“For new listeners, we hope it will be a great introduction to what the podcast is all about, and for our regular listeners, a reminder of the most interesting and impactful moments from Season 6.”

Already missing REPOD? Don’t worry, Season 7 of the podcast is launching very soon. In the meantime, our editor, Steve Ewing, put together some of his favorite clips from each episode of Season 6.

In Season 6, we interviewed a few guests with ties to the puzzle hunt world, including TERPECA founder Rich Bragg, puzzle constructor Eric Berlin, and Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska, of A.J. Jacobs’s The Puzzler Podcast.

We also explored unusual gameplay and immersive concepts with guests who are experimenting and innovating with their projects, including Christian Vernon and Zac MacKrell, creators of the replayable Doors of Divergence and Kellian and Brian Pletcher, creators of Club Drosselmeyer— an immersive, puzzling swing dance party. Plus Eric Wastl invented The Advent of Code, an advent calendar full of programming puzzles, and Lonnie Hanzon explained the intent behind his set designs at Camp Christmas.

We covered some fan favorite escape rooms, interviewing Summer Herrick of Locurio, Marie Huber and Nico César of Red Fox Escapes, and Mike Dold and Rick George of Doldrick’s. What I especially loved about these guests was how they explained the thought process behind their design decisions.

In our interview with Christine Barger we talk more about effective social media marketing than escape room design. She actively encourages guests to film in her game!

Season 6 also included episodes which were a departure from our normal interview style episodes, including my Halloween Spooktacular filled with games and stories, and hosting the hilarious crew from Hey Riddle Riddle to play through Shop of Theseus, our audio escape room from RECON 23.

If you want even more podcast episodes, consider joining our Patreon. For only $5 a month, you’ll get access to our Bonus Aftershow, which is a more casual conversation with each guest.

We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: Morty App, Buzzshot, and COGS. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.

Topics Discussed in this Episode

• 0:40 – Episode 1: Replayability & Branching Narratives with Christian Vernon and Zac MacKrell, Creators of Doors of Divergence: Christian and Zac talk about creating an escape room with a built-in replayability factor, including the challenges involved and the benefits it offers. They also discuss the special touch that live actors can add. 
• 6:10 – Episode 2: Hard With Pain: Rich Bragg, Creator of TERPECA: Rich talks about his escapades while creating and setting the Guinness Book of World Records for most escape rooms played in a 24-hour day.
• 13:50 – Episode 3: Pics or It Didn’t Happen with Christine Barger, The Haunt Girl: 13th Basement is one of the few escape rooms that allow players to photograph and film to their heart’s content. Christine addresses the main concerns other escape room owners have about allowing filming, and why they’re wrong.
• 20:50 – Episode 4: Hey Riddle Riddle Plays The Shop of Theseus: The hilarious crew from the popular podcast Hey Riddle Riddle take on the challenge of Shop of Theseus—the audio escape room designed for RECON 23.
• 28:25 – Episode 5: Halloween Spooktacular Special: Just in time for the Halloween season, Chris Lukeman from CU Adventures tells the spookiest escape room horror story.
• 37:05 – Episode 6: Nutcracker in Swing Time—Kellian & Brian Pletcher, Creators of Club Drosselmeyer: Club Drosselmeyer is an immersive swing dance party with puzzles. Kellian talks about how it all works.
• 43:20 – Episode 7: The Analytics of Fun—Great Escape Room Design with Marie Huber and Nico César, Owners of Red Fox Escapes: Marie and Nico go the extra mile to ensure their set decor is authentic, including modifying directional locks to look more antique.
• 47:55 – Sponsor Break: Morty, Buzzshot, and COGS by Clockwork Dog
• 50:00 – Episode 8: The Puzzling Adventures of Master Word Nerd Eric Berlin: Eric talks about the most famous story in puzzle hunt lore—the Be Noisy story.
• 55:51 – Episode 9: Advent of Code: 25 Days of Programming Puzzles with Creator Eric Wastl: Eric talks about The Advent of Code, a series of holiday themed programming puzzles, and he tells us how it works.
• 1:01:50 – Episode 10: The Magic of Maximalism with Lonnie Hanzon of Camp Christmas: Lonnie reminisces about working on his crazy, fantastical Christmas trees for Neiman Marcus and the shenanigans that happened on his reality TV show.
• 1:07:55 – Episode 11: The Art of Game Flow with Summer Herrick of Locurio: Summer talks about having played over 800 escape rooms, and how it makes her a better designer.
• 1:16:05 – Episode 12: Wood, Wire, & Whimsy— Mike Dold and Rick George of Doldrick’s: Mike and Rick talk about running an escape room business while raising a family with young children and struggling with the work/ life balance.
• 1:21:25 – Episode 13: Inside the Puzzler Podcast with A.J. Jacobs and Greg Pliska: Greg and AJ share some tips for designing audio puzzles.
• 1:25:09 – Outro

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