IMMERSIVE QUESTS

One wing of my artistic practice within the past four years has been exploring world building, storytelling, and audience-based performance through making and playing immersive quest games. I guess it’s been my own side quest!

To me, quests and scavenger hunts are little pieces of art that are less about how they look or set of instructions, and more about what happens when we people willingly choose to do something imaginative and playful with their time together.

What do joy and failure look like to you when there’s a set of fictitious stakes that are somehow so high and so low? How do you show up when you’re winning or losing? And what happens, especially with adults, when play and work become the same thing again?

HALLOWEEN

One of the highlights of my creative year is collaborating with Unfine Arts on a large-scale Halloween party and scavenger hunt.

Each year the team works together to select a film or series that we think complements the overall “vibe” of the year so far (2019: Logan’s Run, 2020: Clue, 2021: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 2022: Alien, 2023: TBA) and then we create a Halloween party so intensely joyful, and tender, and mobilizing, and unexpected that in the past two years our attendance has gone from 100 to 350 mostly by word of mouth.

As the creator of the Scavenger Hunt component, I comb over our focused film or media and look for themes and concepts that can lead us to a bigger idea that allows participants to solve a quest while also seeing how the concepts from the film can subtley spill over into our reality…making for the most bone chilling element! What does Alien tell about labor and workers rights? What does Buffy the Vampire Slayer have to do with Greg Abbott’s toxic healthcare system? Only way to find out is to get to the Unfine Arts website and book your ticket for next year!

Have a look at some Halloween puzzles and riddles here…

CUSTOM QUESTS

I sometimes like to make custom-made puzzles and hunts for people who are looking for something special and fun to do with their partner, friends, or family.

These puzzles are always totally unique to you. No story or design is ever repeated, and is based off of questionnaires and collaborating together to make the perfect hunt, so it’s really special!

Here's how it works:

There are 3 hunt styles to choose from. Pick the one you think your person or group would have the most fun playing.

Then, I’ll send a questionnaire that gives me a sense of the person/people it’s being designed for as well as what type of difficulty level they’d like, how much time you have, where you want to go etc.

After, I respond with a concept, story, and structure which you can give feedback on or change. If you like it, I’ll send you the first proofs and then begin designing!

The invitation will appear in a decided upon mailbox or space 3 days before the start of the hunt!

Who is this for?

A lot of special care and attention goes into these hunt, they’re custom made! So while I might consider it for groups like nonprofits wanting to promote advocacy or learning, this is not something that’s offered for corporate team building practices or things to fill your time.

The hunt packages:

Here's the types I'm currently offering. A slideshow exists way further down so you can get an idea of each hunt type.

Silly Scavenge ($100+ depending on concept and stops)

This one is the most flexible puzzle with time. Users will work together to complete a list of silly tasks or challenges and compete to unlock a gift or experience.
No puzzles or riddles. Silly Scavenge is designed as a performance, where you’ll be doing some creative problem solving together or with strangers!
Very open-ended! The storyline comes as more of a prompt, but you don’t necessarily have to stay immersed in something.

Silly Scavenge Example

Alex and Kate love to travel the world together on motorbikes, so I made them a french new wave inspired puzzle that challenged them to create a short film together about adventure! Their invitation was a movie poster, and their game piece was a clapperboard and film canister that gave out prompts.

Riddle Me This ($200+ depending on interactives)

Riddle Me This is full of logic puzzles, rhyming riddles, trivia, and code cracking that takes users from location to location.
Depending upon your interactivity choice, this hunt could have you in contact with a special person with whom you’ll need to submit proof to move on to your locations.
Great idea for folks who like cracking codes, doing a little math, and who are comfortable spending time trying to solve something.
Riddle Me This is usually a little more thought out in terms of location choices and storyline.

Riddle Me This Example

This was a gift to Kat, who was described as someone who is good at a lot of different things. So I turned them both into undercover detectives and put them at the center of an Agatha Christie inspired mystery. Their origin story was incorporated heavily into the hunt, so side quests included things like getting ordained online at a church themed bar.

Since they were also extroverts, I included puzzles that had them interacting with strangers. Each stop they got little cards that was a clue to solving the whodunnit.

A Hero's Quest ($300+)

This one is an immersive world building narrative that puts the users on a journey that's both a quest to find something/someone and a quest to grow themselves!
This structure is one that's kind of like Riddle Me This on steroids. You are working to solve puzzles, but you might also get videos with voice actors, technological components, tasks that require you to use a skill you possess, or building/making.
This one is great for people who love using their imaginations, treasure seeking, and are ok with being challenged with an additional story arc.

Hero's Quest Example

Name

First Name

Last Name

Email

Subject

Message

Bri and Jai are in an LDR and described themselves as always being in separate time zones. So I turned them into time traveling space cowboys (one from the past/one from the future) who were both looking for a hidden utopia. The person from the past had a physical map and decoder, and the person from the future had a watch with a QR code that linked to an AR component. So the picture you see of the map is actually a physical one with an AR filter so they could only see the picture together.