“Stranger, your country needs you.” Lessons learned crafting a mystery
For one of my Shift projects this year, I worked on a virtual escape room.
I was inspired to work on this project after facing my lifelong fear of haunted houses by going to a haunted house near Ann Arbor with friends. My fear of haunted houses didn’t necessarily go away, but I realized how fun it would be to craft a mystery & suspense expereince for someone (or maybe I was just passing along my hatred of horror to others).
At the same time as I was starting this project, I was taking a computer security course, EECS 388. The final project for the course is a massive computer security puzzle, and I found whole experience incredibly cool–from the secret messages you could hide in different files and types of data, to the ridiculous storyline along the way.
So I decided I was going to build a cybersecurity “virtual escape room.”
Digging in
I started by learning about the famous virtual puzzles–Cicada 3301, Mr. Beast’s virtual riddle, and a variety of other ARGs (alternate reality games). At the same time, I was learning different computer security concepts and ways different types of information can be “hidden” inside different file types, like images and audio files in my computer security course.
After gathering a variety of challenges, I drafted out a few potential storylines for the puzzle. For puzzles like these, you want to make the user a hero. In other words, you want to put them in a place of importance and suspense–they’re the only one who can figure out a secret, and they need to do it soon, because something incredibly bad is brewing, and it’s brewing fast. The most exciting part about this was the opportunity to play on current news on campus or across the country, and to add in comedy and surprise. The creative process of using a storyline and digital experience to craft a storyline that pulls someone in is exhilarating, but intimidating at the same time, because you’re often wondering “will people even buy into this?”
Lessons Learned
Through making this project, I learned a great deal about crafting a storyline, combining digital experiences and different mediums to surprise and delight someone, and different ways to be creative using technology, something I hadn’t considered when I’d mainly seen technology used for functional uses.
I also experienced some of the “writer’s block” of designing a puzzle, and realized the best way to get over hurdles like these is to just watch someone try using what you made or looking over your idea for your own ideas. It’s extremely exciting to craft a suspenseful experience for someone, but it’s even more exciting to have people use it/see people use it. I learned the most putting the game in peoples’ hands and watching them figuring out (or getting stuck on) the different puzzles, and realizing different parts of the process I needed to tweak to make it feasible to figure out for someone who hasn’t taken a computer security class.
It’s difficult to put your own work out there for others to try out, but it’s also eye-opening, because people will surprise you with how they use something you built relative to what you expected.
I could go into detail about what actually happens within the game, but that would spoil the experience. Instead, I’ll leave this sign-up link for the form to start the game. Fill it out if you’re interested in trying out the game:
Special thanks to the people who pushed me this year
Huge shoutout to my friends that supported me throughout the year, because you all really made this year bearable. My sandbox, Black Cherry White Claw Chicken–meetups with you all kept me feeling like things could be normal and kept me creating. Meera Kumar, my “mentee,” shoutout for keeping me laughing throughout the year and introducing me to the strange world of horoscopes. And to so many other friends who lent me their time to chat for endless hours over zoom.
Huge bonus shoutout to the US government for vaccinating me. And Pfizer for making that vaccine. And to the factory where it was made. And to global supply chains. And to…
Jessie Singh
I’m a recent UMich grad who’s definitely not afraid of haunted houses and loves to not be living through pandemics. My hobbies are triggering gmail spam filters and avoiding horror movies. If you couldn’t tell by the photo, I live in Michigan.