Post #9 When the rabbit hole beckons…
So, if you read my last blog post, you’ll understand that Cruise Monkey Games has gone through quite a metamorphosis. The reason being that I am completely incapable of focusing on one thing for very long periods of time. That’s what the SOS post was all about, shiny object syndrome. (You can read it here)
At any rate, Cesar and I have changed course a bit and we are designing… Well, we’re having a hard time putting a title on it. You know, if you go play an escape room you’re inside trying to find something and then get out? We’re making giant boxes in which the goal is to solve puzzles, get in, find the object and win the game. Escape boxes? Escape game/puzzle boxes? We’re not quite sure what to call them yet but if you look on the rest of the website here you’ll see that we have six different ideas for these boxes.
Moriarty’s mayhem is underway, at least a mini version of it. By the time you read this, we may have already taken it to Strategicon Gateway over Labor Day weekend (Editorial Note: Nope, we both came down with Covid and we couldn’t get it finished in time … we’ll have it ready for Orccon in February). Well, Mini Mayhem is a small box that looks like a steam punk/animatronic face which it is. You solve puzzles using clues and when you’re all done if you win the game, you get a rubber banana (or maybe chocolate … show up and see).
Our initial idea was to make an escape room that we could set up in a remote location. Tables, cabinets and puzzles, all pointing towards an end goal we would set this up in peoples homes, offices, or wherever the fun was happening. We were even going to take it to Strategicon and set it up there. Because God watches over fools and small children, we were fortunate enough to have a dinner meeting with a gentleman named Tommy Honton, who is an absolute genius when it comes to escape rooms. If you’re an aficionado, I highly recommend a room here in Los Angeles for which he is responsible called “Stash House”. I played it with a group of friends a number of years ago and it’s really good.
Tommy gave us some great advice. He said a lot of people have done mobile escape rooms, but you folks have some skills that are kind of unique. People love to open things up and get surprised. You should build some big boxes where people solve puzzles, open up doors and find things inside. We thought that was a genius idea. So the first thing we did is we put Tommy in our will… (Humor). At any rate, we thought it was an absolutely fantastic idea and our brains started going a mile a minute which is the reason there are six concepts on this website, and at best we have one of them completed underway. Also, our focus will primarily be corporate team building. If you’re reading this, and you know a company that is into this sort of thing, please forward on our web address. The advantage we offer is easy logistics, we come to you. Give us an empty office, meeting room or conference room and we’ll have your employees doing one of the most fun activities they ever participated in. We’ll even give the teams some feedback on how they did.
Next August on the 18th and 19th RECON 2024 will be coming to Los Angeles. It is likely the biggest escape room conference in the country. It is put on by Room Escape Artist, whose alter egos are David and Lisa Spira; and a whole big crew of other folks. We are hoping to have a booth in the vendor hall and show off our wares. I know, I know, man plans and God laughs but you have to start somewhere. We have a surprise for that event that if we can pull it off will definitely get noticed. Okay, don’t want to jinx us. (But it will be pretty cool).
We still have our board and card games. One Letter Better is just about ready for a product launch of some kind or another. If you want to get on the mailing list, click here. If you just want more info, click here. If you want us to send you a million dollars, click here. ………. Yep, some of you did, I saw that. Seriously? No, we don’t have that kind of money. Yet.
So that is the rabbit hole in which we find ourselves at the moment, but the promise of a potentially lucrative business moves us forward. Tune in next week because at the rate I get blog posts finished we will probably have already finished Mini Mayhem by the time it appears in print. Thanks for following along, have a great day and be nice to someone.