Behind the Scenes: Episode 10
Paul and I (Eric) are brothers-in-law.
I mention that because the first and foremost bond that unites us is family.
And the most pivotal person uniting us as a family up until this point had been Paul’s mom, Barb.
She is a character that has come up now a few times in this blog - for supporting us as individuals, remembering special dates, lending us tools and time, asking how we are doing. She supported us as brothers and as business partners.
It was during the production of Episode 10 that Barb passed away after struggling with cancer for over 2 years.
Barb never wanted to play any games with the family (not a big fan) but she loved watching her husband and kiddos play, hunkered down over a puzzle or board game. She would get so much satisfaction seeing us happy.
I (Eric) write this with tears in my eyes and hope to channel some of that same “Barb” energy to every single Escape Mailer. I want you to know that I, too, get immense satisfaction knowing that somewhere, in your part of the world, you’re gathered with loved ones, working together to solve problems. You’re immersed in a storyline, maybe you have some snacks and some music going, and you’re feverishly working out the solutions with pencil and paper, and reaching that ah-hah moment where you can celebrate together.
That’s what it’s all about for me.
So in this behind-the-scenes look, I want to honour Barb for the pivotal role she played (and still plays through her spirit) in our lives.
Storyline
Episode 10 - unlike every episode before it - does NOT pick up where Episode 9 left off.
This episode is an uncharacteristic jump back in time 9 months previous.
The package is sent to you in the present time - with Hans of the Hunters explaining why he needs to send this document to you - even though the document isn’t a relevant piece in the development of the real-time narrative, it helps him gain your trust, or so he hopes.
Simply put: it’s a backstory episode.
That’s not the only unique thing about it though. We did a BUNCH of things differently on this one:
Backstory takes you out of the fast-paced narrative of Season 1 and into a “revelation” of characters and their story.
For the first time ever we introduced some Augmented Reality technology into the experience, in line with our ever expanding desire to make dynamic envelope.
All solutions take place on paper, with only one simple code at the very end. And speaking of paper, thanks to the thinness of newspaper, we were able to send you more content than you’d ever received from us before.
The sheer length of the episode is almost double what you were used to getting at this point - 2-3 hours of solving!
There’s one article in the newspaper that contains no puzzles, and gives some WAY-back backstory on Alfred’s escapades as a whaler-turned-pirate.
Puzzle Components
In Episode 10 you get a newspaper (8 “pages” or 2 “spreads”) as well as tracing paper, an intro letter, and a clued envelope.
The newspaper is the main event without a doubt.
One thing that surprised us is that while a newspaper isn’t “original” (shout out to our friends at Bluefish Games and Scarlet Envelope) we were able to give it a unique feel.
And people LOVED it!
I especially feared a “its been done before” response, but overwhelmingly this is one of, if not THE best reviewed episodes of Escape Mail to date.
One of the key reasons for that is the collaboration with Kristy. In this episode, Kristy really flexed her “classic puzzle” knowledge, the breadth of which is truly impressive.
Together, we came up with the final key phrase, as well as how to disguise and gate it so that it could not be solved prematurely.
That part took some serious figuring out.
We gave the final solution a curious location, so that even when you “had” it, you wouldn’t think to look for it. It was a gamble, but to date, we’ve yet to hear of anyone by-passing the puzzles and finding the answer part-way through.
That’s the risk with all-physical puzzles. In a digital game we can gate things behind software, but in a paper game, we have to ensure the codification is sufficiently scrambled at every step.
I was also pleased that we FINALLY got to use tracing paper. We’d been wanting to for months and just couldn’t find a use for it - until now. So that was satisfying :)
We packed more envelopes than ever before, the evidence of which was not hard to see. Kristina’s hands were even ink-ier!
Reflections
Looking back, I’m glad the Augmented Reality worked out. It was very tricky to make work, and we tried a bunch of solutions, but in the end, I’m happy with it.
The newspaper was incredibly effective, and I’m glad for that too.
I’m grateful for Kristy’s help, and loved how Svetlana rose to the occasion in her dramatic conclusion.
Thanks for all your reviews on Episode 10. We appreciate you.
PS. We also build a new storage solution for our episodes since things were getting a little hectic in the shop. What do you think?
