Room Escape Artist

This week, the wonderful tabletop game design podcast Ludology interviewed Mike Selinker on the relationship between puzzles and games.

If that name seems familiar, it’s because Selinker is a prolific game and puzzle designer. He is also the author of Puzzlecraft, which is a puzzle design bible… that is finally going into a third printing next month. 

Over the course of the episode, the hosts discussed a ton of interesting things with Selinker… with a substantive conversation on escape rooms thrown in. In addition to being a talented board game designer, co-host Gil Hova is a former gamemaster at one of the escape rooms that we frequent. He knows the business. 

In this episode: 

• Our friend and Room Escape Diva Errol got a lovely shoutout (and they humorously amended his definition of the job of puzzle designer).
• We got a shoutout for our philosophy on hints in escape rooms.
• Selinker made it clear that he has no intention of making a run at the Escape Room Guinness World Record. 

Flattery aside, this episode was incredibly interesting. (The podcast as a whole is very well-done.) 

Give it a listen: Ludology Episode 189 – Missing Selinker

This episode has also inspired a research project that I am now undertaking. I’m not sure how long it will take to complete. I’ll post the results.