not going to look and function as smoothly as I wanted it to, and I was better off handing the project off to someone else who could take it from start to finish in a day. In the end, there are only so many hours, and making a game the best it can be is a more worthwhile endeavor than insisting on doing everything yourself. However, even if the collaborator has an overlapping skill set, two heads are usually better than one, and what you come up with together will likely be greater than what each of you could do on your own. Ways to work with others There are many talented people out there that can bring something new to the table and change an entire project for the better. However, the scope of the collaboration is something that is important to determine before you start the work. You must decide if you’re hiring someone to do a task (such as create a drawing) or if you’re actually going to develop the project together. How much input do you want the other person to have? Are they going to simply follow your instructions to create something using their skill set or will they be involved in the design itself? (It goes without saying that designing takes a lot more thought and careful planning than following directions, and the person should be compensated according to their level of involvement!) To that end, here are a few different ways to delineate a collaborator’s role, from least involved to most: You convey something very specific and ask the person to render it according to your directions (for example, the javascript project mentioned above.) You outline certain requirements that must be included in the work and give the person artistic liberty with the rest (such as The Emerald Flame box cover.) You discuss the intent and desired result of the project and work together to come up with a design. Then, the collaborator executes their role. With The Light in the Mist, I had a certain vision for the puzzles and artwork, and knew Jack would be the one to bring it to life. When we began ideating, we decided the story and overall concept should represent both of us. Since we both had experience with narrative as well, our collaboration ultimately ended up being a fairly equal joint effort, but... sharing your work with someone can be scary, and we didn't dive into this project completely blind. Before we started working The Light in the Mist I asked Jack to create an illustration for a postcard in The Emerald Flame's companion Apprentice Pack. Once we knew we could work together, we were much more prepared to collaborate on a larger project. Naturally, the reasons for choosing one direction or another will vary depending on the project, but starting off with someone small is a great way of testing the waters before diving in head first, especially with someone you don't know very well. Communicate your intentions Luckily for me, Jack was already familiar with illustrating for puzzle games, which made the process a little easier, but what’s the best way to convey your needs for a puzzle while still allowing an artist to have the freedom to add their own voice? Before you embark on a project, make sure the person you’re working with understands what you’re doing on a fundamental level. Someone who has never played an escape room or puzzle game may not fully realize what a product like that entails, and the degree of specificity that is sometimes required in order to make a puzzle work. It is important to be transparent about this in order to avoid surprises and frustrations down the line. When it comes to art, if you're going for a certain vibe, a mood board or a folder of reference photos can go a long way in communicating what words can't. Measure twice, cut once Before you provide any instructions, make sure your idea works. Create a draft of the puzzle and test it out at least a couple of times before moving forward with anything that would be time-consuming and/or expensive to redo. In the case of our tarot deck, I created a full draft version of all 78 cards in order to test the whole game before Jack even put a pencil to paper. This draft included only the bare minimum elements needed to solve the puzzles, without any clutter. This allowed me to be confident in the functional elements of the puzzles while giving Jack the artistic liberty to do whatever they wanted with the rest of the image, so long as those basic elements were incorporated. Be clear and specific Add notes to your drafts and sketches. If something needs to be exactly as shown, make sure to mention this in your instructions. Whether it is placement, shape, color, or scale, always be specific about elements that have rigid requirements. For example, you might say, “Item x needs to be to the left of item y, and both need to be yellow. Item x will have a blue diamond on it, and item y will have a red circle. Make sure to leave a 1”x1” blank space on the bottom right-hand corner for an element that will be added later.” Knowing this information ahead of time will help avoid extra work down the line. If you already have a puzzle or design planned out, explain its purpose and function in detail. You can even walk the person through each step in the puzzle so they understand the reason behind every decision in the design, and keep in their mind which details matter most and which have flexibility. For example, in this image all we needed was four objects. They had to be placed in a very particular way, but the rest of the scene was left up to the artist. Usually my instructions for the cards would read something like the above example, and the general rule was “have fun with the rest, just don’t add anything too distracting or cluey-looking.” Of course, “cluey-looking," being a technical industry term, may not be understood by everyone, so you'll likely need to explain that further. Basically, the goal is to avoid red herrings and elements that look too intentional to feel like natural parts of the environment. For example, if a puzzle includes five potion bottles of five distinct colors, I would avoid using those specific colors in a way that could potentially connect them to the bottles and cause confusion. Expect revisions No one is a mind reader; you can explain your intent in as much detail as you think is possible, but it’s likely there will always be something that feels a little off. Revisions are to be expected, but don’t get too lost in details and nit-picking or you may drive your artist crazy and they won’t want to work with you again. In short, be reasonable. If something is throwing people off when they’re trying to solve a puzzle, of course it’s going to need to change. If it’s a teeny detail that doesn’t actually matter, consider if it may be better to just let it go (I know, I know, it's hard.) Test every step of the way Every time you make a major revision, test it before moving forward. I tested The Light in the Mist in its draft art phase, pencil art phase, and colored phase, and will conduct a couple more tests when all the art is 100% complete. Don’t be tempted to cut corners and move on to the next phase before making sure something works as anticipated--this will save you a lot of time and effort in the long run. Plus, mistakes can happen, or people may interpret things in a way that you did not expect--it’s better to catch these things before committing them to ink. Do you have a story about a time you collaborated with someone on a project? How did you do it and what was the result?

Every month or so on this blog we highlight a handful of tabletop and digital games to spread the word about interesting experiences and support other creators -- here is our summer roundup! The Fairy Tale Files: The Curious Case of the Poisoned Apples by Society of Curiosities I enjoyed Society of Curiosities' first “Fairy Tale File,” The Cinderella Murders, and the second installment in the series was equally delightful; the goal in the story was to find out who killed two people with a glass slipper, given three suspects and various pieces of evidence. Although The Curious Case felt marginally easier, it still maintained a level of creativity that sometimes feels lacking in low-difficulty puzzles. While this may not be the game to choose if you’re looking for a challenge, the theme and complexity level make it an excellent option to play with kids or puzzle newbies. Plus, the lighthearted tone and witty writing put a great twist on a set of classic fairy tale characters and made it feel welcoming and accessible for a wide audience. Time: <1h Difficulty: 1/5 The Fisherman’s Tale (VR) A Fisherman’s Tale takes place in a 360-degree virtual world, where the player takes on the role of a fisherman’s puppet, living in a tiny model lighthouse. The story was charming, and the puzzles mind-bending, requiring you to think outside the box (often literally!) Although the gameplay was rather similar to the spatial logic tricks of Maquette, which I wrote about in a previous post, the VR environment augmented the experience and transformed the game into something more singular. My only complaint is that at times it was unclear how to accomplish a task, and while there was occasionally a voice to help “guide” you, it often wasn’t very helpful. I would have preferred clues I could access at will rather than unprompted comments that would only occasionally get me back on the right track, but this is a relatively minor issue in what is overall a polished game full of beautiful and surprising moments. Time: ~3h Difficulty: 1.5/5 Retro Rad Pizza Adventure by Trapped Puzzle Rooms This game arrived in an actual pizza box, which made for a delightful arrival (but a less-than-delightful process of unrolling all the paper sheets inside...) The gameplay was divided into six pizza slices, plus an envelope for the final puzzle. Each slice contained an average of three puzzles, which were usually thematic, but at times felt a bit random. Some puzzles had us interacting with the components in interesting ways, whereas others required external knowledge of trivia and pop culture, which may be more or less appealing to you depending on your personal preference and willingness to use the internet. Thankfully, hints were there to help us through the tough spots, and the humor Trapped embeds into everything they create made up for any hiccups we encountered. This game also has a lot of content, so you can easily spread it out and just have a bite of pizza at a time. Time: 6 slices + meta puzzle of approx. 45-60 minutes each = about 6h total Difficulty: 2/5 EXIT: The Game + Jigsaw Puzzle - The Deserted Lighthouse by Thames and Kosmos The Deserted Lighthouse played similarly to a classic EXIT game in many ways, but with an additional jigsaw puzzle twist. It felt like a balanced combination for our group, but if you don’t enjoy jigsaw puzzles, you’d likely be better off pursuing another title in the series. Despite a few puzzles with ambiguous cluing, we enjoyed the overall experience and found a good amount of variety in the gameplay. I do want to offer a tip though: don’t disassemble the jigsaw pieces when you move on to the next section, as already assembled parts will be reused later in the game. Time: 2-3 hours Difficulty: 2.5/5 Scarlet Envelope #5 Wild Mansion of Mr. Ferri & #6 - Screaming Venice: Art Heist What I continue to admire about Scarlet Envelope is how much variety they offer--each chapter is different from the last. The fifth installment had us solving logic problems and making story connections, which I really enjoyed, but it could have been improved if the puzzles resolved with a cleaner order. Screaming Venice contained an impressive multi-layered puzzle, but often times in this series we feel like just a tiny bit more signposting would go a long way. Alternatively, more granular hints would help. What was available allowed us to get through the sticky spots, but we wished to be able to figure out more on our own by progressing with smaller steps. That aside, it's always neat to see how much puzzle can fit into such a small envelope, and the screaming cat bookmark was an added bonus. Time: ~1.5h each Difficulty: 2.5/5 Chocolateral Bars by Enigmailed Enigmailed teamed up with a local chocolatier to create two tasty puzzle treats! There are no riddles in the chocolate itself, so don’t worry, you can eat it--the packaging is where the action is. Each bar contains several clues on the wrapper, which combine to solve a (very) mini-mystery. While the solutions might feel like fairly standard decodes to an experienced puzzler, these bars would make a great gift for basically anyone who likes chocolate, or can just be a sweet little solve to enjoy with a cup of coffee. Time: <15m per bar Difficulty: 1/5 What have you been playing this month?

Each month on this blog we highlight a handful of tabletop and digital games to spread the word about interesting experiences and support other creators -- here is this month's roundup! CryptX Adventure Postcard by Inside the Box Games With the long delay from this Kickstarter campaign, I was happy to receive the Adventure Postcard as a teaser of what’s to come in the game and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was not just a postcard but a handful of items hidden inside what appears to be a postcard at first glance. These were nicely designed and served as an enjoyable mini-mystery and introduction to the play style. Although one item could have benefited from greater precision, it was fun to puzzle through and made me look forward to the release of the full CryptX game. Time: ~1h Difficulty: 2/5 Stokes Barker Chapter 1:The Invitation by Sherlock’s Mysteries This was another mini-mystery that arrived as a precursor to the full Sherlock’s Mysteries game and involved solving the disappearance of jazz legend Stokes Barker. It contained a surprising amount of materials in such a small envelope, which allowed for some clever solves and fun interactions. There was a good progression of cluing and discovery, and we enjoyed the little bits of humor sprinkled throughout. It seemed to be lacking a hint system, however the puzzles were intuitive enough that we didn't need one to complete it. It also contained a personal touch, which was a pleasant surprise and a nice note to finish on. Time: ~1h Difficulty: 2/5 Escape Mail by Mobile Escape #6 - Quiet as the Grave This installment from Mobile Escape had us cracking codes to open up a safe in a cemetery and included several video segments. While most of the puzzles in this episode felt relatively straightforward, a couple also left us backsolving for the solution and could have used a little more clarity in execution. Thankfully hints are included in this series, and we appreciated the use of the physical prop in the puzzle. Time: ~1h Difficulty: 1.5/5 LEGACY: Quest for a Family Treasure by Argyx Games LEGACY was a two-part game in which a letter from a notary revealed the existence of “our” family’s treasure, hidden somewhere in Europe. The first part, Eiffel 1889, took place in Paris and had us puzzling through some beautifully designed props, including a newspaper, map, and various trinkets that were fun to manipulate. The second part, Hellas, took place in Greece and likewise contained some small objects and locally-themed materials. Both of these were enjoyable to solve through and felt like a step up from Argyx’s first game, Apocalypse. The only issue we encountered was an international phone number, which didn’t work for us, but thankfully a hints page was available to allow us to proceed past this part. Time: ~1.5h for Eiffel 1889, ~1h for Hellas Difficulty: 2/5 Scarlet Envelope #4 - Breakfast for a Serial Killer Breakfast for Serial Killer was a change of pace from what we’ve come to expect from Scarlet Envelope, as it presented a deductive murder mystery rather than just a series of puzzles. We were trying to solve the murder of a waitress in a 50’s diner, given some paper materials, evidence from the crime scene, as well as some recordings of the suspects, presented digitally. Although we found the puzzles in this chapter enjoyable, some of the clues to the overall mystery felt a little too subtle for our team. That said, we’re not the greatest Sherlocks out there, so those more familiar with the murder mystery style will probably feel right at home with this episode. Time: <1.5h Difficulty: 2/5 What have you been playing this month?

This is the third post in a series of design diaries about PostCurious' next game, The Light in the Mist, a tarot-card-based narrative puzzle adventure created in collaboration with Jack Fallows. You can find the previous posts here. Disclaimer: These posts contain some (very slightly spoilery) details about the game--if you want to play it without knowing anything beforehand, it’s probably best not to read this! - My philosophy when designing a game is to allow the main subject matter to inspire the puzzles and story. Laying down this foundation helps create resonance between the player’s actions, the narrative, and the general aesthetic of the game. Since reading tarot is all about interpreting the cards, designing these puzzles was essentially my way of interpreting their meanings. Before starting the actual design process I researched and wrote detailed notes about what makes each Major Arcana card significant, as each represents a puzzle in the game. Then, I considered how those meanings can be conveyed through metaphor or translated to a player action. For example, The Hermit card addresses self-reflection, and consequently the puzzle is inspired by the idea of reflection. Also, unlike most of the puzzles in the game, it doesn’t use any additional cards because it seemed more conceptually suitable for The Hermit to exist alone. Another aspect of tarot reading that I found inspiring was the idea of “spreads.” A spread is a way of laying down the cards in a unique configuration, which can vary depending on the goal of the reading. A successful game should take advantage of its medium, and with such limited materials it seemed only logical to try and make the most of the cards as a unit of play. This led to creating some puzzles that require placing the cards in various arrays, not just to thematically match the cards (for example, the Wheel of Fortune has to do with circles--surprised?) but also to build more tactility into the gameplay. It’s hard enough to invent objects and come up with interesting ways to manipulate them, but working entirely with flat cards of a set size that cannot be altered or destroyed was a brand new challenge for someone who normally places a high degree of emphasis on physical items. In a way, it was also the best sort of challenge. I had to ask myself: “What kind of player interactions can I create with the given materials and how can they be designed to best reflect the subject matter?” Needless to say, there were times where the constraints felt very limiting, and were the components different, it would be an entirely changed game, but it was a creatively satisfying endeavor, and I think the result is strong. Sometimes constraints of this sort force you to think further outside the box and actually serve as a useful design exercise. One of our main goals with the overall project was to create links between the cards, puzzles, solutions, and story passages, weaving their meanings together and avoiding arbitrary answers or narrative beats. As a result, every aspect of the gameplay is designed with the source material in mind but twisted to create connections that are unique to the game. Although it is easy to see that this tarot deck is aesthetically far removed from the (most commonly regarded as) "standard" Rider-Waite deck, existing decks and tarot imagery did serve as a jumping off point for many of the puzzles and illustrations. For example, the stained glass window in the background of the 3 of Pentacles partially inspired one of the puzzles, and our version of The Moon card contains some common symbols but integrates them into a different design. Meanwhile, cards like The Chariot may look nothing like their “standard” counterparts, but the associated puzzle, solution, and narrative still echo the traditional meaning behind The Chariot card. Although these associations will not be immediately obvious to players who aren’t familiar with tarot, the subtle connections woven into the various game elements still create a sense of cohesion and continuity that would not be there without precise intention. Our hope is that these integrations may even spark some curiosity in those who previously may have had no interest in exploring the tarot. What games have you played that successfully create resonance between the gameplay, narrative, and source material?

Last year I wrote a series of blog posts about the making of The Emerald Flame, with design diaries about everything from the initial inspiration to the final art, up to the lessons learned from running the Kickstarter campaign. Since completing The Emerald Flame I’ve been working on a new project in collaboration with Jack Fallows, creator of Cryptogram Puzzle Post: a still-untitled narrative puzzle game in the form of a tarot deck. After months of percolating, I decided to start getting down some design diaries for this project as well. Disclaimer: These posts contain some (very slightly spoilery) details about the game--if you want to play it without knowing anything beforehand, it’s probably best not to read this! How did this project come to be? The idea of a puzzly tarot card deck had been in my mind for a long time--after all, there is so much about tarot that can lend itself well to a puzzle game--but more on that shortly. As it turned out, there was someone on the other side of the ocean who long had the idea of illustrating a tarot deck, but didn’t feel there was a good enough reason to put another one out into the world unless it was especially unique. Jack (they/them) and I started talking a few years ago, back when tabletop escape room style puzzle games were growing in popularity, but there was still a fairly small number of companies around, and nowhere near the number of products available in the genre today. We connected on the basis of, “You do this weird niche thing and I also make this weird niche thing, so hi!” In 2019 we met at the Up The Game conference in the Netherlands, played an escape room, and spent the evening chatting about maybe collaborating one day. Fast forward a few months, the tarot cards became the next-on-deck PostCurious project, and with Jack on board, the plan was to make something that wasn’t just a typical tarot deck--it would be a game, a story, and a piece of art. Why tarot cards? Tarot cards seem to carry a built-in air of mystery because of how they’re frequently portrayed in the media, but the truth is that their origins lie in play, not divination. Since the 15th Century and into the present, tarot cards have been used to play games, but unlike a deck of standard playing cards, the symbolism and art of the tarot is brimming with meaning, making them a juicy source of inspiration for a narrative puzzle game. When tarot is used as a divination tool, it is often to interpret a person’s past, present, and future. This concept was a jumping off point to paint the story of a character whose experiences in the narrative (along with the puzzles in the game) are influenced by the meanings of the cards. While we wanted to keep the cards functional for those who wish to use them outside the game, with completely original illustrations the deck would also just exist as a beautiful item that can be treasured as a keepsake. The concept (mild spoilers ahead) When I first started brainstorming for this game I wanted to create a player-centric story that was inspired by fortune-telling and the concept of fate. The first version of the game was designed to be somewhat like a “choose-your-own-path” adventure, with each puzzle presenting a different “fate” for the player, some with multiple options that would force players to make a choice. The idea was that the chosen answers and the order in which the cards were solved would affect the final outcome of the story, but treating the story as a series of vaguely outlined “fates” ultimately resulted in a lot of subtext and not enough substance. It felt more like a journey through flavor text, when what we wanted was to give players a meaningful narrative. After two playtests with similar feedback, we scrapped the original concept and rewrote the entire text. Instead of swimming around on the surface, we decided to tell a deeper and more intimate story that was focused on character, leaving behind the "choose-your-own-fate" aspect of the game. While the player remains at the center of the action, the main narrative focuses on the life of the player’s friend, telling a coming-of-age story through visions of the past. In typical PostCurious fashion, the gameplay is non-linear, allowing players to piece together a series of memories using clues sprinkled throughout the text and creating variable ways to experience the story depending on the order in which scenes are encountered. The other element kept from the original concept is having a selection of puzzles with multiple answers, only instead of forcing players to make a choice and potentially be punished for going down a certain path, these offer additional insight into the story for those who choose to experience the game to its fullest and find all the solutions. Puzzle-focused players that are uninterested in story could choose to find just one answer per puzzle, or even ignore the majority of the narrative entirely and play the game more like a puzzle hunt. Needless to say, this would result in a much less meaningful gameplay experience, but it is an option that exists for those who want it. At the end of the day, everyone has their own preferences, and the goal is not to police how players behave, only to make sure they are having fun. Where are we now? At this point the puzzles and narrative are mostly complete and are slowly being polished down as we begin the initial phases of creating final art. With 78 cards and several additional illustrations, the art creation will be a lengthy but very exciting process for this project! Keep an eye out for future posts in this series about puzzle design, narrative, and more. Is there anything you want to know about the project? Comment or reach out with questions or blog post suggestions!

This is the second post in a series of design diaries about PostCurious' next game: a tarot-card-based narrative puzzle adventure created in collaboration with Cryptogram Puzzle Post. For a brief introduction to the project check out the first post in the series. Disclaimer: These posts contain some (very slightly spoilery) details about the game--if you want to play it without knowing anything beforehand, it’s probably best not to read this! Structure A standard tarot deck contains 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana cards and 56 Minor Arcana cards, divided into four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles. The Minor Arcana cards are reminiscent of typical playing card suits, whereas the Major Arcana cards each have unique names and tend to hold a little more personality. From the very first ideation stage I imagined keeping this structure and creating a puzzle for each of the Major Arcana cards, to be supported by cards from the Minor Arcana. With such a large deck and with all of the Minor Arcana cards being used for multiple puzzles, we had to create a system to make it clear which puzzles each card is used in. Thus, each Minor Arcana card contains indicators as to the puzzles it belongs to, and each Major Arcana card has indicators as to how many additional cards are needed to solve its puzzle. This system is one of the first things discovered in the game, but with multiple elements meeting on each card, creating clarity between puzzle elements has been a challenge to tackle. One way this is addressed is by making sure the elements for each puzzle look distinct and cohesive, whether they are connected with color, style, or some other common feature. The other is by trying to spread out puzzle elements throughout different sets of cards, so that only one feature is shared by all the cards used in a puzzle. For instance, Puzzle A might use 1-6 of Cups, and each of those cards is also used in other puzzles. 1-3 of Cups is used in a puzzle that features leaf shapes, and 4-6 of Cups is used in a puzzle that features animals. Since not all 6 cards have animals or leaves, it seems safe to assume that those are not the important elements for Puzzle A, and thus can be ignored for the time being. If all the cards featured animals, it would be easier to get confused and think that the animals are needed for Puzzle A, whereas the important elements might actually lie in the background, for example. Mechanic These are the basic steps to follow when solving a puzzle in the game: Choose a card to solve and gather the other necessary cards. Solve the puzzle to a keyword. Find that keyword in the booklet index and read the associated piece of story. Some puzzles allow you to unlock multiple pieces of story, and some may also grant you an item that will unlock an extra passage later, but the basic mechanics are quite simple as I wanted to keep “rules” to a minimum. Ideally, the mechanic would be understood by the time a player has reached the second puzzle, so that they wouldn’t need to keep referencing the How to Play section and take themselves out of the game. Onboarding Simply by the nature of being a card-based game, this project falls much closer to the EXIT and Unlock! brand puzzle games than my previous projects. Although The Tale of Ord and The Emerald Flame also included instructions, they were more like guidelines and information to help set expectations rather than a mechanic to be understood. The games themselves had letters included which led the charge of the actual gameplay, and one or two easier puzzles to create an entry point. Likewise, there had to be an entry point to the tarot deck, but before we even got there, the mechanic needed to be clear. Originally, the story booklet started with the How to Play section, followed by a written introduction which led into the beginning of the game. However, after several playtests it became clear that having the introduction between the instructions and the beginning of the game didn’t work well at all. By the time players finished reading the introduction they had to go back to the instructions to refresh themselves on the next step. I wanted to smooth out the flow and eliminate this redundancy. Starting with the introduction yielded more successful results, as players were invited to dig right into the story rather than starting out by reading rules without any context. Diving into the scene gave people the opportunity to get excited about what was to come, and when they hit the How to Play section they were more ready for the instructions. Then it was simply time to pick up the cards, figure out what’s what, and begin the game. This improved the flow significantly, but I probably would have never discovered the problem if I wasn’t observing the playtests. After the rules comes the actual onramp. Since the player has immediate access to all the materials and there is no physical gating (such as locks or envelopes) I decided to make the first card into a tutorial of sorts. The Fool card acts as an introduction to the mechanic and contains a simple puzzle with an answer that brings with it a feeling of certainty once discovered. This is usually solved in 1-2 minutes. Then players look up the solution, read a little bit of story, and boom, they’re on their way! This brief onboarding has been an effective method of getting players started, especially with the rules more freshly in their minds. What kind of structure or mechanic have you created for a game? What sort of onramping have you found to be effective? +++ Blog reader bonus: A peek at one of the cards-in-progress! (Artwork by the fabulous Jack Fallows)

Each month on this blog we highlight a handful of tabletop and digital games to spread the word about interesting experiences and support other creators. Between managing projects and starting to actually go outside again, this month has flown by with a smaller variety of games than usual, so this roundup will be a little shorter, but no less sweet! Escape from the Two Base Stations by SCRAP Escape from the Two Base Stations arrives in two separate parts, The North Pole and the South Pole. These are meant to be used in tandem by two people playing remotely via video conference. The game mainly consists of some humorous dialogue and various communication puzzles, at times using only text, only sound, or only the camera. These puzzles were well-executed, fun, and made sense within the scenario. Occasionally we did encounter trouble when one person couldn’t solve anything and weren’t allowed to communicate or ask for help without looking at the hints; for this reason, we would recommend playing with two people per connection. Time: ~1.5h Difficulty: 2/5 The Happy Isles by Magic Puzzles Okay, it’s a jigsaw puzzle, there isn’t that much to say about it, right? But does it mean something that this was the first 1000 piece puzzle I binged in one (very late) night? It’s not because it was so easy; rather, there are two things that Magic Puzzles really got right: The quality of the pieces and the colorful, detail-oriented artwork. This combination made the puzzle a pleasure to assemble, because I was constantly noticing new things about the scene while also being rewarded with that perfect, satisfying fit. I look forward to putting on some tunes completing the third in this series. Cluebox 2: Davy Jones Locker by iDventure I did not have the opportunity to play the first Cluebox by iDventure, but was glad to have backed the second on Kickstarter. Unlike most mechanical puzzle boxes, Cluebox 2 is much closer to an escape room game than a wooden burr puzzle. Rather than using trial and error or spatial reasoning, it is logic and observation that will drive you to open the mechanisms, which act basically like combination locks. This results in a more approachable experience than many mechanical puzzles, which could take anywhere from ten minutes to dozens of hours to solve through trial and error. Simply put, it is the puzzles and not the mechanisms that are the challenge in Davy Jones Locker, but despite being a game with a lower difficulty level, it is still immensely satisfying to complete each step. Overall, it was just a fun experience to take apart this box! And, if you do get stuck, the hint system is well-executed and uses images to help you get through each step. It is also relatively easy to reset, and in the end you are left with a nice object to either keep or give to a friend. Time: ~1h Difficulty: 1.5/5 Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2 (Both currently on sale on Steam!) Life is Strange is a series of episodic narrative adventure games. They tell character-centric coming-of-age stories and allow you to make choices that impact the events, but are not at all demanding mechanically. Fans of Telltale Games and narrative adventures like What Remains of Edith Finch and Gone Home will likely enjoy these, whereas players who prefer to keep their hands active and skip through cutscenes will probably find these are not for them. Life is Strange follows the story of a teenage girl who suddenly finds herself with the power to rewind time. This was an enjoyable mechanic to play with, often forcing you to learn more information to succeed with a conversation (I appreciated that it allowed the skipping of repeated dialogue when you start a conversation over, preventing it from getting tedious) and sometimes allowing you to see various outcomes of a scene and make different choices. Some choices were ultimately more meaningful than others, but they were often hard regardless of the impact they had on the story as a whole. (Do you steal when you’re desperate, not knowing the consequences? Do you rat out your friend or take the blame?) Disclaimer: this supernatural teen drama does get a dark as the story goes on; I thought the subject matter was always dealt with tactfully, even if it veered a little into the fantastical. Life is Strange 2 follows a teenage boy who suddenly finds himself in an impossible situation and has to take care of his little brother. It tackles issues of racism, police violence, and loss, and builds a sense of empathy by placing the player in the shoes of someone who has to make difficult choices under circumstances that are out of their control. It was an unusual story to encounter in a video game, and the experience was all the stronger for it. Because there is no rewind mechanic, however, Life is Strange 2 felt significantly less “game-y" (more like a visual novel with a choose-your-own-path mechanic). Still, the story was so emotionally resonant that I have a hard time saying I preferred the first series, but after playing both I find myself really looking forward to the new season coming this fall. Time: Both seasons consist of 5 chapters, each approximately 3 hours long. What are you playing this month?

Each month on this blog we highlight a handful of tabletop and digital games to spread the word about interesting experiences and support other creators -- here is this month's roundup! Fairy Tale Files: The Cinderella Murders by Society of Curiosities The Cinderella Murders is the first of a series of four fairy tale-themed mysteries by Society of Curiosities. In this first installment, players are tasked with solving a murder committed with a glass slipper. Along with the paper components, the game is played through a user-friendly digital interface with a text adventure vibe, as players direct a proxy character to accomplish in-world tasks. Aside from one puzzle which contained some ambiguous imagery, the game flowed smoothly and contained several fun moments. I was especially impressed with the meaningful deduction of evidence that was achieved despite the relatively low level of difficulty. This game would be a great way to introduce younger folk to concepts of logic and critical thinking, but the humor and elegant gameplay should satisfy more experienced players as well. Time: <1.5h Difficulty: 1.5/5 The Cyphstress by Deadlocked Escape Rooms for Siren Craft Brew The Cyphstress is a point-and-click style digital adventure created by Deadlocked Rooms in collaboration with a local brewery. It is played through a browser interface, supported with some use of google translator and social media searching. (I am not normally a fan of the latter, but it did not overstay its welcome in this game.) With the exception of one end-game puzzle, we found the challenges to be varied, clever, and well-produced. The narrative was rather refreshing and contained some ARG-like elements. The digital components were also quite user-friendly and in some cases reminiscent of Enchambered’s online games, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. Time: ~1h for chapter 1, ~1.5h for chapter 2 Difficulty: 2/5 Click here to read more reviews of this game. Hincks Gazette by Blufish Games - Dec, Jan, Feb I had some serious catching up to do on the Hincks Gazettes this month, and after declaring the December issue my favorite so far, January quickly overtook it with a certain brilliant puzzle sequence. Generally speaking, the Hincks Gazettes are kind of what I wish newspaper puzzles were actually like. The humor easily eclipses most (un)funny pages and the puzzles are clever, joyful, and never punishing. Time: ~45m each Difficulty: 1.5/5 Escape Mail by Mobile Escape: #3 Ancient Mysteries, #4 On the Run, #5 The Secret Library Escape Mail offers nice bite-size puzzle envelopes that can easily be completed in one sitting. There is not much to dive into in terms of the narrative, but the puzzles were generally satisfying and well-executed. Some clues in Ancient Mysteries were mildly confusing, but I really appreciated how the paper components were used in a way that facilitated the creation of something dimensional and unique. The other two chapters felt a bit more straightforward in terms of the gameplay, with On the Run probably being my favorite of the three. While I personally yearn for a little more meat on my puzzles, this series would be a perfect choice for those new to the genre. Time: <1h each Difficulty: ~1.5/5 The Warp Core Part 1 & 2 by Clue HQ The Warp Core is planned to be a four-part series (with three currently available) of online escape rooms played through Telescape, where players navigate real 360-degree environments with superimposed digital elements. Clue HQ not only did a great job of onboarding players but also used Telescape in an innovative way--it felt like the closest I’d gotten to playing an actual escape room virtually without an avatar. Although it was a tad overwhelming at times moving through different rooms and investigating so many elements, it was never unmanageable, and the collaborative nature of the game makes it an excellent choice for remote play. Both parts were equally fun and can easily be played in one sitting or split up. Time: <1h each part Difficulty: 1.5/5 Escape from the Science Lab of Shifting Rules by SCRAP Escape from the Science Lab of Shifting Rules is an online avatar-led game created by SCRAP, an escape room company based in Japan. The best way to describe this game is a real-life version of the video game Baba is You, in which the player is continuously changing the rules of the game itself in order to solve problems and make progress. SCRAP’s adaptation of this concept resulted in a clever, funny, and unique experience. Despite the relatively bare-bones setting, the production design overall was actually rather impressive, and our team was excited and engaged the entire way through. Time: 1h Difficulty: 2/5 Click here to read more reviews of this game. (Image via SCRAP) Disco Elysium - The Final Cut Available for: Windows, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One (and currently 20% off on Steam!) After briefly starting this game on PC last year, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the Playstation release of the “Final Cut” version of Disco Elysium, a groundbreaking role playing game. Although I am not normally a fan of RPGs, the dialogue-driven and exploration-based gameplay appealed to me significantly more than the combat-driven games in the genre. Taking on the role of an amnesiac detective with a substance abuse problem, the player is tasked with solving a murder mystery in the run down district of Revachol, accompanied by another detective on the case. It is worth noting that the world-building in this game expands far beyond the map area--there is not just a narrative but also a deep history of the region and nuanced (and often funny) political commentary embedded into the game (which you can choose to ignore to some degree, but it is part of what makes the game so interesting.) It is honestly a little hard to describe Disco Elysium without going on for paragraphs at a time (as you can already tell), but the brief of it is that the plethora of meaningful choices, side quests, and quirkiness are what make this game truly unique. The character building is equally robust--investing your experience points into certain skills can open up new opportunities or cause events to play out in different ways. Not only that, but you have the freedom of playing as any combination of weirdo characters: a composed, physically strong, and empathetic communist organizer, a consistently drunk right-wing nationalist with a wacky bow tie, or an apologetic, politically ambivalent disco freak with a tendency to take bribes. This character-building is also what offers the game tremendous replay value. As I was about halfway through the game I thought “I can’t imagine replaying this whole thing,” but after finishing the run it wasn’t long until I was ready to try again with a focused intent on doing things a little differently, just to see what happens. This second playthrough has been rewarding so far, allowing me to complete several new side quests and be consistently surprised and amused by what the creators have put into the game. My biggest complaint is also ultimately the best compliment--once I solved the case, all I wanted to do was keep going… I wanted to go back to my station and embark on a new adventure using the skills I already earned. Time: 20+ hours Difficulty: N/A