Communing with Nature

Escape this Podcast is currently in its third season. Hosts Bill and Dani present weekly virtual puzzle experiences akin to escape rooms or text-adventure computer games. Dani creates and narrates most of the EtP adventures, but they occasionally invite guests to take the game-master role. My friend Scott Weiss is presenting a virtual puzzle experience later this season (EtP is in the middle of a multiple-episode arc titled Descent of the Cullodens). I got to sample Scott’s adventure, co-solving with Wil Zambole.

Escape this Podcast listeners can “play along at home” by retrieving game information from the show notes, but I usually listen during commutes and audit the on-air solving of the guests. For Scott’s game I had a chance to have some agency in exploring the space, making observations, and speculating with Wil on the best course of action. The game, titled Communing with Nature, is a family-friendly adventure with a great variety of fun puzzles and an interesting setting that allows for interactions that would not be feasible in a brick-and-mortar escape room.

If you don’t want to wait for Communing with Nature’s debut on Escape this Podcast, you can contact Scott, as Wil and I did, for a sneak preview play. The game is best suited for 1-2 players. Leave a comment if you want Scott’s email address.

Love Potion no. 13

Last December the curators of Denver Immersive Summit asked Puzzah! to create an activity related to puzzles and immersive experience. Our offering was Love Potion no. 13, a live action puzzle experience presented last night at our Lower Downtown location. Marilyn Dorn and I created the activity and performed it along with Nick Lawson and Deirdre Lee.

Eighteen attendees agreed to be subjects in a social experiment by sampling a dose of the compatibility enhancement drug LP-13 and then participating in a speed-dating exercise to find a perfect match. The speed-dating activity drew heavily from the structure created by Jeff Roberts for a similar event presented at the MIT Mystery Hunt in 2017. Subjects who found perfect matches learned there was more to the experiment than first advertised, and all participants eventually worked together to bring the story to a happy conclusion.

The participants included artists, musicians, designers, educators, and members of the escape room industry. The group worked well together and dispatched the puzzle set in about 20 minutes. The activity was followed by a 40-minute discussion that covered puzzles (a little) and ideas about immersive experience (a lot). My highlights of the evening were meeting new members of Denver’s immersive community and hamming it up as the nefarious Dr. Adam Rue of Blind Data Laboratories.

I hope we can reprise Love Potion no. 13 either for a DIS event or for Puzzah! but no definite plans have been made.

 

The [secret society]

Today I joined a secret society.

Well, it’s “secret” to the extent that I am not supposed to reveal its name or some of its history, but I can confirm that it exists and that it should be a lot of fun to be part of.

Several months ago I was visiting our downtown store and noticed an unusual plaque attached to the wall of the lobby. The plaque bore a simple logo and alphanumeric code. The front desk staffer wasn’t sure what it meant but assured me that the owners knew about it. Later, I heard that some strangers visited Puzzah! and asked to interview the front-of-house staff. The interviewers wanted to know if anyone had visited the store specifically to see the plaque. Our personable staff conducted themselves in these interviews with aplomb, though one admitted after the interview that the plaque was starting to freak him out.

A few weeks ago I received an email that included the logo from the plaque. The email included some coded message and a web address. The website featured a password field, so I tried the alphanumeric code from the plaque. I found an article about a possible conspiracy, or at least egregious negligence, within the world’s scientific community. Another member of the Puzzah! design team received a similar email, and we spent some time analyzing the website and discovering hidden clues, which led to contacting other Denver-area escape room businesses that had similar plaques in their lobbies. We eventually decoded the message on the original email, which revealed a date (February 10), a time, and coordinates representing a location in Denver.

The location turned out to be a music studio in the Sun Valley area. A group of people was waiting in front of the door when I arrived. The group included some familiar faces and many people who expressed utter confusion. We were led into the studio and found envelopes, locked cases, scientific instruments, and an elaborate set of crystalline towers pulsing in various colors. We were instructed to work cooperatively and share our discoveries but most participants dove hungrily into the challenges. I enjoyed the enthusiasm and clung to the sidelines. The solvers eventually found an entrance to small courtyard with a locked chest. The chest, opened with a previously discovered combination, contained packets declaring our mission was successful and inviting us to join the secret society for fans of immersive, group-oriented puzzle experiences.

Today’s event drew from the traditions of alternate reality games and pop-up escape rooms. Puzzle fans have been enjoying these for decades, but I never made much effort to participate. I felt honored to be included in this event. My takeaway of membership in this secret society is not the joy of puzzle solving as much as the joy of collaborative creation.