I had the great pleasure of catching up with Spencer from Spencer is Puzzling for this week’s Meet Your Maker! We discuss his new game Squirrels Gone Wild, how he got into the puzzle business and his game reject pile. He also talks about one of my favourite puzzle games, Lost in the Shuffle, and how Rita Orlov of PostCurious may have inadvertently set the game on a different path!
Who is ‘Spencer Beebe’?
Hey, that’s me! I’m an ex-escape room designer turned tabletop puzzle game designer. I’m currently based out of the bustling metropolis that is Roseville, California. Spencer is Puzzling is still just a part-time gig for me but I’ll hit it big sooner or later 🙂 In my spare time, I doom-scroll through Youtube shorts and Instagram reels and then get super bummed out that I didn’t spend that time doing any of the things I actually enjoy.
What sparked your love of puzzle games?
Puzzle Island by Paul Adshead. Straight up, hands down, full-stop. It’s a beautifully illustrated “hidden object” picture book that has a secret message to decode on the last page. I remember being obsessed with cracking the code and when I finally figured it out, little 10-year-old me was addicted.
You started out designing escape rooms, when did you decide to switch to play-at-home puzzle games?
I teamed up with some friends to design and build our first escape rooms. One of the rooms featured several puzzles that came out of a deck of cards and one of my fellow owners said, “You know, you could probably sell this deck of cards as a stand-alone game.” And I said, “Nah, that’ll never work. But what if I made an outrageously intricate game that comes in a locked briefcase full of mystery and intrigue? Now that’s more like it!”
I toiled away on the briefcase game for almost a year before admitting I was way too inexperienced to actually create the game I had designed. I was pretty invested in designing some sort of at-home puzzle game at that point, so I revisited the idea of a deck of playing cards filled with puzzles. I had recently designed a custom set of Tarot cards for a ‘fortune teller’ themed escape room and was decently comfortable with designing and manufacturing custom cards. I was only a couple weeks into designing what would become Lost in the Shuffle when the pandemic shut down all of our escape rooms and wouldn’t you know it, that’s the moment when I became fully absorbed in designing and delivering an at-home game.
How much of what you learned from escape room design could you transfer into the tabletop experience?
I think there’s a lot that carries over: The experience of designing puzzles that are satisfying to solve. Creating a narrative that players progress through by solving said puzzles. The importance of a good hint system. Having a satisfying conclusion. Creating puzzles with “ah-hah” moments. Clearly laying out the rules ahead of time. I’m sure there’s a bunch more.
Lost in the Shuffle is one of my favourite puzzle games. Where did the idea come from and did it evolve much from your initial idea?
Thank you for saying so! Please enjoy this long-winded answer. I mentioned before that the first game I planned was an overly ambitious briefcase. For that game, I wrote a really detailed backstory and almost none of it would have been present in the game. When I started to consider designing something more achievable, I was excited to be able to use all that backstory I wrote and the game started to take shape.
I knew there would be a bunch of puzzles in a deck of cards and that as you solve puzzles, story “chapters” would unlock and the narrative would progress that way. The story was not at all humorous and involved a secret society of immortals and their dealings throughout history. I thought it was shaping up nicely but then things got silly.
I think I can trace the beginning of what would become that actual “story” of Lost in the Shuffle to a podcast interview with Rita Orlov of PostCurious. I was struggling with the design for the game’s box and Rita mentioned that for her game Tale of Ord (and likely others) she made watercolor paintings and scanned them to be used in the game. I chuckled to myself thinking about how crumby my game box would look if I made it by hand and then scanned it. I thought it would be funny to maybe someday make a game that warranted such a silly box. That led to the thought, “What if the whole game was about the fact that the game has been designed by a dubious character?” I started coming up with lots of goofs and gags and it occurred to me that I’m way more invested in my own ideas if they are funny. So I completely scrapped the original narrative, started fresh and never looked back!
Saying you are going to create your first game is one thing, but doing it is another. How was the experience overall and how did it differ from your expectations?
I figured Kickstarter was the right route for me. I’m super broke so there wasn’t any way I’d be able to afford the full print run ahead of time. But crafting/running a Kickstarter campaign, along with all of the marketing and audience building ahead of time is a full-time job all to itself. That was super stressful but I had been working on the game for so long that I was going to go crazy if I didn’t bite the bullet and try to launch it.
If you’re thinking about bringing a game to Kickstarter, I highly recommend doing a “smaller” product first. All the logistics with manufacturing, shipping and fulfilment aren’t so bad once you get to know them. It can feel quite overwhelming when you just know how it’s supposed to work on paper and have your fingers crossed that you’ve actually researched and prepared enough.
Which part of the process do you most enjoy when making games and which do you enjoy the least?
I think I’ve always liked entertaining people. So designing something that results in complete strangers having a rewarding experience is the best. The worst part is writing hints. Sometimes it takes longer to write out a well-thought-out list of hints than to design the actual puzzle!
When you have released such a well-received game, does it add more pressure when developing your next?
YEP! Great problem to have but it seriously stresses me out!
That leads us nicely into Squirrels Gone Wild, which has just gone live on Kickstarter. Can you sum the game up in a nutshell (Couldn’t resist!)?
You’re given the vitally important task of helping Chester the squirrel, comb through his ex-squirrelfriend’s diary to find out where she has hidden his nuts. Every page of the diary is its own puzzle and there are plenty of envelopes stuffed with ephemera for players to examine. And there’s an irresponsible amount of squirrel puns so that “nutshell” crack in your question would fit right in!
Why Squirrels?
Christine Little, the creator of Mysteries of Christine, is my co-designer on the game. It was all her idea. She just likes squirrels, dude, I don’t know what to tell you. She sent me a message saying, “Would you be open to collaborating on a game about a squirrel who had his nuts stolen and it’s called Squirrels Gone Wild?” and I dropped everything 🙂
It actually started out as a big team-building game for a church! Everyone loved the game which prompted her to see about refining it into an at-home game. That’s when I came in and started smashing up all the puzzles like a bull in a candy store.
How does working with someone else change the development process and what does this look like on a day-to-day basis?
Working with someone else is really motivating since now there are twice as many people you don’t want to let down. She’s in Florida and I’m in California so the whole collaboration was fully remote. Lots of phone calls and Facebook messages. The process was oftentimes chatting about the general shape and direction of certain parts of the game, then going off to design the specifics in isolation, then presenting our work to one another and from there refining it as a team. When I type it out like that it seems so organised and professional but it was pretty exciting and chaotic most of the time 🙂
What is the target audience, is it family-friendly?
100% family-friendly. I understand that the pun of the title does reference a bit of crass material, but the actual subject matter of the game is meant to be super whimsical and, dare I say, adorable.
What does the future hold for Spencer is Puzzling?
I’m likely working on too many projects at the moment! I’m going to list them all to try and manifest them: That “briefcase game” I won’t shut up about is finally nearing completion, it’s called If Lost Return To: wherein you set off to perform the good deed of reuniting this briefcase with whoever lost it. I’m sure you won’t get caught up in any grand conspiracies along the way.
I’m also working on a “serial killer gift basket” game called Basket Case. I’m writing an audio drama that features a hidden puzzle in each episode. And I have two other projects that I’m helping with that are big secrets with NDAs and everything! And, yeah, I’m still part-time at all this so it might take me a while.
Is there anything interesting sitting in your game idea ‘rejects’ pile?
I had an idea for a game where you’re investigating a little model castle that was made as part of a pitch from a medieval fantasy architecture firm that was trying to convince a rich wizard to let them design his next keep. I think the story would be hilarious but the reality of designing a model castle with opening doors and shutters and secret compartments and all that is a bit beyond me at the moment.
What are some of your favourite play-at-home games? Have you played anything of note recently?
Some of my faves would be:
- Light in the Mist and Morrison Game Factory from PostCurious
- Ruff Bluff by Trapped Puzzle Rooms
- S.O.U.P by Crack a Nut Mysteries
- Murder on the Ornament Express by CU Adventures
- All the “Chocolateral” chocolate bars from Enigmailed
I could keep going but this interview’s supposed to be about meeeee!!! I will say though that I recently got to play PostCurious’s newest game Ministry of Lost Things – Case 1: Lint Condition and it is equal parts wonderful, charming and clever.
Thank you!
Thanks to Spencer for what I found to be a really funny and insightful interview. In case you missed it, I recently posted my ‘squeak preview’ of Squirrels Gone Wild, so be sure to check it out for more information on the game.
The Kickstarter campaign is currently underway if you’d like to bag a copy for yourself!
Follow Spencer is Puzzling online
Discover more from The Escape Puzzler
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
