The Making of a Spy
We set out to make a murder mystery dinner. Or something in that genre. Having temporarily exhausted our will to work on solely digital projects we decided a change in format was in order and some sort of thematic, narrative party seemed the way to go. Mike and I talked at length about a number of different concepts. There were talks of AI and epic quests to find alcohol, everything from frats to fantasy functions. Through our discussions we came to set some criteria:
- We wanted to be able to invite our friends. Any of them should be able to enjoy our experience and not just those fascinated by experiential design.
- It must allow the guest to live out one of their fantasies without them feeling forced into the role. We wanted to keep the 4th wall as low as possible.
- It must be social.
These in mind we settled on a spy theme. There was plenty of intrigue to be had from a spy theme, a wealth of secrets to be found and discovered.
We discussed how to make a spy themed event. Our first iteration was a dress-up party. You would put on your best James Bond spats and attend a bougie dinner that you might imagine the MI6 agent engaging in. We would rent a restaurant & hide some clues around the place that hinted at a deeper narrative to be discovered. At first this seemed like a great idea, we began looking into restaurants and even found an appropriately themed British pub willing to host us.
Everything was good to go but at the last minute we backed out. Why?
We didn’t feel like spies.
James Bond is suave and chic but he spends more time designing shaken (not stirred) cocktails and courting beautiful women than he does spying. We had designed the 007 of experiences. It looked great on paper and probably would have been a blast but nobody would leave feeling clever or crafty, like they’d just cracked a case.
With that in mind we redesigned our project from the ground up.
The core of being a spy isn’t dressing nice or being somewhere, it’s finding something. Something secret, something you might not understand or should not have access to. We decided to give each guest a special induction to what we dubbed “Spy Cookout”. Everyone would receive a mysterious envelope with some details about a secret cookout taking place on Sunday, June 26th at 12pm. The locale was up to them to find.
We jam-packed the envelope with code books, photo negatives, and even a spy badge for each invitee. We had shifted the meat of the experience from the event itself to how you found out about the event and in doing so made you feel all the more like a spy.
Each of the items contained within the Spy Cookout invite needed to be tactile and look real. When trying to immerse a guest it’s always best to keep the 4th wall as low as possible. With that in mind we laminated the spy badges, printed the photo negatives on transparency film so that one could hold it up to the light to see it clearer. No item should be made of something jarring, something you would not expect it to be crafted from if this were a real secret message.
The experience focused on codes and observational skills, two attributes every spy must have. There was everything from morse to card suits, cyphers to logic puzzles. What we ended up with was an incredibly tactile invite that felt good to hold and examine, a sensation which is so rarely associated with play in this digital age.
I won't dawdle on too long. If you're interested go check out the Project Page for more information and pictures of the invite!
Ryan's Cool Thing of the Month:
The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell
(It's a classic but everyone should read it)