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A great gift for a jigsaw puzzler is a one-of-a-kind puzzle. I know this because I’ve given a few of these gifts and they are always a hit.

I’ve found 2 different companies that do a wonderful job at this, depending upon the price point and level of quality that you’re seeking.

Traditional Jigsaw Puzzles from Ravensburger

Ravensburger makes some of the nicest traditional jigsaw puzzles on the market. They vary their piece shapes, use good card stock, and have less puzzle dust than most of the jigsaw puzzles that have crossed my table. Also, I really like their trademark blue backings.

If you’d like to have Ravensburger make a custom puzzle for you, it’s easy.

They call them Custom Photo Puzzles. All that you have to do is:

• Take a good photo that is jigsaw puzzle-worthy. (I’ll talk about that at the bottom of this post.)
• Upload a photograph that’s at least 150 dpi to their website
• Select a size
  • $27.92: 100-300 pieces, 19.5″ x 14.25″
  • $31.92: 500 pieces, 19.5″ x 14.25″
  • $35.92: 1000 pieces, 27″ x 20″
  • $39.92: 1500 pieces, 31.5″ x 23.6″
• Pay and wait 1 to 2 weeks

The final product arrives in a beautiful tin with a sticker of the image on the outside.

Laser Cut Wood Puzzles from Liberty Puzzles

If you’re looking for something a bit fancier, Liberty Puzzles, the makers of fine laser-cut wood puzzles, also offers custom jigsaw puzzles… and they are gorgeous.

Like Ravensburger, Liberty Puzzles is easy to work with. All you have to do is:

• Take a quality, jigsaw puzzle worthy image
• Upload it as a jpg or gif (and I’d suggest 150 dpi as a minimum starting place for quality)
• Select a size:
  • $130: Small – 9 x 13in., 225-250 pieces
  • $160: Large – 13 x 17in.,  425-500 pieces
• Pay and wait for delivery. Remember that Liberty Puzzles is a small business and they can become overrun during busy seasons. (This year they stopped selling custom puzzles in the middle of November, which is why this wasn’t on our 2019 holiday buyer’s guide.)

The final product looks just like any other puzzle from Liberty Puzzles. It will arrive in an elegant navy blue box with a sticker of the image. Within, you’ll find the wooden pieces neatly wrapped in tissue paper and smelling of burnt wood.

What Makes a Good Jigsaw Puzzle Image?

A few things come to mind:

• A good variety of colors and textures
• Sharp imagery. Blurriness isn’t great in a puzzle.
• Depth is really cool (if you can get it without too much blurriness). A pronounced foreground, middle, and background makes the puzzling experience far more interesting
• You own the image. The companies will send you packing if you submit an obviously copyrighted image. (The Jewel City art was in the public domain.)
• The image matters to the person who’s receiving it as a gift.

I usually use my own photography to create a custom puzzle. In one instance I used an illustration that’s in the public domain.

Whether you choose Ravensburger or Liberty Puzzle, you’ll be giving a quality, personalized product.

At the beginning of last year I wrote a lengthy aspirational list of games that we hoped to play in 2019. At the request of one of our Patreon supporters, I’m going to take a look back at that list, see what kind of dent we put into it, and add new games that are on our radar.

How’d We Do in 2019?

Of the 11 new games from companies that we’ve visited in the past, we visited 3:

• Escape Extinction: Sharks from Escape My Room
• The Dome from Escape Room Nederland
• Sherlock: The Game is Now from Time Run

We were supposed to play 13th Gate’s Asylum… but a hurricane thwarted our plans. Sigh.

Of the 14 unfamiliar companies on the list, we visited 4:

• Enchambered – Sacramento, CA
• Escaparium – Montreal, Canada
• Kamer 237 – Volkel, Netherlands
• Skurrilum – Hamburg, Germany

At two of these companies, we played Golden Lock Award-winning games!

In all cases, we played all of the most highly recommended games at the companies… no regrets!

Of the 4 new countries that we were hoping to visit in 2019… we visited exactly zero of them.

2020 Wishlist

I’m going to use the same breakdown as last year, and include all of the games and places that we didn’t visit. New 2020 additions will appear in bold.

New Games, Familiar Companies

• 13th Gate Escape’s The Asylum –Baton Rouge, LA
• 60 Minute Escape’s Frankenstein – Murfreesboro, TN
• Cross Roads Escape Games’ Psych Ward – Anaheim,CA
• Doldrick’s Escape Rooms Spoopy’s Ghoulish Graveyard Gameshow! – Orlando, FL
• Escape City Buffalo’s The Hangover – Tonawanda, NY
• Hatch Escape’s The Ladder – Los Angeles, CA (when it opens)
• Locurio’s The Storykeeper – Seattle, WA
• Michigan Escape Room’s Vampire Cabin Clinton Township, MI (when it opens)
• The Escape Game’s Ruins: Forbidden Treasure & White Noise
• The Room’s Brandon Darkmoor – Berlin, Germany
• Trap’t’s Tremors On The Tracks – Stamford, CT (when it opens)
• And whatever Strange Bird Immersive’s next game is

Unfamiliar Companies

• Bewilder Box – Brighton, UK
• Champaign-Urbana Adventures in Time and Space – Urbana, IL
• Clue IQ – Frederick, MD
• Crime Runners – Vienna, Austria
• Cyber Racoon – Falls Church, VA (how great is that name?)
• Edge of Escape – Zion, IL
• Enter The Imaginarium – Pittsburgh, PA
• Enter/Locked – Jackson, MS
• Escape Room Herndon – Herndon, VA
• Immersia – Montreal, Canada
• Locked In Edinburgh – Edinburgh, UK
• Maine Escape Games – Portland, ME
• MindTrap Escape Rooms – Murrieta, CA
• Myss Tic Rooms – New York, NY (if they are able to reopen)
• Mystery Mansion Escape – Little Rock, AR
• Nick of Time Escapes – Swain, NY
• Olde City Escape Games – Philadelphia, PA
• Paradox Project – Athens, Greece
• Pier Pressure – Brighton, UK
• Ravenchase Adventures – Richmond, VA
• The Chamber – Prague, Czech Republic
• The Sanctuary – Oklahoma City, OK
• Xscapes – Binghamton, NY (to play their licensed Twilight Zone room)

New Travel Destinations

• Athens, Greece
• Barcelona, Spain
• Beijing & Shanghai, China
• Moscow, Russia
• Paris, France
• Taipei, Taiwan
• Tel Aviv, Israel

Recommendations Welcome

If you have additional recommendations that should be on this list, please add them in the comments! (Please note if you’re recommending your own game.)

Tune in this Saturday, December 21, at 1pm PST / 4pm EST / 9pm GMT / 10pm CET / 11pm EET / 8am Sunday AEDT for the Top Escape Rooms Project Enthusiasts’ Choice Award (TERPECA) 2019 winners!

All the Time Zones

The Top Escape Rooms Project is an attempt to find the best escape rooms in the world by leveraging the rankings of the most experienced escape room enthusiasts in the world… and to do so, the team behind TERPECA reached out to escape room players from across the globe.

In phase 1, the most experienced players (over 200 games played) nominated their top 20 escape rooms. In phase 2, highly experienced players (over 50 games played) ranked these rooms. And then TERPECA creator Rich Bragg did lots of black magic complex math to bring you the winners.

TERPECA is not a Room Escape Artist project; however David and I are on the advisory committee. We’re excited about this announcement! We’ve seen the results and we’ll be publishing an analysis after they are made public.

Details

Follow the TERPECA Facebook Page for updates and details on how to watch the livestream.

Following the livestream, the results will be published on the TERPECA website.

More Information

Learn more about TERPECA in this earlier announcement calling for nominators and voters.

This is the second year of Top Escape Rooms Project Enthusiasts’ Choice Award. Read about last year’s winners here.

To reiterate, this award is not produced by Room Escape Artist. It is not the same as our Golden Lock Award, our award for our favorite rooms we played in any given calendar year. Our 2019 Golden Lock Award livestream and announcement will take place on Saturday, January 4, 2020.

8% of men and 0.5% of women are colorblind. (Colorableness & National Eye Institute).

This is probably something that we should talk about a little more often.

I’m going to give you a little background information. Then I’m going to show you a few easy ways that you can adapt your escape rooms to make them fully playable for players with colorblindness.

You can make your escape rooms playable for people with colorblindness with minimal effort and without spending any additional money.

Finally, the improvements that you make for players with colorblindness will improve the game for normal-sighted players as well.

Accessible Design

“Accessible design is a design process in which the needs of people with disabilities are specifically considered.” (Washington.edu)

There are times where it isn’t possible to create something that can be universally experienced in the same way. However, there are ways to ensure that the thing can be experienced at all.

Credentials

Professionally in my life as a digital UX designer, I’ve been practicing and advocating for accessible design for over a decade. I’ve written a white paper on this and given talks on the subject. (I no longer work for Phase2, but I’m still proud of this talk.):

Designing Escape Rooms For Colorblindness

How do we design escape rooms for colorblindness?

Most people with colorblindness can see color. They just don’t see it in the same way that normal-sighted folks see it. While monochromacy is a thing, it is incredibly rare.

With that in mind, here are 3 techniques that I recommend.

Colorblindness Simulation

The Coblis — Color Blindness Simulator is a free web app that allows you to upload images and see what they look like to people with different types of colorblindness.

And yes, you read that correctly, there are a number of different forms of colorblindness. Red-green colorblindness is the most common by a wide margin and gets all of the attention.

How Do I Use This?

Run images of your puzzles, designs, and interactions through the simulator and ensure that there is enough contrast that the colors appear different from one another.

In general, high color contrast helps.

That’s the key. Just make sure that every player has the opportunity to visually differentiate relevant colors from one another.

This is the same image run through the simulator to visualize different forms of colorblindness:

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Additional Indicators

If you’re planning to use color as an indicator, add another layer such as a texture or a symbol.

Symbols

Combining colors with symbols means that players aren’t in the position where they have to communicate color. They can communicate by the corresponding symbol if they so choose.

Textures

Similarly, adding a unique background texture that corresponds with the color can provide another way to differentiate between, say, purple and blue.

Lighting

We beat this drum often: provide adequate lighting.

If you’re using low lighting for atmosphere, that can be cool. Please provide spotlighting for workspaces, puzzles, and inputs.

This will help improve the experience for all of your players, not just your players with colorblindness.

The Bottom Line

Make the experience a bit smoother for everyone by improving color contrast, giving people more than just color to identify gameplay components, and providing good lighting.

There are disabilities that are truly difficult to design around. We may explore those in the future. Colorblindness, however, is one that doesn’t have to be a problem most of the time.

If you’re on the fence about Escape, Immerse, Explore: New Orleans this July, you have 1 week left to decide… unless other people claim the last few tickets first.

The last day to purchase tickets is Tuesday, May 28.

This tour takes place Friday July 12 – Sunday July 14.

Your Ticket Includes

This tour includes 9 escape rooms and numerous other awesome things!

• Escape My Room, New Orleans (2 escape rooms)
• Clue Carré, New Orleans (2 escape rooms)
• 13th Gate Escape, Baton Rouge (5 escape rooms… including their new horror game Asylum!)
• An immersive puzzle event set in the French Quarter, designed and produced by Escape My Room
• A weekend with Lisa and David as escape room tour guides
• A talk by Lisa and David
• A catered group meal
• Bus transportation to 13th Gate Escape
• Exclusive discount coupons to book additional escape rooms at these venues
• Networking with other tour attendees
• The option to play an escape room with Lisa or David
• Event t-shirt

We have an incredible group of folks coming to this event from all over the country… and even from the other side of the world. Yes, 1 person is coming from Australia! On this trip you will have teammates who are as excited about these escape rooms as you are!

This is all included in your ticket for $799 per person.

Take Advantage

While in town, you can take advantage of the amazing food, drink, and partying that New Orleans has to offer.

Escape My Room will have Escape Extinction: Sharks running at the aquarium. Clue Carré will have new games open at their new location in Surge Trampoline Park. While these games aren’t officially part of the tour, you will have time to book them while you are in town. You will be some of the first players in the community to see these new attractions.

Don’t Wait

These tickets are only available until Tuesday, May 28th. There are only a few left and we anticipate they will sell out before the week is up. Buy your ticket today!

Any questions? Read the FAQ or contact us. We’re happy to help you figure out if this tour is right for you.

As part of Escape, Immerse, Explore: The Palace this June, Palace Games will be running a special session of Escape the Palace.

We invite San Francisco locals and anyone who might be in town that weekend to join us for this event.

Details

• Sunday, June 2
• Palace Games (3362 Palace Drive, San Francisco, CA 94123)
• 9:30am – Talk by Lisa and David, light breakfast served
• 11:00am – Escape the Palace

Why Join?

• Escape the Palace is only available for groups of 30 or more people. This is your chance to play.
• Lisa and David will give a talk. It will be informative and funny.
• You’ll get to meet enthusiasts from all over the country who are in town for this event. This is a great group of folks to hang out with!
• You can spend some time chatting with Lisa and David.
• If you’ve already played The Great Houdini Escape Room, The Roosevelt Escape Room, and The Edison Escape Room and you’re eagerly awaiting their 4th escape room… this is your chance to be back at Palace Games in between.

Questions?

To learn more about Escape, Immerse, Explore: The Palace, visit the Palace Tour page of our website.

If you have specific questions about booking Escape the Palace / Talk Tickets, please contact us.

It is with great pleasure and relief that I report to you the closing of a most vexing mystery. 

And last night, we saw the Meow Wolf documentary… more on that below.

The Mystery of the Meow Wolf Postcard

Back in early June we received an unsigned postcard summoning us to Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I explained the particulars of the case when we put out a call for clues. 

We had our suspects, but we couldn’t solve it… until Lisa caught a break. 

Case Closed

For the past 7 years (with one exception), Lisa and her longtime friend Roslyn have chosen a single day to walk the ~35 mile perimeter of Manhattan. The event is called The Great Saunter (although they never do it with the group or even on the same day). This year, they did their Great Saunter in November.

When you walk 3 dozen miles with a person in a single day, the conversation tends to cover a lot of ground. Roslyn, who had been a character in our wedding puzzle, mentioned that she had visited Meow Wolf. 

With that little bit of information, Lisa unravelled the puzzle that had been vexing us for 5 months. 

We had suspected so many people from the escape room and immersive theater worlds that we completely neglected to scrutinize suspects from other facets of our lives.

Meow Wolf Documentary

In other, related news, while we still haven’t had a chance to visit Meow Wolf (and we truly want to), we did go see their documentary in the theater last night. It was equal parts entertaining and interesting. 

If this kind of thing interests you, it’s now available for rent or purchase via the interweb.

A few hot-take thoughts:

• The documentarians who pulled this together from old and new footage did a fantastic job. The film was energetic.
• Meow Wolf’s origin story was legitimately riveting. Watching a collection of talented anarchistic artists struggle with success, organization, process, and commercialization was compelling. 
• The friends who’ve been to Meow Wolf and described it to us did an amazing job. 
• The film ended exactly where I was expecting, which was a declaration of aspirational commercial goals. This was an elaborate and artful commercial. I can’t blame them
• Hearing someone say something like, “we don’t want to become like Disney” with contempt in their voice made me smile.