Project Type:
Timeline:
Project Type:
Timeline:
Following a busy holiday season, Mount Washington Valley-based escape room Mystery NH was looking to retire their longest-standing room ("Hangry for History") and replace it with an entirely new experience. A series of brainstorming sessions with the full staff revealed the theme "Medieval dungeon" as the clear favorite. In bringing this theme to life, we sought to create an experience that included all of the elements guests would expect out of a dungeon-based escape room, while maintaining the quirky, whimsical personality that makes Mystery NH stand out amongst the competition. Out of our exploration of this concept, the "Legend of Lac Furem" was born.
"Your best friend has been imprisoned for stealing milk from the King's favorite goat, an offense punishable by death. You have 60 minutes to find your friend and escape the dungeon alive!"
Once we'd settled on our theme, our design team embarked on independent research to brainstorm ideas for puzzles and scenery. We consulted a variety of resources on our own time, including Google, history books, and other escape rooms on the market. We documented these ideas through paper sketches and worked together to iterate and improve on these schematics. As our list of ideas grew, our vision for the room began to take shape. Mystery NH's owner created a plot of the room layout and I drew up an initial draft of the puzzle flow, both of which can be viewed below.
We decided to divide the room experience into five distinct segments: four jail cells and the entry hallway. Unlocking and exploring different cells would provide players with a sense of progression while also keeping the experience fresh and interesting throughout the duration of the game. Mystery NH's contractor used our schematics as a guide to set up the room's shell, providing us with a foundation to begin testing puzzles and set design elements.
The room's central puzzle was also one of the most challenging to build. Entering new territory for Mystery NH, the Legend of Lac Furem would begin with one player "imprisoned," requiring the rest of their team to rescue them.
Mystery NH's owner and I worked together to design a mechanism for this puzzle that would provide teams with a challenge while remaining safe and comfortable for players. We ultimately settled on a system of chains connected to Styrofoam blocks embedded into the wall. In emergency situations, these blocks could be yanked out of their positions, allowing players to move freely. We also installed an emergency release button for the cell door.
To solve the puzzle as intended, players would need to assemble several pieces of stylized PVC piping found throughout the room. This tool would allow players to reach between the cell bars and dislodge a rolled-up banner, revealing a code to free their friend.
One of our other hallmark puzzles, accessed in the third of four cells, was inspired by the Iron Maiden. We wanted to create a puzzle that would require one player to position themselves spatially to trigger multiple switches with their body, while also encouraging teamwork and communication in order to advance.
I modeled and ran the electrical wiring for this puzzle. As I learned to do with any wiring-based puzzle, I first created the wiring on a small scale in our work station, to ensure the connections were all properly diagrammed and working as intended before moving to the "real thing." I set up the puzzle so that when one of the five switches was triggered, a corresponding blue indicator light would show on a diagram of the human body outside of the Maiden. Teammates would be able to use these lights to guide the player on how to position their body. Once all five switches were triggered, the puzzle would "complete," releasing a maglock that would open a nearby chest.
With most of the room's puzzles wired and laid out, we began work on the finishing touches to bring the room's atmosphere and aesthetics together. Mystery NH's owner and I split responsibilities regarding set design and lighting. Multiple pieces of sheetrock were used to build the prison walls. For cell doors and the iron maiden, we created an “aged” look through a combination of black paint, cinnamon, and mod podge, using a hair dryer to create the appearance of rust. We tested multiple lighting colors and positions to adequately balance puzzle readability with an “eerie” look and feel. "Flicker flame" lights were used for the torches. Additional accents included spider webs (also used to hide wiring), metal chains, rusted piping, custom banners and coats of armor (which doubled as puzzles).
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The Legend of Lac Furem opened at Mystery NH in April 2021 and operated through January 2023. Prior to its opening, we ran a series of beta tests with Mystery NH staff members and volunteers among the public to ensure the room's difficulty matched our vision and to identify any potential bottlenecks or other issues to address. Some of our initial changes included adding a second puzzle to the third of the room's jail cells, providing additional cues for a puzzle deemed too difficult to solve in its current state, and closing a shortcut that allowed some players to bypass an entire jail cell. We continued to monitor teams and collect player feedback throughout the game's run.
The Legend of Lac Furem was the third and final escape room I helped design during my time at Mystery NH. While the space itself was smaller and less complex compared to my first room (Call of the Cryptid), the game flow was more involved, forcing me to put myself even more squarely in the "player's shoes" for much of the experience. Designing a game flow that allows puzzles to be solved outside of a standard, linear order, while still creating a sense of progression around a central story, can be difficult to achieve. I frequently had to consider how to close potential loopholes and shortcuts that could be taken, and adjust the rewards given for each puzzle accordingly. The prisoner puzzle required a great deal of strategic thinking in particular; a key question we had to answer was how to make sure that the locked up player isn't just sitting there, but is an active participant in helping their team rescue them? Additionally, the wiring for the Iron Maiden was one of the more complex electronic puzzles I designed.