Room Escape Artist

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Rubix Control is an interactive audio-visual experience created by Seize the Show.

Format

Style of Play: audio-visual experience, designed for digital play through Zoom + webapp voting

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection, mobile device

You needed both a computer and a mobile device at the same time to play this game.

Recommended Team Size: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This is a public-ticketed experience. Because you are part of an interactive audience, you can experience this solo, or with a large group of people all booking into the same showing. We recommend only 1 person per connection.

Play Time: 60 minutes

Price: $16.99 per person

Booking: book online for a specific time slot

Description

Rubix Control was an online show with puzzles. When we were presented with a puzzle or a narrative decision, we had to vote on the solution/ decision via a mobile website.

Hivemind Review Scale

Cara Mandel’s Reaction

Rubix Control by Seize the Show was an interesting format. An audience of up to 50 Zoom participants was split into two groups. We were guided by a host of interesting characters speaking to us via livestream. Participants were encouraged to interact in the chat to collaboratively solve a series of beginner/ intermediate-level puzzles on screen. We were then presented multiple choice or voting options via a web-based application. This wouldn’t necessarily be a game I’d recommend to enthusiasts, but for entry-level players and families, I’d say this is a fun one to try! I’d recommend casting the Zoom to your tv if possible, and having each player play along on their mobile device. Though not terribly challenging, it was entertaining and a polished production.

Andrew Reynolds’ Reaction

Rubix Control is less an escape room and more a theatrical performance that utilizes crowdsourced puzzles to progress through the acts. You and the other attendees slip into the role of unpaid space interns – surely something that fits in with your current 5-year plan – and help save the space station from a rogue AI.

This experience utilizes Gamiotics, a proprietary interactivity platform. In Rubix Control, it is used to choose the answer to a puzzle – a process that seemed exciting at the time, but in retrospect just kind of isn’t. When someone solves a puzzle, they share their answer in the Zoom chat and hit a button in Gamiotics. All the players then vote on the answer, choosing from a predetermined field of 4 choices, one of which is correct. None of our votes were anything less than unanimous.

There are some fun puzzles here, but the Gamiotics tech did not match well with the needs of this game. It feels better suited to an experience where choice actually matters. Would you want to read a choose-your-own-adventure book that only had one right answer? Seize the Show has other shows that seem more suited to the platform, and I’d encourage you to try those out and make your choices matter.

David Spira’s Reaction

I can best describe Rubix Control as a livestreamed show with puzzles and audience participation through voting. The core mechanic was the audience voting on in-story actions and puzzle solutions.

The tech worked well enough, except that the interface of the mobile voting website was overtly subpar. There were some finicky things with Zoom… but Zoom has become so culturally default that I can’t blame creators for using it.

Narratively, the story was functional, but unremarkable… as were the characters. I can’t even remember what was happening; it seemed beside the point. The only thing that stuck with me here were some of the savage insults that one character spewed at his costar. As an old friend would say, “mean and funny is still funny.”

The puzzles were serviceable. They worked and were about as memorable as the plot. If a completely different set of equally competent puzzles had been substituted, I don’t think it would have impacted the experience in any way. The fact that we were group solving also felt a little mushy. Someone would solve the puzzle in the group chat, and people would either agree or correct. The fact that we had a bunch of Hiveminders in this game meant that we were collectively blasting solutions into the chat at a rate that greatly exceeded what most of the rest of the audience was capable of. I don’t know whether this improved or damaged the experience for the others in the audience, but it reached a point where I started feeling bad.

The whole experience was fine. I enjoyed it while I was in it, but nothing about this stuck with me even a day later. I think that the video delivery system has the potential to do more.

Disclosure: Seize the Show provided the Hivemind reviewers with a complimentary play.