Hello, friends. We have a somewhat sad announcement to make. This week will mark the final episode of the REDivas podcast. You may have noticed Mike, Ruby, and Errol haven’t been around the last year, as their lives have gotten busy. Although I have continued in the meantime and could continue the podcast alone, my own life has been getting busier and I felt it was time to finally retire it. And so for one last episode, we’ve gotten the old gang back together and returned to our very chaotic ori...
Apr 29, 2022
This week I am joined once again by the esteemed Doctor Scott Nicholson to talk about his latest project with mEducation Alliance, EscapeIF! It’s a storytelling game system designed to create games for low resource classrooms. See the links below to find out more and try some out in your own classrooms! EscapeIF: http://escapeif.com mEducation Alliance: https://meducationalliance.org/ Global Proficiency Framework: https://www.edu-links.org/resources/global-proficiency-framework-reading-and-mathe...
Apr 15, 2022
This week I discuss The Book of Dreams, an anthology puzzle book, headed up by Lee Ballan and including entries from an all star puzzle design team! As of this posting, you can still support their Indiegogo campaign, with all profits going to Doctors Without Borders! Don’t miss your chance to get a great puzzle book and support doctors around the world!
Mar 25, 2022
This week we get nostalgic about text adventures with Chris Ainsley, creator of Adventuron and a guest star appearance from Errol! If you are interested in creating text adventures, check out Adventuron’s site which also has info on an upcoming game jam!
Mar 15, 2022
This week I am joined by Mike “Auggie” Augustine to discuss the world of ciphers and many tangents on treasure hunts and ARGs! Much fun ensues.
Mar 07, 2022
This week I am joined by Laura E Hall! We discuss her book, Planning Your Escape , which both teaches the history of escape rooms (going alllllll the way back), and everything you need to know to become the ultimate enthusiast! We also go on this podcast’s most epic tangent yet. There is mystery! There is intrigue! There is even romance! You can find info about Laura, including her book, at her website.
Feb 18, 2022
This week I am joined by the powerhouse that is The Wild Optimists! Ariel Rubin and Juliana Moreno Patel discuss their experience designing Time Drifters, a take home escape that can be played in separate households! Also discussed is their murder mystery series, Crimes & Capers, as well as tangents on the murder mystery genre, beta testing during COVID, and many…many 90’s references.
Jan 28, 2022
I am joined this week by the brilliant David Spira and Peih Gee Law of Reality Escape Podcast to reflect on 2021 and go down as many tangents as possible. Hope your 2022 is full of escaping fun so far! Check out Reality Escape Pod through Room Escape Artist’s site! https://roomescapeartist.com/reality-escape-pod/
Jan 16, 2022
For the last episode of 2021, I am joined by Chris Waters, the creator of Constructed Adventures! We talk about his epic adventure creating business, the importance of community, and just how much metaphorical duck tape it takes to create a seemingly perfect experience. If you are curious about his experiences, do check out his website at https://www.constructedadventures.com/
Dec 31, 2021
How can props help enhance an experience? What stories can they tell? And how awesome are animatronics? This week Haley Moore shares her passion for prop making! If you’d like to see some of the other amazing creations she has been involved in, check out her website at toenolla.com!
Dec 03, 2021
This week I am joined by Leanne Yong and Aaron Hooper of Next Level Escapes to discuss our non-escape room inspirations when creating designs! There are…many tangents in this one.
Nov 19, 2021
Apologies for the delay! This week I talk with Ruud Kool of Diorama Games! We talk about the experience of translating and redesigning his first game, The Vandermist Dossier (originally the Boekanier Dossier), and how the design process is never truly done. This game is currently on Kickstarter, so don’t miss your chance to get your copy! DISCLAIMER: I was involved with some of the narrative development of this game. Visit Kickstarter to back this project. Visit D i orama Games to see their othe...
Oct 12, 2021
This week Manda is joined by James Cobalt to discuss the wonders of VR and their impact on puzzle games and escape rooms. Manda might talk about Beatsaber too much. Follow James to keep up to date about his new escape room facility (yet another reason to go to RECON next year).
Sep 23, 2021
Manda is back and kicking off the REDiva season with the ever so talented Rita Orlov to talk about nonlinear game design and her upcoming Kickstarter for her latest project: Light in the Mist. Visit postcurious.com to keep up to date on the Kickstarter campaign and to check out some awesome content!...
Sep 10, 2021
Manpans and Errol talk to Leah Weitholter, a fraud investigator who made an escape room inspired game to help teach forensic accounting and fraud investigation! Errol has a difficult time containing himself with this shorter podcast. Find out about her work, her podcast, and the game at https://www.workmanforensics.com/ .
Apr 24, 2021
Sorry, it’s been a long time since the last update! Manda and Errol are joined by Lee-Fay and rant about a particular immersive adventure. Totally living up to their diva nature.
Mar 26, 2021
Manda, Ruby, Mike, and Errol are back together! At least while the baby sleeps. We talk about how escape rooms can help prepare for parenting, horror rooms, and all the tangents in between!
Feb 12, 2021
In this designer spotlight, we only have Errol because he left it until the last minute and no one else could make the time he booked! However he has a grand time chatting to Logan Giannini of The Enigma Emporium about design! They cover board games, puzzle games, escape room games, and running kickstarters! We also learn all this new stuff about Logan! It was so exciting!
Feb 05, 2021
Manpans and Errol talk with professional puzzle designer Matthew Stein about empathy-driven puzzles and puzzle design in general. Huzzah! This is a pretty deep talk! Matthew Stein (he/him) is a San Francisco-based puzzle designer, fiddler, composer, letterboxer, printmaker, origamist, and software engineer. With his company Enigmida , Matthew creates intricate puzzle hunts, alternate reality games, and puzzle-driven immersive experiences which aim to bring wonder to the mundane. To learn more, f...
Jan 29, 2021
Manda and Errol have a wonderful chat with Michelle and Yacine of Society of Curiosities ! Listen in as they tell us about pivoting from an Escape Room business to an online mail-order puzzle game company! And there are chickens.
Jan 22, 2021
Manpans and Errol talk to Tommy Honton ! Originally, it was going to focus on Stash House and his creations but then we started talking about art! So now that's the title!
Jan 15, 2021
The Divas interview Brian Corbitt, who designed Miss Jezebel of 60out Escape Rooms . Miss Jezebel is rated as one of the top three online escape rooms by the 2020 TERPECAs , for good reason, and in this video, we get behind the scenes with its creator! Also, we will endeavour to make all the videos as audio only as well, so it loads up into your podcast feed. Sorry about that!...
Jan 08, 2021
The Divas chat with Lisa and David Spira about 2020 in escape rooms, and what's in store for Room Escape Artist in 2021! This was recorded in front of a live audience! Huzzah! And you will be able to hear some of those people near the end as we all question REA about the escape room industry. So it’s unedited and given to you raw! Also, there are minor spoilers in this podcast for Errol’s game Present Quest , so if you intend on playing it, you should do so first! One last thing, even though we ...
Jan 02, 2021
Now, before you listen to our podcast, you should check out The Infinite Escape Room Podcast which we reference all through the episode! We have a wonderful time with Mike and Ben. Escape the Cat Cafe, featuring the Room Escape Divas Then, come and listen to our podcast! Mike and Ruby and their baby join us as well! Huzzah for a full complement of hosts! And Mike and Ben of TIER are brilliant! ^_^ At the moment, we do not have a youtube video ready, but one is recorded, so if you are interested,...
Dec 18, 2020
In today's episode, we talk about escape games you can play on your phone with Tammy Dorn and Andrew Ow. They both work at the indie-game company Haiku Games and discuss their design philosphy when creating escape rooms for the mobile phone.
Dec 11, 2020
In our 126th episode, Manpans and Errol have a fun time chatting to the founder of DASH , Debbie Goldstein! Listen in to learn all the secrets of starting a puzzle hunt that occurs in multiple cities!
Nov 27, 2020
Manda and Errol are joined by Lee Ballan, designer of The Pyramid , and they talk about all the things they like and don’t like about online escape rooms. If we were going to do a click-baity title, we would have named this “EVERYTHING WRONG WITH ONLINE ESCAPE ROOMS", but then we would have needed to put it in list form with motion graphics, and we didn’t have time for that! :D
Nov 13, 2020
In our latest episode, Manpans and Errol chat to Peih-Gee Law about Survivor (which Errol knows nothing about) and escape rooms (which Errol knows too much about.) Peih-Gee Law is most well known for being a fan favourite contestant on the reality show Survivor , where she played first in Survivor China in 2007, and then again in a returning All Star season Survivor Second Chance . She calls Survivor “the greatest immersive game in the world”.In her professional life as a private jeweler , Peih-...
Oct 30, 2020
Manpans and Errol talk to Jeb Havens ( [email protected] ) about Room Escape Jams ! Listen in to learn about creating an escape room in a day. Also, if you’d like to watch us talk, we’re also on youtube with very minimal production effort: Jeb Havens is a game & interactive designer living in Los Angeles. He has been professionally designing games and software since 2003, working for companies such as Google, Electronic Arts, and YouTube. He has worked across a wide range of platforms...
Oct 16, 2020
Today’s podcast is all about ARGs! The Divas talk with Michael Andersen of ARGn.com . A great intro to the world of Alternate Reality Gaming.
Oct 02, 2020
