Room Escape Artist

Misinformation be gone!

Location: Dupont Circle, Washington DC

Date Played: October 3, 2025

Team Size: 1-8; we recommend 3-4

Duration: 6-8 hours

Price:  $50-100 per team, depending on time of sign up

Ticketing: Public event with private teams

Accessibility Consideration: All players need to walk about 2-3 miles

REA Reaction

Since 2019, Game Genius has been designing a city-wide puzzle hunt in Washington DC with a social theme. The 2025 District Hunt, Burying the Lede, took place in 2 distinct parts of DC, spanning Dupont Circle and Capitol Hill. It brought puzzlers from all experience levels together to shed light on mis-, dis-, and mal-information.

As District Hunt is uniquely designed every year with different puzzles, themes, and locations, we’re going to be a bit more spoiler-forward in the following article than usual!

Burying the Lede was split into three distinct parts: including easy, medium, and hard sections where players assumed the role of a Courier-in-training for the 9th Keeper of the Capsule, a time capsule dating back 250 years. Each part told a portion of the story through puzzle solving and information delivery. Puzzling included collecting information through light puzzling, immersive interactions, memorization at Keegan Theater, locating artifacts through cryptic postcards in Dupont Circle, and finally solving a devious cipher-based puzzle leading to Labyrinth Games. The hunt utilized Augmented Reality for a few interactions, allowing players to step into the shoes of the past Couriers and experience exploring messages from the Keeper.

With a team of 3 and about 8 hours of sunlight, our team set out to explore the hidden mysteries of Dupont, dig through the misinformation provided for the puzzles, and search for the true location of the Capsule. The start of the game was by far the strongest portion, with one player required to sneak into the Keegan Theater, analyze past artifacts, and provide information through a game of telephone to the other team members, who were left digging through photographs and information outside of the theater. The Keegan Theater had a jaw-dropping setup for the first interaction, with a single old radio and a spotlight shining overhead in an otherwise silent and pitch-black theater. This portion of the game also included puzzling out a secret code word to tell the bartender, who provided a puzzle piece for progression to part 2.

Sending our team over to the heart of Dupont Circle, the second part of the game had some really satisfying solves utilizing our surroundings. We had the opportunity to solve puzzles based on landmarks we’d never even noticed in the familiar area. We also visited new local businesses. One puzzle really stood out in this portion by using past artifacts to reveal a local tea shop! Here, we had to order “non-digital cookies” to get a tasty treat containing an AR message leading us to the final section.

The final section was a bit under-clued, requiring specific cipher knowledge to get us to our next location. This cipher was out of place, compared to the earlier puzzles in the hunt, because it required significant googling. It also made some logic leaps to get the final answer. Once we solved this cipher, it was unclear whether we had to go to the location without any answer verification, and because of some unfortunate metro construction, required a 20 minute car ride.

The finale of the game consisted of a unique AR interaction to unlock the Oath of the Keepers, protecting truth through misinformation, and offered us the option to accept the position as the next Keeper of the Capsule.

Every year, Game Genius releases a Hunt Report to document the interactions, story, and statistics. We loved reading the hunt report and watching the designer commentary for each section after the event to gain insight into the design process.

We had a great time running around DC for the day and enjoyed the sights we probably never would have otherwise noticed. While this was only our first year playing, we’re looking forward to seeing what the Game Genius crew has in store for 2026 with the theme Ludology (the study of games)!

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Outdoor puzzle hunt fans
• Any experience level, but some puzzle hunt experience is helpful for the later rounds

Why play?

• Washington DC-spanning hunt full of interactions with local businesses and landmarks
• Creative puzzle design fitting for the theme and location

Story

As prospective Couriers of the 9th Keeper, it was our duty to uphold the legacy and complete the relocation of a 250-year-old time capsule while adding genuine objects from the last 25 years. We were being tested to care deeply for the truth, and not fall for the mis-, dis-, or mal-information spread throughout the city to ensure the correct history be documented.

Each year’s District Hunt focuses on a different theme built around both the cultural influences and physical landmarks of Washington DC. This year, the hunt was titled Burying The Lede to shed light on identifying misinformation.

Setting

District Hunt took place in two neighborhoods in DC: Dupont Circle and Capitol Hill. Starting in Dupont Circle, we began outside of Keegan Theater where we retrieved information on an exhibition inside. Following the first interaction, we found ourselves wandering to multiple locations, including Dupont Memorial, Teaism (a local tea shop), and Labyrinth Games (a local board game shop), while solving puzzles along the routes.

Gameplay

Game Genius’s District Hunt was an outdoor puzzle hunt that took place in two areas of Washington DC. The official route was around 2-3 miles of walking, but some ambiguity in areas can leave groups wandering more and less, depending on how quickly they solve puzzles. One part of the game was located across the city, and either required a lengthy metro ride, bike, or taxi.

Each of the 3 hunt rounds consisted of increasingly difficult puzzles utilizing DC landmarks and items throughout the specified areas. These puzzle sections also brought you to a few local businesses to gain puzzle information and hints. Puzzles included observation, making connections, augmented reality, ciphers, and immersive interactions.

Thematically, certain parts of the game had a significant amount of information not relevant to the puzzle, and while distracting, this never led us astray on the correct puzzle path. The quantity of the misinformation varied in each section, but was an integral part of digging through and finding puzzle information to progress. While this thematic design could have been seen as a red herring, it was super easy to pull out what was fake and what was real.

Tips For Next Year

• Wear your walking shoes! Players will need to walk 2-3 miles around the city.
• Every year, District Hunt takes place in a different neighborhood. Be sure to check the website once District Hunt 2026 is announced for what area of the city the gameplay will be in.
• DC is full of fantastic food and culture on every street corner, so be sure to take breaks to stop and grab some grub!
• The event usually takes place in October, when the weather is typically beautiful. Bring a light jacket and enjoy the crisp fall air.

Grab a ticket next year for Game Genius’ District Hunt, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Game Genius provided a complimentary play.