Matthew Hancock from History Mysteries is the subject of this week’s Meet Your Maker. He is one of the co-founders of the company and is responsible for much of its exquisite artwork! We discuss his passion for maps and the launch of his new crowdfunding campaign for The Roman Rivalry. He may also make a shocking confession or two by the end of the interview. I hope you enjoy!
Please introduce yourself!
My name is Matthew Hancock, I’m a designer and illustrator based in Lewes, UK. History Mysteries isn’t quite a full-time venture, though it certainly takes up a lot of my time. I also create editorial illustrations for various editorial clients and recently launched the board game You Know It! with my partners Jon Gracey and Viv Egan.
How did History Mysteries come about?
History Mysteries (or Mini Mysteries as it was originally known) was the brainchild of my co-founder Richard Soames. The original germ of the idea was “escape rooms for kids” but he fleshed out the concept with Jon, and the two of them presented their ideas to me back in 2019. I immediately loved it and signed on, and the rest is History (pun extremely intended).
So it was always the plan to make it family-friendly?
Family-friendly was always an integral part of the concept, from the level of challenge through to the tone of the story and characters. It was one of the things I liked the most about the initial concept.
Is it difficult to make a game that appeals to both children and adults?
I honestly have no idea if designing a puzzle adventure game would be easier for one or the other. My job as a designer is to keep the player somewhere in the sweet spot between “frustrated because it’s too hard” and “bored because it’s too easy.” My sense is that it makes no difference who the audience is, it’s just about getting them into that sweet spot.
What does the development process look like for one of your games?
The development process has been totally different for each of the games we have designed. Each has been a response to the previous one. We want to do something different each time, resolve the problems and expand the bits that are successful. I’m resistant to falling into a formula, but at the same time I’m aware creating a bespoke system each time is incredibly time-consuming. It’s a tough line to walk, but as always the answer is to just keep iterating.
The quality of the artwork and components in your games is top-notch. How do you ensure the highest quality and why is this important to you?
Very nice of you to say so! This is particularly important to me personally. Obviously the visuals help to sell the games, but really this is just indulging the part of me that was fascinated by the maps and code wheels and notebooks that used to come packaged up with video games in the ‘90s. They create a feeling of an intriguing world beyond the pages themselves. I still have my old copy of the Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles from King’s Quest 6 on my bookshelf.
What have you found your biggest challenges to be?
In a word; inexperience. We had no idea what we were doing when we started! It’s a much slicker operation these days, but you end up spending vast amounts of time pursuing creative and organisational red herrings that, were you a bit more experienced, you would know to avoid.
Do any of you have a background in education?
Richard is a teacher, but neither Jon nor I have any background in education. I personally don’t really look at these games as being primarily educational tools. It’s just one of the elements. History is such a rich vein for stories, characters and visual design. Leaning into the setting just means you’re forced to come up with more original puzzle ideas, rather than resorting to the same old “in the library with the lead pipe” murder deduction tropes.
How do you choose a time period to focus on?
Ancient Egypt and the Middle Ages were obvious ones to start with. They’re both incredibly visually rich, and there’s lots to play with. It took us a long time to settle on our third setting. We each pitched a different one to the others – I won’t reveal which ones because we may return to them later! We had a lot of players asking for Ancient Rome, but we were hesitant because it’s not as visually rich as some other settings. Then we came up with the concept of the game itself and it fell into place.
You’ve just launched a crowdfunding campaign for The Roman Rivalry. What can you tell us about the game?
We’ve definitely pushed the “escape room” format with this one. Players really responded to the more exploratory elements of The Medieval Mishap. In that game, you return to documents several times and they each give up another layer of information with every puzzle you solve. The documents in The Roman Rivalry are denser still. The maps aren’t just maps, they’re also labyrinths, strategic positioning and deductive puzzles, and hidden information puzzles. The action of the game moves back and forth between the two protagonists, and after a while, this adds an extra dimension to the play. A piece of information you gathered in the city of Rome for Agent Rubi might become crucial in how Agent Renata moves around Caesar’s Legions.
That sounds great! Are there any new gameplay elements or features that you are particularly excited about?
We get a lot of very nice feedback about the online part of the games; the music, the characters and the hint system. I wanted to push the presentation this time around, and really bring it to life. Our developer Laurie has been working incredibly hard to make a system that does just that. I can’t wait for people to see it!
Did you learn any lessons from your last Kickstarter that helped this time around?
We were really surprised by how successful the You Know It! campaign was. But also by how unpredictable Kickstarter can be as a platform. Some things would really appeal to people, and others went largely ignored. Puzzle adventures are inherently quite a different beast from a party board game. You have to hold back quite a lot to stop it from being spoiled! So we honestly had no idea what to expect. One thing that was clear however; a good video goes a long way!
Do you need to have played The Egyptian Enigma and The Medieval Mishap to enjoy The Roman Rivalry?
You don’t at all, no. It’s important to us that no prior knowledge of any kind is required to play our games. It might help enrich the experience, but it’s by no means necessary.
How important is feedback from players?
Feedback is vital for game designers. It’s impossible to know how something feels to play when you made it yourself. We really rely on player feedback to help steer us to better mechanics, ideas and presentation.
Looking ahead, do you plan to release more games in the series?
We are about to start work on our first collaborative game. It’s a History Mystery, but it’s set in the world of another, much-loved tabletop game. We’re so excited about it, and there will be an announcement soon! Otherwise, we have plenty of ideas for future episodes (including a literal Future Episode) but we’ll cross those bridges when we get to them.
Aside from these games, do you have anything else in development or are you fully focused on History Mysteries at present?
Our plates are pretty full at the moment, but I have a few nascent ideas for expanding the History Mysteries universe that I’d love to dive into. We’re also looking into a few ideas for party games along the lines of You Know It!. But in general, it’s all hands on deck.
Lastly, if you get time to enjoy any play-at-home games yourself, what are some of your favourites?
Here is perhaps not the place to admit that I am personally not a huge at-home puzzle game player. I’ve played a few, but I start thinking like a designer and pulling apart how everything works, and it completely ruins the fun for everybody else. I play a lot of puzzle video games: Return of the Obra Dinn, the Case of the Golden Idol and Chants of Sennar are recent highlights. My partner and I also play Monopoly Deal all the time, which I’m not sure is information I should be sharing.
Thank you!
It was great catching up with Matthew. I’m a big fan of the History Mystery games, partly because they are UK-based but mainly because of the high quality, attention to detail and fun factor! If you haven’t already tried one of their games I would highly recommend checking them out.
The main Kickstarter campaign for The Roman Rivalry has now ended, but Late Pledges will still be accepted for a limited time.
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