Room Escape Artist

“Maker of Unusual Things”

“If you’ve ever met him, he has probably handed you an unusual puzzle or curious object out of his Mary Poppins bag of puzzles.” Brett Kuehner is THAT guy with the puzzles. Simply look for the large gathering of people all playing with what’s collectively known as “cool stuff.” You’ll find Brett smack dab in the middle, dispensing puzzles and curios like Johnny Appleseed sowing his apples.

Besides being a puzzle pusher, Brett is a curator, connector, and general fount of knowledge. He started his website thatguywiththepuzzles.com after amassing a huge collection of escape room and puzzle design resources that he wanted to share with his community. This links to a massive google doc with 20 pages of links to articles about technology, audio and lighting design, immersion and storytelling, and general puzzle and escape room design.

Brett is a collector of the first order, and it isn’t limited to design articles. As you can see from these “shelfies,” his mechanical puzzle collection is also vast and varied. But what makes Brett’s collection particularly special is how readily he shares it. His collections aren’t just meant to sit on a pedestal. They’re an invitation to explore, play, learn, and connect with other people who love puzzles.

In today’s episode, Brett chats with us about what drives his fascination with puzzles, teaching escape room design, and his philosophy when it comes to the larger puzzling community. I especially loved hearing about designing for emotions in puzzles and thinking about what we want players to feel when they’re solving a puzzle. Also, Brett has the coolest parents.

That Guy With the Puzzles is a fixture at most REA events. If you ever see a man with a large sack of puzzles and a twinkle in his eye, be sure to come up and say hi. You never know what inspiration you’ll walk away with.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: Buzzshot Bookings, Ubisoft VR Escape Games, and Immersif. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.

Topics Discussed in this Episode

• 03:07 How Brett Started as a Puzzle Collector
• 04:51 What Makes Mechanical Puzzles Special
• 07:51 Recommending the Right Puzzle
• 09:58 Crediting Puzzle Creators
• 12:44 International Puzzle Party
• 15:33 Collecting Favorites
• 17:21 Sponsor Break: Buzzshot – Escape Room Booking & Marketing Software
• 19:16 Maker and Engineer Roots
• 20:57 Camp Retupmoc
• 23:04 Escape Room Google Doc
• 25:57 Teaching Escape Room Design
• 28:40 Lessons from Teaching
• 31:22 Sponsor Break: Ubisoft – Harness the Power of VR Escape Games
• 33:54 Design Lessons Learned
• 36:08 Emotion Through Puzzles
• 36:44 Melancholy Escape Room Example
• 38:38 Escape Rooms for Education
• 41:34 Privilege of Escape Debrief
• 42:45 Learning From Bad Puzzles
• 45:19 Sponsor Break: Immersif – Business Mentoring & Performance Intelligence Reports
• 48:08 Hosting as a Food Puzzle
• 50:07 Blacklight Dinner Party
• 52:59 Being a Night Owl
• 54:32 What Comes Next
• 57:07 Credits
• 01:00:04 Brett’s Dark Room

Leave a Voicemail

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

• That Guy with the Puzzles Website
• International Puzzle Party
• Firecracker Chocolate Bar
• Blacklight Dinner Party Cookbook
• Mechanical Puzzles: Oskar van Deventer (REPOD S8E9)
• Nutcracker in Swing Time—Kellian & Brian Pletcher, Creators of Club Drosselmeyer (REPOD S6E6)

About Brett Kuehner

Brett has designed puzzles and control system technology for escape rooms and museums across the US and even a few in the UK, including puzzles for Netflix promotions and the tech for The Bird at MyssTic Rooms in Brooklyn. He plays escape rooms wherever and whenever he can, and encourages new designers by teaching classes on escape room design and puzzle creation, working regularly with Professor Camilla Zamboni at Wesleyan.

Brett maintains a collection of links to articles on all aspects of escape room development, from narrative to puzzles to tech, at https://www.thatguywiththepuzzles.com. He also collects mechanical puzzles. A lot of mechanical puzzles. Puzzle boxes are his favorite (but don’t tell the other puzzles, they might get jealous.) If you meet him in person, he’ll probably try to show you a puzzle.

Instagram: @bvkuehner

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