Room Escape Divas - Inverse Genius

Hello, friends. We have a somewhat sad announcement to make. This week will mark the final episode of the REDivas podcast. You may have noticed Mike, Ruby, and Errol haven’t been around the last year, as their lives have gotten busy. Although I have continued in the meantime and could continue the podcast alone, my own life has been getting busier and I felt it was time to finally retire it. And so for one last episode, we’ve gotten the old gang back together and returned to our very chaotic origins! Errol trolls everyone, everyone clips their audio at least three times, we talk about a couple of of our favourite moments, what we are doing right now, and some of our plans for the future (I’m certainly not done with podcasts yet!) Thank you so much to everyone who has listened, whether you have been with us since the beginning or are just joining now. Thanks to all of our guests through the years for providing insight and expertise to this ever growing industry. This podcast has lead to us meeting so many amazing people and do some amazing trips and projects. And of course thanks to Inverse Genius for hosting us, supporting us, and giving us some great tips along the way. Finally, I personally want to thank Mike, Ruby, and Errol for being such fantastic cohosts and friends (I tried to thank them in the podcast, but Errol’s trolling gets in the way). We will absolutely still be active in the community. Don’t worry, we have no intention of giving up escape rooms and puzzles any time soon! Episodes will still be available for download. And who knows. We might do an awful escape or do a crazy trip and just feel the need to record our reactions. Until that happens, though, here are some links of where you can find everyone and some other podcasts definitely worth your time. See you around the community! Manda: Twitter handle: mandawhitney Blog: mandawhitney.com Twitch: Manpans (Monday nights I stream mystery games) Errol- He is everyone. Shout and he will likely pop up. Mike Twitter handle: MikeYuan82 Other Podcasts: Reality Escape Pod: https://roomescapeartist.com/reality-escape-pod/ Escape This Podcast: https://www.escapethispodcast.com/ Infinite Escape Podcast: https://www.theinfiniteescaperoom.com/

This week I am joined once again by the esteemed Doctor Scott Nicholson to talk about his latest project with mEducation Alliance, EscapeIF! It’s a storytelling game system designed to create games for low resource classrooms. See the links below to find out more and try some out in your own classrooms! EscapeIF: http://escapeif.com mEducation Alliance: https://meducationalliance.org/ Global Proficiency Framework: https://www.edu-links.org/resources/global-proficiency-framework-reading-and-mathematics EscapeIF Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/escapeif Unlocking the Potential of Puzzle-based Learning book: https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/unlocking-the-potential-of-puzzle-based-learning/book271877

This week I discuss The Book of Dreams, an anthology puzzle book, headed up by Lee Ballan and including entries from an all star puzzle design team! As of this posting, you can still support their Indiegogo campaign, with all profits going to Doctors Without Borders! Don’t miss your chance to get a great puzzle book and support doctors around the world!

This week we get nostalgic about text adventures with Chris Ainsley, creator of Adventuron and a guest star appearance from Errol! If you are interested in creating text adventures, check out Adventuron’s site which also has info on an upcoming game jam!

This week I am joined by Mike “Auggie” Augustine to discuss the world of ciphers and many tangents on treasure hunts and ARGs! Much fun ensues.

This week I am joined by Laura E Hall! We discuss her book, Planning Your Escape, which both teaches the history of escape rooms (going alllllll the way back), and everything you need to know to become the ultimate enthusiast! We also go on this podcast’s most epic tangent yet. There is mystery! There is intrigue! There is even romance! You can find info about Laura, including her book, at her website.

This week I am joined by the powerhouse that is The Wild Optimists! Ariel Rubin and Juliana Morena Patel discuss their experience designing Time Drifters, a take home escape that can be played in separate households! Also discussed is their murder mystery series, Crimes & Capers, as well as tangents on the murder mystery genre, beta testing during COVID, and many…many 90’s references.

I am joined this week by the brilliant David Spira and Peih Gee Law of Reality Escape Podcast to reflect on 2021 and go down as many tangents as possible. Hope your 2022 is full of escaping fun so far! Check out Reality Escape Pod through Room Escape Artist’s site! https://roomescapeartist.com/reality-escape-pod/

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/

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!

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.

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!

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).

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!

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! \r\nErrol 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/.\r\n

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.\r\n

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!

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!

Manpans and Errol talk with professional puzzle designer Matthew Stein about empthy-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.

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.