BUILD MY ADVENTURE

FAQs

It's not just you, this is all fairly unusual.

PUZZLEWORKS 101

What do you actually do?

We design, develop, and run one-of-a-kind, interactive, clue-led, site-specific, immersive experiences for individuals, groups, and companies.

Sometimes really fun things can be made to sound incredibly boring, so we prefer to describe what we make as ADVENTURES!

An adventure can take many forms.

Some have a lot in common with experiences you might already have tried like Escape Rooms, Scavenger Hunts, or Murder Mystery parties. Some don’t!

The key is that each adventure is designed and written specifically for you, your location, your attendees, and your event.

  • Is your mum a huge fan of Agatha Christie? We can design an immersive murder mystery with a cast of actors, friends, and family in a local manor that will have her playing at Poirot in a story written specifically for her.
  • Does your team need to blow off steam after ideating too close to the sun in Q3? We can build a multi-stop puzzle hunt around the city that combines high-stakes competition, hilarious forfeits, and light-to-moderate day-drinking.
  • Does your partner have an unnatural interest in public transport? We can build a thrillingly educational treasure hunt that takes them hurtling through all the best… bus stops in Sheffield? I don’t know. 

 

We work with you to find what adventure means for you and your group.

Then we use a decade of experience to build exactly that, with one or two carefully placed surprises along the way.

Yes!

Parties are the most common excuse, but they’re far from the only one. We can work on birthday surprises, proposals, anniversaries, stag- and hen-dos , and “just because we felt like it” Saturdays. We’ve also worked with companies and are happy to work on away days, product launches, and training events that needed more than a flipchart and a colder-than-ideal croissant.

An adventure is just a structure for an experience. If there’s a moment you’d like to elevate, complicate, celebrate, or gently sabotage for narrative purposes, we can probably build around it.

If you enjoy any combination of the following, you’ll have a great time:

  • Escape Rooms,
  • Treasure Hunts,
  • Murder Mysteries,
  • The Traitors (apart from the challenges, which we can all agree are bad),
  • Werewolf/Avalon/Among Us/Mafia/Blood on the Clocktower
  • Cryptic Crosswords,
  • Immersive Theatre,
  • The Mole,
  • When Captain Hastings says “By Jove!“
  • Derren Brown,
  • That David Mitchell detective show about crosswords,
  • Myst/Blue Prince/Quern, 
  • MIT Mystery Hunt,
  • The Mentalist,
  • Cracking the Cryptic,
  • Puzzled Pint,
  • Cicada 3301, Petscop, Amnesya, Notpron, and other assorted weird internet things.
 

If you don’t, please consider the above a fun list of things to explore!

As long as you like!

A lightweight city adventure might take a couple of hours. An online puzzle hunt could run for a month. A properly immersive murder mystery can comfortably consume an entire weekend.

Most adventures land somewhere in the four to eight hour range. Long enough to feel substantial. Short enough that people still like each other at the end!

Anywhere from one person to hundreds.

Some adventures are deeply personal and designed for a single participant. Others split large groups into competing teams, each with their own objectives, alliances, and opportunities to betray one another.

We design around the number of people involved so everyone has something meaningful to do, rather than standing awkwardly in a semicircle watching Ollie solve everything.

Not really.

We’re not trying to catch anyone out. We design for the specific group in front of us. That might mean fiendish cipher work, or it might mean lateral thinking, teamwork, performance, or simply noticing something odd in plain sight.

The goal is fun, not frustration!

We are happy to consult on projects of all scales that would benefit from some puzzle/adventure design.

This has so far included working with people building their own scavenger hunts for birthdays, working with game developers incorporating puzzles into their marketing strategy, and working with theatre companies to add moments of intrigue into their productions.

PRACTICALITIES

What is the process?

Like many good things in life, it starts with a short form.

You tell us the basics: what the event is, where it’ll take place, how many people are involved, and how ambitious you’re feeling.

From there, we book in an initial call. It’s a no-obligation chat so we can ask the questions that actually matter and work out what would suit you and your fellow adventurers.

If it feels like a good fit, there’s one more, slightly longer form to gather the final details. Then we get to work.

We sketch three distinct concepts that fit the brief and present them to you on a call. If you’d like to proceed, we agree the direction and send over the paperwork.

Before the big day, we travel to the location. We walk the routes. We look for sightlines, hiding spots, odd corners, useful staircases, willing cafés, suspiciously helpful bookshops. We work out where things will land best and make sure it all actually functions in the real world.

Then we build it.

On the day itself, our team runs the operation. We plant clues, brief actors, liaise with venues, and keep everything ticking behind the scenes so you can either take part or watch the magic unfold.

Almost certainly, yes.

We’ve built adventures across cities, inside homes, across country estates, and even on stage in a theatre. The principles are the same. 

If you have somewhere in mind, we’ll assess it and tell you exactly what’s possible.

Both, generally.

We design and run most of the adventures we create, with the exception of DIY projects we’re asked to consult on.

That means planting clues, coordinating actors, liaising with venues, managing timing, and making sure everything unfolds exactly as intended. You don’t have to host it, supervise it, or explain anything. You’re free to take part yourself or just watch it unfold.

The less you have to think about logistics, the better the experience works.

It sort of depends on the complexity of the adventure you have in mind. 

We generally work pretty fast, but I’d recommend getting in touch no less than a month before the event.

It won’t. But also, it might. That’s life.

The good news is that our background in live theatre means we are very experienced in the delicate art of contingencies, back-ups, and thinking on our feet.

Because we’re always there on the day to run things in the background, your guests will probably never notice.

We build redundancies into everything, track progress in real time, and quietly adjust as needed. If someone goes off-route, misses a clue, or becomes unexpectedly obsessed with a decorative fountain, we adapt.

Yes. Quite a lot of what we do is helping people shape ideas they are planning to deliver on their own.

That might mean designing puzzles, reviewing a structure you have already drafted, stress-testing something before it goes live, or helping you think through logistics so the experience actually works in the real world. We can also advise on integrating puzzles into other formats such as events, books, marketing campaigns, or escape rooms.

Sometimes we provide a full design package you can run independently. Sometimes it is just a conversation that saves you three weeks of trial and error.

If you have an idea and are not sure how to make it land, we are very happy to talk

PRICING

How much does it cost?

We’ve created adventures with three-, four-, and five-figure budgets. The scale changes. The thinking doesn’t.

There are two parts to the cost.

  1. Our Fee: This covers the design and build. Writing, puzzle creation, planning, testing, rehearsals, and the work required to make the whole thing actually function.

  2. The Production Budget: This covers everything external the adventure requires. Actors. Venue hire. Props. Travel. Printing. Rehearsal space. Set-builds. Fireworks. Flaming desserts.

If you want something small and contained, the production budget reflects that. If you want a manor house, live performers, and a third-act reveal that arrives in a carriage, that is reflected too.

Everything is agreed in advance. There are no creeping additions and no surprise invoices.

If you are not looking for a full build, we also offer consultancy for DIY adventures or more niche use-cases like writers using puzzles in their work.

Not strictly a question, but we can help nonetheless.

An adventure could be a series of anonymous envelopes containing enigmatic puzzles which arrive, one a week, leading up to whatever incredible birthday treat you already have planned for your ride-or-die second cousin Garrett.

It could last the length of one dinner, one phone call, or be a custom Escape Room experience that takes place entirely in your flat.

Congrats!

Let’s think about multi-day experiences. Large casts. Entire buildings transformed. Parallel storylines unfolding across a city. Things that feel logistically implausible until they happen.

Maybe you want a murder mystery on a private jet? I have no idea how much that costs, but we can find out together!

We’ll always be honest about what’s achievable, but the ceiling is higher than most people expect.

Yes!

LOOKING FOR ADVENTURE?

We are, as far as we know, the only company in the UK offering completely bespoke puzzle-led immersive experiences across a wide range of scales and budgets.

Whether you’re planning a huge weekend away or want to deliver a meaningful narrative via cryptic letters, we’d be happy to help make it unforgettable.

We take care of the design, planning, and execution of the full event and can travel wherever the adventure takes us.

We also offer a consultation service so that you can have your event, campaign, or other work informed by the expertise of professional puzzle designers.

GET IN TOUCH!