The week of halves has passed and team Lights Out is transitioning to the second half of the semester – building!

We are continuing with our theme of a cabin, which was chosen because it is the closest to what the space actually will be (a wooden structure full of furniture we find). We are theming the story so that the cabin belongs to someone with a secret and a lot of high-tech security, which will help to explain the darkness and the need to leave the space quickly.

Here is a model that Dale built of the structure we will create:

Within this space, guests will solve about 5 total puzzles, based on past playtests like matching smells and identifying symbols by touch. Three (plus a tactile map, because that seems to be very helpful) will be in the main room, one will be on the door to the secret room, and the final puzzle will be in the secret room. The puzzle / lock on the door will require a combination of the three other puzzles in the main room.

We’re still hoping to have a darkened room, but if there is enough light that people’s eyes will adjust, we will keep blindfolding guests within the space. We’re also still planning to have this be a 20-30 minute experience for 1-2 guests at a time, but we may make a shortened version for the ETC fall festival.

From Tech:

This Thursday and Friday, we brainstormed a few ideas on possible puzzles that could be used in our final experience. Based on those, there are a few tech things we need to do such as controlling an electromagnetic lock; controlling a cuckoo clock and etc. These all seem really interesting and challenging and we definitely look forward to testing them as soon as possible.

We have finalized our budget and are hoping that it is approved early next week so we can begin building and testing!