Room Escape Artist

Forsaken Souls: Cursed Artifact is a print-and-play escape room kit by Solar Wind Publishing.

Format

Style of Play:

• Print-and-play
• Tabletop escape game
• Includes video segments
• Escape room party kit

Who is it For?

• Puzzle lovers
• Any experience level

Required Equipment:

• Computer with internet connection
• Printer
• Pen and paper
• Scissors
• Tape

Recommended Team Size: 1-4

Play Time:

• Prep times can take up to 3 hours (although it can be done in 90 minutes)
• Play time can range from 1 hour – 2.5 hours.

Price: ~ $24

Booking: purchase and play at your leisure

Description

Forsaken Souls: Cursed Artifact was a print-and-play escape room kit intended to be played as a full escape room throughout three different rooms of your home.

To set the game up, a gamemaster must cut out 23 pages of game materials, organize those pieces into 15 containers (anything they can find at home or tape together your own printable lockboxes), and affix a unique padlock image to each container. The gamemaster then hides these objects in three different rooms, though the specific hiding places are not prescribed by the game.

Players search one room at a time for clues and padlocked containers. When they solve a puzzle, they enter the solution into a QR-coded website and receive a 3-digit “key.” If that key matches a padlock, they open the associated container to receive more clues. (There is also an online hint system and occasional cutscene videos to watch.)

Be warned that the prep time is extensive. One person is the dedicated gamemaster who prepares everything in their home. However, they don’t know any puzzle solutions and can still participate in the fun.

Finally, it’s possible to play this game as a set of puzzles without hiding and then finding all the pieces. However, someone still must cut out and organize all the game pieces.

Forsaken Souls: Cursed Artifact successfully launched on Kickstarter in July 2025 and is now available on Etsy.

Joel Smileypeacefun Reaction

In this print-and-play game, you enter the gates of Finch Estate. Their heirloom seems to be missing. Can you figure out why and where it went?

At its best, the download files came with detailed instructions. Although you need to appoint one person as the gamemaster who prepares and runs the game, they can still help to solve the puzzles because they don’t know the solutions. There’s also a website with a smartly designed answer validation, a great hint system with multiple small nudges, and a couple of cute cutscene videos.

At its worst, the prep time was extensive. Even trying to be speedy, it still took me 1.5 hours before starting to play. Cutting out all the game components felt especially cumbersome. The story had an interesting approach but failed to captivate me, as puzzles rarely had a connection to the theme. The first riddle felt misleading and led to a rocky onramp. Ultimately, the game was too linear to justify keeping up to 6 players occupied.

There’s clearly a lot of passion that went into creating this project. Make sure you have some time to prepare, the printed pages and scissors, and a smaller group and you’ll have a great time.

The Lone Puzzler’s Reaction

Significant (1 hour or more) time to cut and prepare game. Game had elegant “props” and worked very well, but very short and relatively simple puzzles. Best use might be for a party game, but it was a bit of a letdown after the set-up. The puzzles had some fairly intricate pieces and lead-in, but while clever in general, they would be a short solve for most players. Simple home box escape games are more engaging without the cutting. However, the price and ability to access online might be appealing to some players. I would prefer to have a more tangible set of play items than flimsy printer paper. Also, moderate fear of losing a piece out of the 100+ that were cut out.

Sarah Mendez’s Reaction

If someone handed me Forsaken Souls: Cursed Artifact in a ready-to-play format, I’d be happy with the experience. Its 1-2 hour play time was full of entertaining puzzles and a compelling enough story, substantially more content than most escape room kits offer. It was a solid puzzling game that I enjoyed. However, as a print-and-play make-your-own escape room, it also required more than an hour of cutting and organizing materials, prompting some cost/ benefit analysis.

The success of this game as an in-home escape room hinges on how well you can calibrate your environment for interesting yet reasonable searching, a difficult task that plagues most escape room kits. In this case, searching for game pieces seemed like the only enhancement in playing the game as an escape room rather than as a tabletop game. The puzzles did not use the physical space in a meaningful way, the game pieces weren’t recognizable objects that promoted a sense of place on their own, and the setting of “the Finch Estate” wasn’t evocative enough to inspire extra decorative efforts.

For me, then, I wished this game had been presented more as a tabletop game with pre-packaged materials, allowing me to focus on its strengths. That said, if someone offers to host this game for you, go for it… and maybe bring some cookies. Your host deserves some thanks.

Disclosure: Forsaken Souls provided the Hivemind reviewers with a complimentary play.