We must rescue our Botanist so he can help us produce the best damn gin the world has ever seen!

A 60s spy themed escape-game-in-a-briefcase about gin

Players must help the Secret Gin Society rescue their Botanist in this 15-20 minute escape game.

Plot and puzzle overview

In an alternate 1960s where gin has been outlawed a rouge band of heroes - The Secret Gin Society - are fighting the good fight and producing the best bootleg gin the world has ever seen. But sadly the evil Prohibitionists Forces have kidnapped their Botanist! As agents of the Secret Gin Society you must work out how to open the Botanist’s briefcase and find clues within to locate where the Botanist is being held.

Scene 1

The players are presented with the briefcase and an introductory letter from the Landlord which:

• Sets the scene
• Gives the players their goal: to find where the Botanist is being held
• Gives the players a clue to a secret flap hiding a key to open the briefcase

Scene 2

Opening the briefcase reveals several props and notes:

• SpyMaster ‘89 - a covert communication device allowing the players to send and receive messages between the Landlord and the Distiller
• SpyMaster ‘89 instruction manual
• Word Matrix - For converting between numbers and words
• A book containing the Botanist’s to-do list
• Botanists recent expedition notes

In a book is the Botanists to-do list, which includes an item to send a code to the Distiller. Sending the code via the SpyMaster ‘68 will trigger the Distiller to reply with a code the agents can input into the briefcase to open a secret compartment.

Scene 3

In the first compartment is a bag containing a selection of seed samples in little bottles. Players must compare the seeds to the illustrations in the briefcase (or use their own botanical knowledge) to identify the juniper seeds and then cross reference this with the Botanist’s list to find which botanical garden they were acquired from. Then they must send this information to the Landlord using the SpyMaster ‘89. The Landlord will reply with another code the agents can use to open the second compartment.

Scene 4

Triumphant music plays and the second compartment opens revealing a mini bottle of gin for each player.

Get in touch if you’d like to play the game or hire it for your event.

The full-length experience

I’m currently working on a longer, more in depth game using the same briefcase. The plot of the game is similar except it becomes clear that someone within the Secret Gin Society is mole! So you must question the Landlord and Distiller using the SpyMaster ‘89 and use deductive reasoning to identify the traitor.

Technical details

The briefcase contains the following tech:

• Raspberry Pi Zero
• Battery with 10+ hours of play time
• Screen (designed to look like nixie tubes)
• A 3x2 metal keypad
• A 6 position rotary dial
• Push button
• Two LEDs which blink when a new message is waiting
• Two solenoid latches
• Photo-resistor to detect when the briefcase is opened

The game runs entirely on the Pi, using PyGame to render the display screen and control game logic, and a separate thread runs a webserver using WebSockets to provide a live admin interface accessible on any mobile phone.

The game structure is built around ‘scenes’ which set music and then wait for various triggers (such as inputting a code or opening the briefcase) to advance to the next scene.

When players send a message to either the Landlord or Distiller a simple AI state machine selects the appropriate response, waits a few seconds, and then adds the response to the message queue for that character which causes their LED light to flash.

Inputting a correct internal code will trigger one of the two solenoid latches to open.

The admin interface includes:

• Controls to start/stop/pause the game
• A game timer
• Ability to jump to various scenes thought the plot
• Shows the state of all sensors and game events
• Allows the game master to send in world messages to the player
• Plays music via Bluetooth or mobile phone