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Alright, let’s wrap this up. Here are my Thoughts and Feelings about MIT Mystery Hunt 2015. Things I particularly liked about this year’s Mystery Hunt: Smoothness – From a player’s perspective, everything in this year’s hunt was executed flawlessly. Puzzle Presentation – I really liked the format of the World Map, which was a single webpage that got longer and longer as we discovered more puzzles. It was a perfect visual representation of our progress throughout the hunt, and it was fun to wonder what was coming up next or to see the beginning of a new round of puzzles appear. Visual Design…

  Our runaround began with a guide from Atlantis taking us across campus to meet the Kraken. We explained to the Kraken that we wanted some nautilodestones, and she went on to tell us all the reasons we weren’t worthy of taking anything from the sea, which was full of creatures way more awesome than us. In particular, the Kraken felt we were lacking in communication, perception, knowledge, friendship, and teamwork. If we could prove ourselves in each of these areas, we might be allowed to have a nautilodestone.

  Treasure Chest! This box was so exciting, the GC that delivered it to us stuck around because they wanted to see what was inside. The box was secured with some chain and a bunch of different locks, but GC said we could open it however we wanted. Someone quickly produced a screwdriver and removed the hinges for the lid, then slid the lid right out from under the chain! I was impressed.

  Friday On Friday morning, I got up early to continue what is now my tradition of helping prep our team headquarters for the hunt. I met Dan at the Kendall and we talked escape games for a bit before we drove over to MIT with a carload of snacks and supplies that Dan had bought the day before. (I also got a sneak peek at a fun surprise — Dan had made awesome custom buttons for everyone on the team to use as name tags!) Mike, Ben, and Will were the other early birds in the room, and I…

It’s been a week since the 2015 MIT Mystery Hunt ended, so now it’s recap time! Wednesday This year’s Hunt trip started on Wednesday for me. I had been wanting to play 5 Wits Adventures out in Foxboro since I heard about it a few years ago, but it’s far enough out from the Boston/Cambridge area that I’d have to get a rental car to make it out to play. Luckily, I’ve been working on developing a company (which doesn’t quite merit its own blog post yet) over the past year with a couple of puzzling friends and Mystery Hunt teammates, Summer…