For the last episode of 2021, I am joined by Chris Waters, the creator of Constructed Adventures! We talk about his epic adventure creating business, the importance of community, and just how much metaphorical duck tape it takes to create a seemingly perfect experience.
If you are curious about his experiences, do check out his website at https://www.constructedadventures.com/
139 - Props with Haley Moore
How can props help enhance an experience? What stories can they tell? And how awesome are animatronics? This week Haley Moore shares her passion for prop making! If you’d like to see some of the other amazing creations she has been involved in, check out her website at toenolla.com!
138 - Mechanics with Next Level Escapes
This week I am joined by Leanne Yong and Aaron Hooper of Next Level Escapes to discuss our non-escape room inspirations when creating designs! There are…many tangents in this one.
137 - Redesigning Your Game with Diorama's Ruud Kool
Apologies for the delay!
This week I talk with Ruud Kool of Diorama Games! We talk about the experience of translating and redesigning his first game, The Vandermist Dossier (originally the Boekanier Dossier), and how the design process is never truly done. This game is currently on Kickstarter, so don’t miss your chance to get your copy!
DISCLAIMER: I was involved with some of the narrative development of this game.
Visit Kickstarter to back this project.
Visit Diorama Games to see their other projects!
136 - VR with James Cobalt
This week Manda is joined by James Cobalt to discuss the wonders of VR and their impact on puzzle games and escape rooms. Manda might talk about Beatsaber too much.
Follow James to keep up to date about his new escape room facility (yet another reason to go to RECON next year).
135- Rita Orlov and Non-linear Game Design
Manda is back and kicking off the REDiva season with the ever so talented Rita Orlov to talk about nonlinear game design and her upcoming Kickstarter for her latest project: Light in the Mist.
Visit postcurious.com to keep up to date on the Kickstarter campaign and to check out some awesome content!
134 - Forensic Accounting and Escape Rooms with Leah Wietholter
Manpans and Errol talk to Leah Weitholter, a fraud investigator who made an escape room inspired game to help teach forensic accounting and fraud investigation!
Errol has a difficult time containing himself with this shorter podcast. Find out about her work, her podcast, and the game at https://www.workmanforensics.com/.
133 - Rants about Online Immersive Escape Rooms
Sorry, it’s been a long time since the last update! Manda and Errol are joined by Lee-Fay and rant about a particular immersive adventure. Totally living up to their diva nature.
132 - REDivas Discuss Online Horror Escape Rooms
Manda, Ruby, Mike, and Errol are back together! At least while the baby sleeps. We talk about how escape rooms can help prepare for parenting, horror rooms, and all the tangents in between!
07 - Designer Spotlight Video: The Enigma Emporium
In this designer spotlight, we only have Errol because he left it until the last minute and no one else could make the time he booked! However he has a grand time chatting to Logan Giannini of The Enigma Emporium about design! They cover board games, puzzle games, escape room games, and running kickstarters!
We also learn all this new stuff about Logan! It was so exciting!
131 - Matthew Stein on Empathy-driven Puzzles
Manpans and Errol talk with professional puzzle designer Matthew Stein about empathy-driven puzzles and puzzle design in general. Huzzah! This is a pretty deep talk!
Matthew Stein (he/him) is a San Francisco-based puzzle designer, fiddler, composer, letterboxer, printmaker, origamist, and software engineer. With his company Enigmida, Matthew creates intricate puzzle hunts, alternate reality games, and puzzle-driven immersive experiences which aim to bring wonder to the mundane. To learn more, follow @enigmida on Instagram and subscribe to his newsletter.
06 - Designer Spotlight Video: Society of Curiosities
Manda and Errol have a wonderful chat with Michelle and Yacine of Society of Curiosities! Listen in as they tell us about pivoting from an Escape Room business to an online mail-order puzzle game company!
And there are chickens.
130 - Escape Rooms and Art with Tommy Honton
Manpans and Errol talk to Tommy Honton! Originally, it was going to focus on Stash House and his creations but then we started talking about art! So now that's the title!
05 - Designer Spotlight Video: Miss Jezebel
The Divas interview Brian Corbitt, who designed Miss Jezebel of 60out Escape Rooms. Miss Jezebel is rated as one of the top three online escape rooms by the 2020 TERPECAs, for good reason, and in this video, we get behind the scenes with its creator!
Also, we will endeavour to make all the videos as audio only as well, so it loads up into your podcast feed. Sorry about that!
129 - Room Escape Artist: Year End Reflections
The Divas chat with Lisa and David Spira about 2020 in escape rooms, and what's in store for Room Escape Artist in 2021!
This was recorded in front of a live audience! Huzzah! And you will be able to hear some of those people near the end as we all question REA about the escape room industry. So it’s unedited and given to you raw!
Also, there are minor spoilers in this podcast for Errol’s game Present Quest, so if you intend on playing it, you should do so first!
One last thing, even though we mentioned video, it didn’t record as we wanted, so this podcast is audio only. Here, however, is a wonderful screenshot of REA’s webpage when you search for eggs: