Behind the Scenes: Episode 11
We’re always pushing the envelope with Escape Mail… that’s what makes it fun for you and for us!
If we’re not trying something new or different, if we’re not taking risks, then we’re not at our best.
I’m happy to reflect on our time making Episode 11 with satisfaction knowing we did some new things we’d never done before:
We shot footage entirely outside, and based all the puzzles outdoors as well
Paul learned how to fly a drone
JJ learned how to drive an ATV
Eric learned how to draw on a digital drawing pad
Vlad experimented with a new ink security feature
Carolyn flexed her welding muscles
And we trespassed (okay, not super proud of that, and the confrontation with the landowner was more than uncomfortable, but that’s another story for another time…)
Episode 11 joins JJ back in the real-time storyline on Joro Island. We’re glad to see he’s okay after a nasty bonk and we’re also excited to see the actual scenery on Joro.
Of course, being a fictional place, we opted to use our local “Badlands” (Drumheller) as the backdrop. We were super happy with how it turned out! What a cool spot.
From a creator’s standpoint, there were a few goals we had for this episode:
We wanted an outdoor puzzling experience
We hoped to give you a play-by-play feeling, similar to Episode 9
We wanted to tee up the final episode well
Did we accomplish it? What were some of the complexities in development? Let’s dive in :)
Storyline
Episode 9 was the last time we saw JJ.
He was not in a good way, and we had to endure Episode 10 with and its painful revelation.
So we join back up with JJ, and while he seems to being doing well, he doesn’t know where to start, and he also seems to have looped in a character we might have deemed unwise - Hans is in the picture.
Is Hans' able to contribute some helpful information? Would JJ have been able to accomplish his mission without Hans? These questions are up for debate, but the fact is, Hans is along for the ride too now.
As you help JJ, you realize something crucial about the treasure - although it seems all is lost, there really just might be hope after all.
At one point we were going to have JJ get himself into a REALLY bad situation:
As you may or may not know, he does not experience the bear trap catastrophe, but it was an idea we had. The puzzle we still might try for another game at a later date:
The basic idea is asking you, the puzzler, to assemble a cylindrical maze (mentally) and navigate the maze in that unusual dimension.
We didn’t go for it, but maybe another time! So what did we include?
Puzzle Components
We wanted to harken back to the award-winning passport in Episode 4, so we went with a notebook and added a ‘special’ cheque in the mix. That cheque features a technology that we’d been waiting to use for MONTHS. We think its so cool, and almost every time I walk past the stack of cheques in our office, I experiment with the feature. I just love it.
The notebook also contains a new art style that we’d never done: the digital drawing pad. This allowed us to create a black-ink-pen style that was easy to learn and made sense with the medium.
It’s definitely a minimalist episode, and yet there’s plenty of content in the notebook to digest and interpret.
Because there was plenty of experimentation going on here, we didn’t include every idea. One of those concepts that did not make the cut almost certainly will another time:
The idea is to make you, the puzzler, have to stretch or expand something in order to interpret the information being concealed.
Again, it’s an idea for another time and another place.
Reflections
We love trying new things.
And even though we didn’t use or feature some of the things we tried, they mark a learning journey/process for us as creatives.
It’s a tension for us though, because as we commit to you in regards to deadlines and performance, we recognize that there’s mistakes that are going to be made. I think we’re getting better at making estimates as to what the learning journey might look like and creating a grace-space or buffer zone for reasonable detours.
And on that note, thanks for going on that journey with us, and happy puzzling!