THE Making OF the Games

Does anyone know when Rube’s Conundrum I will be released? I sure would. It was slated for last spring, then this summer, then this fall, then before Christmas… but life goes on. There is no one more annoyed at the slowness of our progress than Rob or me, but as it turns out, things take time and life gets in the way. I thought it would be helpful to give people a little background, especially those who are thinking, “What the heck?!? What ARE those two doing in there? Are they ever going to finish the new room?”

I will say we are trying. Rob and I develop all of our rooms from scratch. They begin with an inkling, a twinkling theme that emerges slowly into a sketch book rantings with fantastical puzzle ideas and unfiltered Escher-type plans that may or may not be possible to actually construct. We visit the dump, aka “the Winhall Mall” looking for oddities. These stimulate new ideas and create completely new puzzle scenarios. It may seem weird to some, but trash is our muse. We wonder if people visiting our room ever recognize their discarded wares, and if so if it brings them joy to see their new life.

If we were to generalize our own roles in the creation of these rooms, some might say that I (Erica) invent the story line and puzzles and Rob builds it. This is not really a perfect break down though. Both of us contribute to the inventing and building of the place in every way. We just come with our own set of strengths. My own day job is as a designer (a landscape architect) and Rob is a mainly a builder/painter. Our life roles sort of set us up well for this business. Its our own creative extension of our expertise, when we can fit it in. We still have those day jobs to answer to, that is until we can make this place a more year-round attraction.

I don’t mean to lay out all of our personal woes for the world to see but I think that in explaining some things, it can help people understand our situation more. This particular year, unfortunately has been fraught with some hard personal losses that has taken a toll on our timeline. We have been to more friends’ funerals than we like to count, additionally in two horrible blows, I lost both my grandmother and father. Rob’s mother was entered into hospice. The grieving has been very hard. To say it has slowed us down would be an understatement.

In more positive work detractions, also had some unexpected travel. Our daughter Juniper, who attends the Stratton Mountain School on the freestyle team was going to Norway to train on the glaciers there last July. We started thinking on how much we had always wanted to see Norway, and how important it is to seize the day (all things that happened this year considered). A little research stirred up some very affordable tickets to Oslo and the next thing we knew, Rob and I were there too. We rented a car, hiked some mountains, swam in the fjords… It was well worth the trip, but it did slow down our progress a bit.

In terms of our intended finish date for Rube’s Conundrum, I will say we are very, very close. Anyone who has come to play our Escape Christmas room will have seen the workspace for Rube’s Conundrum in a state of quickly sorted chaos. Often times, up to 1/2 hour before new guests arrive, we will have the chop saw set up, drills and screw guns everywhere, sawdust and wood pieces up to our ears. We have grown accustomed to these frantic clean-ups, full-speed vacuums, wood stacking, ladder moving, hand-swipe-styled dusting. Sometimes people say, “Wow! It smells like fresh cut wood in here!”

Rob and I chuckle to ourselves. If only they had seen this space 10 minutes before.

When will we open? Well… This is the most complicated build we have done so far with more sophisticated Arduino-driven puzzles and magical locks then ever before. There are a LOT of moving parts here, which means a lot can go wrong. We keep testing and testing and testing again. Every failure requires a rebuild. Every rebuild requires more time. We apologize to the people whose games we have had to reschedule, and those who are waiting patiently. We are so grateful for the support of the community of players who come again and again to be challenged, if just for an hour. You are the reasons why we do this. You are who keep us in business. Thank you.

If you’ve read this far and are still engaged, then maybe you’d be interested in signing up to be a Beta tester for our new room. We have ten slots available.