” An outlandish approach to meta puzzles”

“Congratulations and Condolences” is the default phrase when a team of puzzlers has just won the vaunted MIT Mystery Hunt. This is because according to tradition, the winning team must write next year’s Mystery Hunt. This daunting task was recently undertaken by Death and Mayhem, the team that wrote the 2025 MIT Mystery Hunt titled “The Case of the Shadow Diamond.” At the helm of this illustrious team is James Douberley, affectionately dubbed the Benevolent Dictator.

James led his team of over 160 people to create David’s favorite MIT Mystery Hunt to date, blending puzzles with immersive theater in a way that Mystery Hunts had never done before. Some features of this year’s hunt included an escape room, The Radio, and The Gala, which functioned as both the team headquarters, but also a place for players to experience a fun interaction.

This year’s Mystery Hunt had 5,000 people enrolled, with around 171 puzzles. James joins us on REPOD to unwrap the mystery behind how his team designed and built this year’s Mystery Hunt. I especially loved hearing about the unique escape room they built, which involved one player actually going to the escape room, while the rest of their team back at HQ clued the active player on what to do, but with a very limited word bank. Cue hilarity. If you’re interested in puzzle hunts and large scale immersive events, don’t miss this episode, and make sure to check out David’s favorite (relatively accessible) puzzle linked below.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

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

Topics Discussed in this Episode

• 00:13 Sponsor Break: Cogs By Clockwork Dog, Interactive Show Controls
• 06:21 What is the MIT Mystery Hunt?
• 15:28 Starter puzzles and the burden of winning
• 20:35 Sponsor Break: Weldwood Digital Marketing Agency
• 22:41 Facts about the 2025 Mystery Hunt
• 24:47 Formation of the “Death and Mayhem” Team
• 27:05 Creation of this year’s hunt
• 30:44 Unique aspects to this year’s hunt
• 35:03 Sponsor Break: Buzzshot, Escape Room Marketing Software
• 36:58 Implemenation of the radio as a physical game element
• 42:40 The musical score for the Hunt
• 44:24 Control Room: The Escape Room at MITMH
• 47:04 RECON & PG’s Playhouse Ad Break
• 47:30 Meta-Puzzles
• 52:19 The ways they thought they screwed themselves
• 57:42 James considers different approaches to difficulty
• 01:00:40 Climbing Mount Rainier after surgery

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Got a question or thought for the podcast? You can submit a voice recording by calling the Room Escape Artist not-so-hotline that always goes straight to voicemail (551-227-7273).

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

• MIT Mystery Hunt Puzzle Club Website
• MIT Mystery Hunt Puzzle Mellow Planet (login as public access)
• Boston Area Puzzle Hunt League (BAPHL)
• MIT Mystery Hunt YouTube

About James Douberley

James is a puzzle and escape room lover and constructor of several live puzzle events. As captain of the team known as Death and Mayhem, he led a group of over a hundred volunteers in construction of the 2018 and 2025 MIT Mystery Hunts.

Outside of puzzles, James runs operations for life sciences research to make a living, and spends most of the rest of his time outdoors.

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