The game I played last week for this was Escape the Room: Mystery at the Stargazer’s Manor, it was made by Rebecca Bleau and Nicholas Cravotta and published by ThinkFun in 2016. The game does not have a digital form, only existing as a set of physical playing materials in board game form. Much like a real-life escape-room experience, narrative enters the story via broad goals shared by the players (escape, find the stargazer, and make sure he’s ok), and through conflicts pushed by player movement (eg “unlocking” the door to the mansion locks you in immediately). Solving the puzzles fit in as environmental discovery and exploration to progress the plot. However, the setup/design of the puzzles and their usability felt out of place for us and made it hard for us to enjoy the game fully. Furthermore, in comparison to the game we played for the puzzle game critical play (with the same people), we agreed unanimously that it did not feel as cohesive (EXIT: The House of Riddles) or enjoyable.
Narrative enters the story through solving puzzles to unlock “environmental” exploration. The way the game works is that there are 5 envelopes. You start with a scene card (which is a plot explanation and tells you which envelope to pick up next). Then, in order to progress from there, one must solve the puzzles on the cover of the envelope to unlock its contents, which include additional game pieces and a new scene card. These scene cards serve to progress the narrative and environmental storytelling by setting up the characters involved in this current scenario and how it fits into the greater theme of saving this Stargazer. Similar to the EXIT game we played last time, these scene cards are rather linear and are predetermined “congratulations” for solving the previous room and entering the new one. Furthermore, the game pieces you unlock act as a simulation of the environment. For example, there are gear systems we set up, star maps to analyze, and library shelves to examine. It does feel like every envelope pushes you further into the depths of the Stargazer’s home and trying to find the exit.
Above: Stargazer’s Labyrinth through game pieces
However, the way the puzzles are setup, solved, and guided are not as enjoyable or easily navigable to the plot. This was our biggest critique. First, every puzzle is indicated by its own symbol on the outermost part of the wheel. Then, the way you solve a puzzle is by finding the appropriate symbol for each of the colors of the puzzle, and spinning the wheel to match those symbols. If the wheel reveals the same symbol of the puzzle in one of the holes on the inside of the wheel after you align your answers, then you solved the puzzle. Shown below, for eg, the inside of the solution wheel matches the puzzle we were trying to solve (the plate-looking one).
Match plate icon to inside of wheel.
First of all, this system is very easy to game, as you can spin the wheel to find your symbol if you only have a subset of the colors solved (which we had to resort to). For example, a more non-gameable way would be to use a deck of cards to check the answer. Secondly, unlike EXIT (game from puzzles critique), there were no hints. If your team was stuck, that was it. Some puzzles were rather difficult (which is fun), but after struggling for a while, we’d realize it would be because certain pieces weren’t placed in the envelope but the next one. This became a pattern as we realized that certain pieces started in one envelope but would be used throughout (eg star map). And certain pieces would be introduced first in an envelope, but have no use there, and then only called back much later. It made the whole gameplay much more confusing. We also weren’t sure if it was just because the previous team didn’t put it back the right way. Maybe if the scene cards had mentioned what pieces one would expect in the current envelope they were in, it would be less confusing. The order of the envelopes was also rather confusing, as the scene card would not explicitly tell you which one to go to next. This would be fine if the only pieces included in each envelope were those that were relevant, but with so many random future referencing pieces, it was difficult to focus on the correct envelopes. As a mystery game (rather than evaluated as a puzzle game), it also is rather sad that there were no actual mystery to solve in the end. It was mainly puzzles throughout and a linear storyline to reveal the answer at the end. As an escape room however, it does seem to fit the typical structure. We played with a subset of the same people from the previous gameplay for puzzles, so the team dynamics and cooperation we had made this a more fair comparison I think. We mutually concluded that the game, with its confusing setup of puzzles (it’s core mechanic), was not as enjoyable as before.
A harder puzzle we would’ve liked hints on, we figured out half of it eventually.
5 envelopes
As for the accessibility features, because it’s a board game and not a physical escape room, it reduces issues that one may have navigating a physical space (eg lighting, mobility within the space, etc). However, there is a large reliance on colors for the solution space. For someone who is colorblind, this may not be accessible. There are no shapes to rely on in place of color, as shapes are used to answer the color’s part of the solution wheel.
