Room Escape Artist

Here’s the mail, it never fails!

Location: At home

Date Played: March 07, 2026

Team Size: 1-2

Duration: 45 minutes

Price: about $7 + $1 shipping

REA Reaction

I have always tried to avoid getting the mail. Whether a letter from the HOA, a bill for a subscription we forgot to cancel, or scam notices to extend our car’s warranty (all of which I have proceeded to dub “scary mail”), the mail always contained significantly more bad news than good. However, Funbi Games’ Nine Codes: The Tycoon puzzle postcard flipped the script by delivering some “fun mail” to our mailbox instead.

Nine Codes: The Tycoon arrived exactly as described: an addressed postcard with a QR code on one side and a colorful monopoly-esque gameboard on the other. Our foster kitten Bombay was included in the image below for scale. We were extremely impressed with the amount of gameplay contained within essentially a single image. All of the puzzles were logical and flowed well; however, we found them to be quite easy. Although the difficulty level of Nine Codes: The Tycoon seemed tailored to beginners, the game was a great value with an extremely high puzzle to price ratio and may also be an enjoyable solo activity for puzzle enthusiasts.

All of the puzzles in Nine Codes: The Tycoon relied heavily on making visual connections between the postcard and the mobile webpage. Most of the puzzles were clear, fun, and solved cleanly, though there was a mismatch in the color of the printed postcard compared to the webpage for one of the puzzles. We especially enjoyed the meta puzzle, which incorporated all of other solutions in the game. Yet, we wished that there was a little bit more variety or depth to the puzzles apart from visual association. Additionally, while the puzzles were loosely tied to the life of the Tycoon, we wished there had been a more developed story interwoven with the puzzle path.

We also appreciated that the accompanying webpage interface worked very well on a mobile phone. We were able to play the entire game on a phone without needing to grab a laptop; yet, a larger screen size (i.e., a tablet) may have been helpful in a couple of instances. However, the game interface itself was a bit clunky, since we needed to navigate back to the homepage to input each final answer and could not smoothly progress from one puzzle page to the next.

Funbi Games’ Nine Codes: The Tycoon was an interesting and unusual experience with an impressive amount of gameplay for both the size and price point. The puzzle difficulty and flow were beginner friendly, but also enjoyable for experienced puzzlers. Nine Codes: The Tycoon would be an excellent choice to surprise family or friends with some “fun mail” in their mailbox for a change.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Any experience level, but very beginner friendly

Why play?

• Impressive puzzle content-to-size ratio
• Excellent puzzle content-to-price ratio

Story

We received a mysterious post card in the mail. As we followed the first instructions printed on the card, we embarked on a path which would lead us to a massive cache of digital currency. All we needed to do was discover the shape of the player piece associated with the Tycoon to claim our treasure.

Setup

After scanning the QR code on the postcard, we were provided with a brief introduction to the task at hand and led through instructions on how to play the game. In addition to the postcard and the mobile interface, we needed to provide a “game piece” of our choice to track our movement on the game board.

Gameplay

Funbi Games’ Nine Codes: The Tycoon was a play-at-home escape game with a easy level of difficulty.

The puzzles revolved around making visual connections and determining how to correlate the game board on the post card and the puzzle on the mobile webpage. For each puzzle, the numeric answer could be verified on the puzzle page; however, the alphabetic code (which progressed us further in the story) could only be input back on the home page. Three hints with increasing levels of detail were also available for each puzzle on the webpage.

Analysis

➕ There was a ton of puzzling contained within the 5×7 postcard. Over the course of the game we solved 11 puzzles and ended up using every visual detail on the card. For the amount of puzzle content, the game was also a great value.

➕ The user interface worked well on our mobile device and we were able to complete the entire game without needing to grab a laptop. The small physical size of the game along with the mobile interface offered the ability to easily play Nine Codes: The Tycoon on the go.

➖ Each puzzle had a numeric answer which could be used as an intermediate check by inputting the response into the field on the puzzle page, and an alphabetic answer that progressed the game forward but could only be input by navigating back to the homepage. Being forced to navigate back to the homepage to input our final responses was clunky. We wished each puzzle page would have accepted either the numeric answer or alphabetic answer.

➖ Apart from the introduction and conclusion, the story for the game was very vague. For the most part, we were solving puzzles for the sake of puzzling with only a loose tie between the puzzles and the life of the Tycoon.

➕/➖ We appreciated that feedback was clearly provided for correct and incorrect answers. However, several times the incorrect answer feedback would include an unsolicited hint which clearly indicated how to solve the puzzle. We would have preferred feedback that was a bit more vague, especially for our first couple of attempts, to allow us the satisfaction of fully solving each puzzle.

Tips For Players

• Space Requirements: A small table
• Required Gear: Writing utensil, paper, game piece of choice, and an internet connected device that can scan a QR code.

Buy your copy of Funbi Games’ Nine Codes: The Tycoon, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Funbi Games provided a complimentary game.