Room Escape Artist

The puzzles take a starring role

Location: at home

Date Played: April 2026

Team Size: 1+; we recommend 1-3

Duration: 3-4 hours, broken into five sections

Price: $39

REA Reaction

The Case of the Curiously Quiet Theater is a whimsical, dare I say cozy combination of audiobook and play-at-home puzzle game. Alternating between an abridged audio mystery novel and five paper puzzle packs, we solved our way through the puzzles and the mystery in parallel.

We’d expected that The Case of the Curiously Quiet Theater would include some puzzles that could only exist in this audio hybrid medium. Instead, the game felt more like a detective story and a puzzle game based on the same narrative beats. The gameplay and the mystery were connected thematically, but less so mechanically.

The book club frame tale took some time for us to wrap our minds around. If we’d played any of the earlier games in this universe, perhaps that would’ve helped us get our bearings. Thankfully, we didn’t need perfect fluency with the concept to get started. 

Bluefish Games made it clear from the beginning that solving the mystery in the novel was not part of the puzzle experience. The amount of detail was overwhelming, so we decided to sit back and enjoy the show. Since we weren’t required to pay attention to the story, it felt more like a side dish to the gameplay. 

Fortunately, the puzzles were very impressive as a main course. They were challenging and amusing. Each envelope of reference materials seemed daunting at first, but we felt smart by the time we were through. I’d recommend playing The Case of the Curiously Quiet Theater for the puzzles alone. 

And if you’re in the mood for a little mystery theater (as narrated by Mr. Hincks), all the better.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Mystery buffs
• Audiobook fans
• Any experience level

Why play?

• The puzzles
• The thoughtful design
• The accompanying cozy mystery

Story

Stephen P. Hincks had accidentally returned the only copy of our book club book to the library, where it was being guarded by a hostile library cat and couldn’t be retrieved. So he recorded an audio overview of The Case of the Curiously Quiet Theater: An Ells and Ernie Mystery and sent it to us in pieces, with some related ephemera and puzzles attached, to make sure we were following along.

Setup

The mystery novel recaps were delivered via a series of audio files on Bluefish Games’ website. After each audio clip, we opened the corresponding envelope in the game box and got to puzzling. Entering the answer to each puzzle set into the website would unlock the next audio clip. The website also had a detailed hint system in case we needed help.

Gameplay

The Case of the Curiously Quiet Theater was a play-at-home puzzle game with a medium level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around observation, making connections, logic, and word puzzles.

The story and gameplay were divided into five acts. Each act took 30 to 45 minutes to complete, allowing for breaks in between puzzling sessions. The finale wrapped up the mystery along with the puzzles.

Analysis

➕ The visual design of The Case of the Curiously Quiet Theater was simple but effective. The physical components consisted entirely of paper materials, but we didn’t need fancy 3D objects to feel immersed in the game. The graphics looked great, the colors and textures were varied, and the themes were fun.

➖ All the layers of story added a good amount of confusion for us at the outset. Even after we read the introductory letter explaining the background, it was hard for us to grasp the idea of an acquaintance recording audio recaps of a mystery novel and compiling them with thematically related pages from other library books. This meta layer felt unnecessarily complicated.

➕ The puzzles were top-notch, beginning to end. We encountered some ideas that we hadn’t seen before, and some more familiar ones embellished in new ways. The formats varied within and between envelopes. Everything in each set came together so that by the end of each act, we felt a sense of triumph.

➕ Even with all the added material from the various story layers, Bluefish Games made it clear that the novel excerpts and notes from Mr. Hincks were separate from the puzzles, so we never got tangled up in red herrings.

➖ At times we found the audio recordings hard to follow. The story didn’t feel like a typical mystery arc, as the narration presented a rather low-stakes series of conversations and scene changes with no obvious crime or transgression to reconstruct until later in the game. With more description than action, it was sometimes hard to pay attention to the details, especially because the clips averaged 7-8 minutes long.

➕ Bluefish Games clearly put thought and effort into providing a smooth gameplay experience. It helped to have transcripts of the audio clips to get a quick review of what we just heard. We also appreciated the many-tiered hint system when we needed a little nudge.

➕ The game design felt well-balanced, with the challenge level building up until the final puzzle set, which tied the game together nicely.

Tips For Players

• Space Requirements: a small table
• Required Gear: internet-connected device

For the puzzles that required note-taking, we made use of both spreadsheets and paper scribblings (and we didn’t even have to provide our own pen).

Buy your copy of Bluefish Games’ The Case of the Curiously Quiet Theater, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Bluefish Games provided a complimentary game.