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 Forum index » Meta » Puppetmaster Help
Physical puzzles/hunts
Moderators: imbri
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Robotguy
Boot


Joined: 20 Sep 2009
Posts: 28
Location: Sacramento, CA

 		Physical puzzles/hunts
My background (skip if you like)
Quote:
I just discovered ARGs and UF, but I have been working on creating puzzle hunts for a couple of years now. I made a 10 step puzzle hunt for my pre-teen girls incorporating geo-location, Morse code, book ciphers, invisible UV ink, etc. Unfortunately, despite the promise of $100 in gold coins as a prize, they weren't interested enough in puzzles to stick with it. Then I tried to incorporate these types of puzzles into geocaching and am currently working on a cache that is only available at midnight under the light of a full moon and a set of caches that form a steampunk/zombie puzzle hunt. However many of the puzzle types I am interested in creating don't fit well with geocaching.


I am really interested in creating physical puzzles using things like invisible ink, color changing paint, electronics and sensors (e.g. a type of physical sudoku that requires blocks to be placed correctly to open a box). I already have several notebooks full of ideas and designs. I have done quite a bit of searching through the forums over the last several days but haven't had much luck finding appropriate search filters, so I would like to pose two questions here:

1. Do "tradidtional" ARGs extend into the physical world often enough that anyone would be interested in help with these types of puzzles?

2. Have you seen many physical puzzle hunts (a la "The DaVinci Code", running around town following clues) and if so how are they usually advertised/recieved? (Also any pointers to related forum topics, blog posts, etc. would be greatly appreciated.)

Thanks in advance for any info.
Robotguy

PostPosted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 3:58 pm
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		I'm just a few miles East of you and would love to collaborate on this kind of thing.

I've done some caching and have done some puzzle caches for stuff like GPSTheGame. I've often wanted to do more physical puzzles, but the methods I wanted to use (Using water to float the cache so it can be retrieved, etc.) didn't play well with the cachers I tested them with. Mostly, they had trouble making the transition from paper-based puzzles to using other tools/means to progress. Even something as simple as a scytale left people baffled.

I also enjoy creating puzzle boxes and have sent them to some folks around here for Christmas, and whatnot.

Not sure what you're asking in your first question, exactly.

But for the 2nd, there are, sometimes, opportunities to get out and run around. Everything from the one-time drop collection for a game to things of a more structured nature like Jejune Institute, which is a bit more "The Game/Shinteki" like.
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 4:44 pm
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catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
Rogi Ocnorb wrote:
...(Using water to float the cache so it can be retrieved, etc.) ...

Have you seen this hunt? Scroll down to the FAQ for their puzzle example:
http://outdooroutreach.org/puzzlepursuit.htm#Can_I_see_a_sample_puzzle

Links for some things mentioned above:
http://www.shinteki.com/
http://www.gpsthegame.com/

As for "The Game" games, the SF Bay Area is a hotbed of teams who put on elaborate hunts that last an entire weekend. Shorter versions of that sort of challenge crop up with names like B.A.N.G. and D.A.S.H. and BATH --- and that's just local, with SNAP in Seattle. I fell down a rabbithole a year ago just reading about this sport! Scroll down this page by Team Snout for links to more examples of past games, media coverage, and archives from their annual GC (Game Control) Summit.

PostPosted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 2:28 am
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