Producing Enigma is a puzzling experience!
10 months ago
– Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 06:29:04 AM
The Playtesting Process
While we playtest all the games we publish, most don't require nearly as much playtesting as Enigma has had. The authors playtested with their own gamer victims … er, friends … as they wrote the books, and again before final turnover. Then we did ANOTHER three rounds of testing in-house!
Michelle Nephew, Atlas Games Co-Owner and Enigma Producer, comments, "Enigma has taken an incredible amount of playtesting, more than any game I've produced, in fact! The puzzle gamebook format of Unhappy Birthday and Cryptid Hunt is just so different from an RPG or a boardgame rulebook. Since the puzzles are so interrelated, every tiny change you make to one has the possibility of breaking others, so we've had to double check every layout tweak. Our staff was an incredible resource, and really stepped up to make the books as perfect as we can make them!"
Here you can see the lengthy art progression of just one puzzle from Unhappy Birthday:
What Our Playtesters Say …
"It was the most delightfully dreadful birthday party I've ever attended!" quips staff playtester Jenae Floerke. "In Unhappy Birthday I got to follow clues, solve riddles and puzzles, and really think outside of the box. I loved exploring the creepy Castle Slogar and getting to meet all of my favorite Gloom characters along the way."
"I love the map at the beginning with all of the cryptids," says Atlas Games staff Ross Waataja, who playtested Cryptid Hunt. "I personally am a sucker for a good map. Not only is the artwork fantastic, but it was really helpful for visualizing the journey of the cryptid hunter, and at the end when narrowing down the cryptids." Ross also says his favorite puzzle was the Bigclaw Map Puzzle. "It was the perfect level of difficulty. It was challenging enough that I made a few mistakes while doing it (I didn't just solve it immediately), but it wasn't so difficult that I had to get hints."
A Family of Fans
The enigmatic excitement of the Kickstarter is infectious in the Nephew household, too. The kids of Atlas Games Co-owners Michelle and John all got a chance to see the books as they developed, and chimed in with suggestions that make them more approachable for younger readers. Check out this Unhappy Birthday fan art from Sophie Nephew, age 14. Isn't Grogar so cute?!
Enigma Closes Next Week!
Remember - the Engima campaign ends on February 22nd at 5:00 PM Central! Please share the link with your friends, family, and other puzzle lovers NOW! Thank you for your support!
Have you ever played a puzzle book like these? Tell us your experience below, and let us know which of the Enigma titles you're looking forward to most!
-Audrey DeLuca
Atlas Games Marketing Coordinator
