Room Escape Artist

Trials of Wisdom caters to a narrow audience, but if you know a bit about The Magic Flute and puzzle solving, and especially if you enjoy both, then this is for you.

To produce Trials of Wisdom, the Sydney Opera House collaborated with a local escape room puzzle designer, Dani Siller of Escape This Podcast. The result is a light puzzle hunt that incorporates themes from The Magic Flute, and resides on the webpage of the iconic Sydney Opera House.

The presentation as a single webpage was elegant. This format was straightforward, novel, and accessible.

We enjoyed the puzzles. They had just enough layers to require exploration, which worked well with the format.

That said, the puzzles needed more self-validation. Especially with an audience that isn’t necessarily experienced in puzzles, the layered puzzle design without intermediate confirmation will likely deter some would-be solvers. Trials of Wisdom required a bit of persistence or a puzzler background. A more robust hint system would also go a long way in increasing accessibility.

We were lucky enough to play with my aunt, a classical music radio host, who has produced intermission features for Metropolitan Opera Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts. I’d say this was the perfect team for The Trials of Wisdom, which is best appreciated with at least a little knowledge of The Magic Flute.