A New Way For Everyone To Play
Outdoor Escape Room Comes to the Island.
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Window Panes Home and Garden.
BAR HARBOR—He calls it an “Acadian adventure for your brain.”
It’s zany. It’s collaborative. It gets you out of the house. And, it might just get you a little bit closer to your friends or family.
A local man wishing only to be known as Professor Puzzles has started an outdoor escape room business on Mount Desert Island.
According to an article on WhatNerd by Joel Lee, “escape rooms present a kind of tangible test of one's mental acuity that you won't find elsewhere.”
Escape rooms—even when the room is outside—require deduction, teamwork, and creativity as players solve a puzzle.
So far, Professor Puzzles has created bike and vehicle trips that are perfect for groups of people but can be accomplished by just a duo. There are clues, goofy penalties, and sleuthing involved. As they journey from point to point, players are encouraged to talk and think in ways that they might not normally.
Will you be asked to woof like a dog while trying to find a clue? Potentially, but not quite.
Will you be asked to talk about what your favorite color is and what that color smells like? It’s likely.
To access the game, players head to the website, download a pdf and are encouraged to save that pdf in case they lose cellular service, which is a constant threat on Mount Desert Island.
Professor Puzzles said he started the company for a couple of reasons.
“I’ve always felt that people should be playing in the national parks. That’s what they’re there for. I see people recreating there, sure; they hike and they bike and they birdwatch and all that. Which is great, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t remember the last time I saw adults out playing: yelling and laughing and being silly and screwing around,” he said. “Our national parks are the best places in the world for that. Or they should be. This is my effort to get people to play.”
The games are a combination of goofy and clever. There is a final cipher that the clues lead to. And there are penalties that may or may not involve mewing like a cat or singing. Cleverness and goofiness, Professor Puzzle aspires to. Authoring a game is a different kind of creation.
“It’s a strange form of authorship, writing these games. Normally an author writes for individual readers, who will be engaging with the writing one on one, In the privacy of the reader’s mind,” Professor Puzzles said. “These games are meant to be read with a group, in public, reading the game together. It feels much more like being an emcee than a traditional author. And so I do find myself adopting a persona in that role. I hope that persona comes off as equally goofy and clever.”
It does.
Professor Puzzles’ authorial voice is quirky, a tiny bit sarcastic like that third-person omniscient narrator that narrates books like A Series of Unfortunate Events.
That voice is evidenced even in the website where he’ll write, “Did you get stuck? No cell service in the magic forest? No problem. Hints for every puzzle are provided in your download. We made it difficult, but doable.”
“I’m also fascinated with the concept of an ‘unreliable narrator’ in literature. I keep coming back to that while writing games,” he said. “I hope there’s a fun sense of tension for the players, always wondering if they can take things at face value, or if the game is screwing with them.”
The game might be, but only in a way that is delightful and mischievous and a result of Professor Puzzles’ imagination.
Each game is a different experience for each player, but overall, there are some things that he’d like people playing them to come away with.
“I’d really like it to be something people remember forever about their trip here,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of traveling, and I’m sad to realize how quickly memory fades as the years go by. I like to believe that a madcap day of romping around the magic forest with your friends will stick with a person as the decades roll by.“
They’ll come away with memories, that’s for sure, and they’ll come away with a bit of playful, collaborative fun. It’s hard to think of anything better than that.
SOME FACTS FROM THE WEBSITE:
“Wait. What? An outdoor escape room? How does this work?
“That’s three questions. Calm down.
“It’s very much like an escape room. Except, without the escape theme. And there’s no room. And there’s no time limit. So… ok, it’s only a little like an escape room. But here’s how it works:
”You select your game, based on the type of experience you’re looking for (car, ebikes, hiking, etc.) You buy it, download the file to your phone, and follow the directions. Depending on which game you select, You will be given EITHER a starting location, where you can find your first puzzle, OR you will be given a starting puzzle, to be done wherever you happen to be standing. The solution to each puzzle gives you the location of the next puzzle, along with any other game objectives or challenges you may encounter. In this way, you will tour certain parts of the park; In some games, perhaps discovering locations you’ve never been to before. In others, you’ll visit old favorites in new ways.”
How many players can play?
Up to four players
What should people pack?
“Gameplay requires a cell phone, and your downloaded game file.
“Beyond that, you should bring all the things you’d pack for a normal outing of whatever type of adventure you pick (A bike trip, a hiking trip, or a car trip.) You should bring drinking water and sunscreen, an extra layer or two, good outdoor shoes, a small med kit, snacks, etc. Games are designed to occupy your team for between several hours and a full day, depending on which game you select. Plan and pack accordingly.
”(No, seriously, bring drinking water. You wouldn’t believe how often the rangers have to go rescue people simply because they didn’t bring water. Remember: A happy mountaineer pees clear.)”
LINK TO LEARN MORE
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