There is really nothing which can stop any person from creating interesting and challenging adventure or escape game to spend an amazing time together with your friends or relatives.
Such game could be an extraordinary experience to all participants and can be an exceptional event in the list of an ordinary activities we live every day. Full generations grew up on adventure stories and films starting with classical french writers Jules Verne and Alexandre Dumas with their blowing mind adventure stories until “Indiana Jones” and “Star trek” movies which immortalized their producers in cinema history. We strongly believe that all these still relevant today and that’s why we created our portal. We strongly
believe that despite “virtualization” there will be always people who will seek for adventure, challenges and puzzles and not only in the video games or cinema but involving surroundings and physical objects transforming the game to the reality. So if you’re after Sherlock, Jack Sparrow, Indiana Jones or any other adventure story our portal is for you and using our experience we would like to share some ideas which can be used while creating your own game.
The Idea
The idea for the game might depend on the occasion you have: is it birthday or marriage party? Is it for kids or adults. Is it Valentine’s Day present? Maybe you want to make your visit to one of the museums during your vacation with your family more exciting and educational?
Chose a story line based on the theme which is favorite for the participants and will excite them of experiencing it in a real life
The Object
Once theme of the game is decided, think about the object which needs to be found. It can be in the same way physical or virtual object. For example pirate party can be seeking for the location of buried gold in your garden. For visiting in Louvre it can be discovery mysterious object of Da Vinci. For Valentine’s Day or any other birthday – object might be the present itself. Actually ANYTHING can be presented in format of the game, but the process of seeking it will make it unforgettable. And that’s our aim.
Environment
After you decided theme and the object the next step is to consider environment. Do you plan it in house? Does it have garden? Do you plan it on the streets of the city? What time in a day – is it dark or sunny? All that can impact your plans. Think carefully as even small detail which unexpectedly changed (for example it’s started raining) might heavily impact your game.
This a reason why in our portal we make it possible to change game conditions at any time so you’re flexible to adjust to the changes around you.
Number of people 
Consider number of people which will play. We do not recommend many people sharing same game as it will be difficult to produce equal engagement to discuss solution and being part of the team. Instead, in case you have enough members to play, produce a competitive game where group of participants (teams) will compete each other with a target to reach the object first.
Tasks 
Most complex part is to create tasks which will be challenging and interesting one side and on another will not frustrate people from not being able to crack it. So it will be very helpful to provide hints which can be used in case person is struggling to provide right answer. We implemented a functionality giving a capability to provide hints to the participant.
Generally it’s good practice to keep tasks fitting to your theme so overall picture of “augmented reality“ will not be disturbed. So if you hunting pirate treasure keep task related to pirates life and attributes. If you run a street game based on “Assassin’s creed” – keep all task being a “dangerous mission”. For Harry Potter fans it’s not necessary to re-use original book but preferable to keep a “magic ambience” of the storyline.
Here is list of simple tricks and objects which potentially can be used in any standard household:
♦ Mirror♦
An amazing object for any types of game activities. It can be used to:
- Identify target objects visible in the mirror
- Read mirrored inscriptions
- Hold inscriptions using invisible ink
♦ Invisible Ink ♦
There are two types of invisible ink:
- You can buy very cheap inks almost in any online story and use it for you game on almost any surface
- Lemon and Fire – create amazing hidden inscriptions on the paper simply writing using lemon acid. And heating paper afterwards using matches or stove. Note: this is of course not recommended for kids unless it’s done under full observation of adults
♦ Keys/Doors/Locks ♦
Almost any adventure story requires to open some door behind which you will find all treasures of the world
- Use simple master lock with numbers where each number might be hidden in a separate question to crack
- Mix different keys matching different doors and make players finding the proper key answering questions which will lead to the decision which key to use
♦ Rooms ♦
Create an association between hosting place and attributes around you into something which will match your theme. Players will need to understand what is meant here. For example
- Name kitchen as a “galley on the pirate ship”
- Entrance to the house as “entrance to wonderland”
- Or Museum into old castle with guards around you which you need to escape
There is absolutely no limit on things which can be created and any location can be converted into imaginary ambience which will match your theme.
♦ Inscriptions ♦
This is absolutely favorite attribute and used in most of successful adventure stories.
- Inscription can be a trigger to the game, depends on the way you present it to the participant (about presentation please read more here)
- Inscription can contain special letters which might be used to find and combine keyword
- Inscription can miss some letters, address or coordinates which need to be discovered to get progress to the next level
- Inscription can be given in special signs/code which needs be cracked based on some key
Here you can get inspired by Treasure Island, Sherlock or many other stories using this as a base for story line.
♦ Navigation ♦
We can distinguish 2 major types of location based:
- Location using modern GPS systems which can be very useful in street games so person will need to find some objects using capabilities of modern navigations
- Compass – for those who prefers old style navigation compass and “number of steps to the north from the old tree” could be great experience for discovering things. Please note if you go for this option we recommend you not to go for cheapest option, as such compass can’t be trusted for stability
♦ Design ♦
Attributes design – we’re producing games ourself and designing it in the way attributes are fit to the game theme. We invite you to get inspiration from our materials or party design recommendation we’ve produced. As a great example – physically burnt map can be great attribute for many types of adventure games
♦ Virtual objects ♦
Our days virtual objects can be used as any other attribute to be part of the game
- As an example post in Facebook with some hint can be used as part of the game
- Or link to website with physical address or coordinates on google map can create nice collaboration between reality and virtual objects
♦ Personalization ♦
One of the main factors of the game which might fully engage participant and add final “touch” to the game. You can use personal details, sometimes known only for particular participant which will transform it to be very special for him.
There are of course many more possibilities or attributes to convert your game into special event and we keep it for your imagination to implement them.
Kids
Such games are natively interested for kids while almost any type of event for kids can be celebrated this way. Additional value for kids it’s educational part of the game which can be a real benefit and fun. That’s why we decided to focus on those games. Actually any subject can be covered even in one theme: history, math, geography, language and more and more.
Additional benefit is possibility of engagement between parents and kids to play this game together and have joined experience of adventure. We really recommend parents to rethink using standard approach of booking simple “playhouse event” but instead doing something fun and inspiring together with kids.
Presentation of the game
After all is ready, despite you created the game using our portal or on piece of paper, it’s a time to share the game. This process is very important to create proper mood from very beginning.
You can refer to some ideas matching thematic games we produced or use general suggestions listed below:
- Send an invitation to the game either by email or letter designed in the way so it supports theme of your event
- Use barcodes which will lead to the game location or any message which be an “entrance” to the game
- Deliver mystery inscriptions. It can be a letter, inscription on the mirror or mystery email with instructions how to enter the game . Social networks are good option and it gives an option to make it public if needed
Actually there’s unlimited number of options to create an unforgettable event and enrich life of your friends and relatives with more inspiration, fun and adventures.
Inspiration, Fun und Adventures – That is a target of our project and we hope it will support all your needs to bring it live.