MindBlown

20/07/2024

Oh HELL yes! Shame for us in UK that only currently in N America but hugely inspiring.

Activate offers high-tech games that test your team’s physical and mental agility across a wide variety of real-life challenges. Once inside, you and your te...

16/07/2024

"An amazing event that I will remember for many years to come. I have never been to anything like it" - MM24 participant.

Here's the longer (5.5 mins) highlights video of this year's record-setting London Midnight Madness. With so many moving parts on the night, this video is often the most insight we get into the actual event - hope you enjoy!

09/07/2024

We don’t make it easy for Midnight Madness participants - we don’t even tell them where the start of the event is, they have to work it out! If you fancy a challenge, here’s the puzzle we sent out the week before the event, which tells you where the starting location was for MM24. This puzzle comes from one of our favourite regular collaborators, Sarah Dodd. Can you crack this one?

01/07/2024

How do you create "magic" in people's hands as a surprise? This all stems from watching various ancient artefacts suddenly "come to life" in the hands of the likes of Indiana Jones and various other classic adventure films. Could we create a similar effect as a surprise for the players in Midnight Madness? And if so, how?

We've already recently shown how we deliberately started Midnight Madness a bit disruptively this year, to add to the immersion and thought that anything could happen. We pulled a similar trick with the ending, having one more surprise puzzle after the main event appeared to be over.
Throughout the event, the teams had been collecting 5 pieces of a "Chrono Cube", which was essential to save the multiverse. These just looked like pretty 3D pieces that formed a 3D jigsaw, that they had to bring assembled to the finish line. We very much hoped that no one realised that these plastic bricks they had been carrying around all night contained hidden wireless tech, specifically tiny wireless LEDs, which light up when in close (30-40cm) proximity to a wireless induction coil.
After breakfast, teams had to place their cubes on glowing stands (also containing wireless LEDs) that we had prepared in the Grand Temple of the Freemasons HQ in London. Only then did the cubes "activate" as they were about to place them, revealing a final quick puzzle by lighting up only some parts of the pattern on the cube.
This short video shows a bit of the tech inside the cubes, as well as some of the teams solving them at the end.
We think there are a LOT of interesting uses of such wireless LEDs, especially if hidden or not suspected. Imagine an Easter egg hunt with a wand that made hidden eggs glow when the wand was waved nearby, etc.
How would you use such technology?

Huge thanks to Brett Kuehner and Steve Nicholls for all their help with the tech research and creation of these for us! Their websites are at the end of the video.

27/06/2024

You’ll no doubt have seen our posts about Midnight Madness, the epic immersive charity treasure hunt that takes place each year in London. We thought you might be interested to hear of its origins (we certainly were!)
Way back in 1980, Disney created a film called “Midnight Madness”, featuring Michael J Fox in his first ever film role. It’s not a Disney classic but it’s a GREAT idea for a game, with teams racing across a city overnight, solving clues hiding in plain sight to be first to find the finish line by dawn. Inspired by this film, Mat Laibowitz & Dan Michaelson decided to create the first Midnight Madness treasure hunt back in 1996 in New York, then with 20 players and just 6 puzzles. They ran increasingly ambitious Midnight Madness events each year until 2007, where they decided to stop & quit whilst ahead.
Enter Elisha Wiesel, a former player of the earlier events and partner at Goldman Sachs, who missed playing this unique game. Elisha found a brilliant way to bring the game back in a more sustainable format, this time as a non-profit fundraiser for the charity Good Shepherd Services, raising millions of dollars for underprivileged children and families in New York. The New York event continued, eventually rebranding as “Compass” and now runs every 2 years. Through Simon's design work for The Great Gotham Challenge (who were now heavily involved in Compass), Simon got to design part of the 2021 and 2023 Compass events.
We loved the unique nature of this game, so in 2021 Simon & Rob discussed doing it in London, only to find out by researching the event that 2 clever folks (Ed Wethered & Charles Astor) had already had the same idea and had run the game in London in 2018 & 2019, with the backing of Elisha & Jo Hannaford, then of Goldman Sachs and Ewan Kirk from Cantab Capital. They did something similar to New York, with Ed creating the charity Raise Your Hands for underprivileged children in the UK and Charlie & his business partner George Whitefield using their events company Sharky & George to spearhead creating a design team for the immersive puzzles and surprises that the event is now famous for.
Having worked on Compass, Simon approached Charlie to see if they needed anyone on the design team for the first London game post-Covid in 2022. They did, so Simon met the event Design Lead Chris Włodarczyk-Brickel and helped build part of that event, with Rob taking a role in Game Control, overseeing the game on the night. MindBlown then took a much larger role, going on to lead design of the 2023 event and then being offered to design, manage & run the 2024 event.
Simon's wonderful aunt Jean (with him in pic) designed his first ever treasure hunts, before he was even a teenager, with clues she’d hidden around her home and garden, kickstarting my interest in such things. We think she’d have been surprised to see where that path has now led, as we’ve worked on a lot of games, treasure hunts and immersive experiences but Midnight Madness really is unique in the immersive world. The sheer scale of a “one night only” game that uses London or New York as a game board, with mind-boggling puzzles hidden across iconic locations and now dozens of performers (or are they just people going about their business?!) to interact with is a lot of the appeal, for both the players and the many designers who create it.

Who knows what the future holds for Midnight Madness next?

26/06/2024

Recently, we mentioned how Midnight Madness London 2024 had a "disruptive" start and how we feel that adds to the immersion, that anything can happen. Luckily we have the moment caught on video! Simon's surprise here isn't great acting but genuine - as the Ravi character burst in a minute earlier than expected! 😁

12/06/2024

"This year was the best so far!"
"Best night of the year!"
"I loved the experience, it was one night I will remember for a long time!"

Wow! The player survey results about Midnight Madness 2024 are in and we couldn't be happier. The overall score given to the event was the highest for this event yet, with everyone saying they wanted to do it again in future!

"Maybe make it happen every month rather than every year? It's sooooooo much fun!"

Well done to the whole production team! 😁

06/06/2024

Want to see some highlights of Midnight Madness 2024? We sure did (we sadly don't get to see much of it when we run it on the night!)

06/06/2024

When we talk about Midnight Madness the "midnight" bit is easy to explain, with the event running from 8pm to 8am straight.

The "madness" bit is easier to explain with some pictures... Here's just some of the crazy things our players get to see or do as part of this epic puzzle adventure. Can you even begin to guess what is going on in each of these? We'd love to hear your suggestions or thoughts as to what might be going on!

04/06/2024

How did we start Midnight Madness 2024 and make it immediately immersive?
This year we wanted to be disruptive in a number of ways, to keep the players on their toes and give the thought that ANYTHING might happen at any time. Last year, Simon stood on the stage, read the rules out and then let the theatrics and game begin.
This year, on board the HQS Wellington, we deliberately had our protagonist (played by the awesome Beck Greig) burst in on Simon during the reading of the rules, announcing that the entire multiverse was in danger and announcing the quest to the teams. So we started the game before it "started" and also later ended the game after it appeared to end.....but more on that part soon. 😁

30/05/2024

Will post much more about Midnight Madness soon but wanted to share the most amazing part of it now! This year's Midnight Madness raised more for Raise Your Hands than ever before! But it's so much more than just a record 👇

- It means more support for young people across the UK
- Building stronger foundations for our brilliant children's charities

😄🎉

20/05/2024

Phew. Midnight Madness 2024 is over and we've already heard so many great anecdotes and stories about how this was the best one yet. The amount of money that was raised for the charity Raise Your Hands is still being counted but we know we've already smashed previous records by some margin and over £760,000 raised as of Friday afternoon.
From a personal perspective, Simon spent the night in the amazing set of Bridge Command, with a top group of performers mostly being some highly amusing "hi tech" droids.
Pictures below are of them and treating a player who has clearly contracted the deadly Kobayashi Maru disease! 😁
Loads more to say on this event soon and many more pics/videos
But now some rest/sleep....

18/05/2024

In just over 4 hours we'll be launching Midnight Madness 2024. This has been the dream design team to work with and is certainly one of the biggest events we've created and put on. We have London as the game board, a host of iconic and amazing venues, loads of top quality immersive performers, staff and volunteers and some really original and mind boggling puzzles that you just don't get anywhere else.

Best of all, we've already raised a STAGGERING amount for the charity Raise Your Hands - can't wait to share the final total!

Wish us luck!

10/05/2024

In just 8 days time, MindBlown will deliver our biggest and grandest immersive experience to date - Midnight Madness London 2024!
We wish we could tell you all about the incredible iconic locations players will find themselves in, the incredible immersive puzzles and actors they will be facing and some twists and surprises but it's all still top secret for now as we know some of the players follow us on here!
Best of all, the event raises a huge amount of money for Raise Your Hands and children across the UK.
If you've not seen or heard of this epic 12-hour overnight immersive treasure hunt, with London as the game board, here's the video of last year's event.
Get ready to have your minds blown! 🤯

Midnight Madness is the toughest immersive challenge out there. Players race across London to solve puzzles in the quickest possible time, while working thei...

25/04/2024

Been tracking progress of this ambitious game for years now. Finally it's open and love the fact that they're trying to push the boundaries of what games and escape rooms are. Almost a reason for us to visit LA...

The Ladder from Hatch Escapes has become one of the most buzzed-about escape rooms in the country, redefining how puzzles can tell stories.

18/04/2024

Love it!

10/04/2024

Have you seen Game Changer? It's available on https://www.dropout.tv/game-changer and comes highly recommended for being wildly inventive and with a great host and contestants. The premise is that there is a completely different game each episode and the contestants are not aware of the rules - they only find them out by experimenting, often with truly hysterical results.

01/04/2024

The other weekend we visited some of the best Escape Rooms in the world in the Netherlands. We played Molly's Game (rated #1 in the world on the TERPICAs) and newcomer The Alchemist in Amsterdam. Both had amazing and large sets that truly "came to life" and changed dramatically during the experience. Lots of fun puzzles too and both highly recommended.

25/03/2024

One of the best parts for us in creating Midnight Madness (an annual giant immersive treasure hunt that raises money for Raise Your Hands) is that we get to use some of London's most iconic venues, often as private hires for our participants to solve puzzles and interact with our immersive actors. Previous events have used the O2, The Gherkin, the boards at Piccadilly Circus, Madame Tussauds, Battersea Power Station, The Magic Circle, London Orbit, Regents Park Open Air Theatre to name just a few.
What exciting locations are in store for the teams this year? Only time will tell but we are VERY excited to see the teams' faces when they realise some of the places they are going to have to themselves on May 18th!

22/03/2024

Last night we playtested Bridge Command for the second time. This is a giant new immersive game opening at Vauxhall in a week. Was a lot of chaotic fun and sorry everyone for accidentally launching a nuke at one point - clearly my weapons training has room for improvement!
https://bridgecommand.space/

21/03/2024

Mindblowing! And truly beautiful.

MORPH TE (Taggenbrunn Edition) is an exploration of the relationship between humanity and robotics. In an age of endless automation and cold, technological prevalence, MORPH TE sheds light on a new kind of artificial life.

18/03/2024

On Friday we played Stay in the Dark in the Netherlands. This was an incredible immersive 2 hour game that really got our pulses racing. The "set" was enormously impressive, mostly because it was real and this hugely added to the immersion. It took place all over a giant abandoned building where we were often stalked by a very disturbed character. Sound and use of lighting was phenomenal as was the way they had crafted and augmented the spaces. There was also some lovely game design that meant even those who scare easily could feel braver and more heroic by the climax. Sadly it's shutting down permanently in 2 months and the rest of the run is sold out. But it just goes to show how you can creatively use old and abandoned spaces for something really special. Demise of the Gricers in Belgium is the only thing I've seen that comes close to this kind of truly immersive experience.
Are there any other "real" sets you've experience out there or where you genuinely believed it was real?

09/03/2024

We're extremely excited to have the wonderful Arlo Howard (they/them) join our Midnight Madness 2024 dream team! Arlo is an international award winning creator working at the intersection of theatre and games who will sprinkling their magic touch with the narrative of this year's Midnight Madness. Arlo has recently worked on "The Burnt City" for Punchdrunk and just been nominated for an Immie (Immersive Theatre awards) for writing/directing Order of the Golden Scribe in New York (good luck, Arlo!)

06/03/2024

What was YOUR first immersive experience or show?
I think ours was "Alien War", back in the 1990’s at the bottom of the Trocadero in Piccadilly Circus. This was SO ground-breaking and ahead of its time, with live actors (marines), an amazing set which we all hurtled through dodging facehuggers and full size xenomorphs until we escaped in the drop ship. It almost certainly inspired me to create a 3D Aliens set as my entrance hall in my previous accommodation (pics in comments)!
If you've not heard of it, this video is a fascinating watch.

Join us on Expedition Extinct as we look at the Total Reality Experience Alien War based on the Alien Movies. One of the first scare attractions the UK ever ...

26/02/2024

We love laser mazes and have created our own unique team one (see our cover photo!)
Would be interesting to do with this kind of budget and scale though!

I can’t believe what happened at the end…Drink PRIME Hydration, now at Walmart, Target, 7-Eleven, and Kroger Family Stores. For more information on PRIME and...

13/02/2024

What makes something immersive? Some of you may not know that my MindBlown immersive work extends into my home, which is well on the way to being fully covered in murals (I've already completely done one home previously). During lockdown I decided the kitchen should look like a lush rainforest canopy with moss-covered walls. It's all paint apart from some fake plants (and real moss!) round the edge of the ceiling. If you like this and haven't seen before, say and I can post more rooms I've done. Just don't ask me to come and do your home - I'm not very quick when it comes to this sort of thing!
And turn up the sound if you want an extra level of immersion!

07/02/2024

Last Friday we went to visit a venue we hope to use. But it turned out to be a much more valuable evening, as it was an open house where a lot of immersive event companies were invited. It's one of the things we most love about these industries: meeting like-minded people who are also doing things that are really cool and swapping stories. We met many friends who we knew would be there, some we didn't know would be there, met some people we'd wanted to meet for ages and met some wonderful people we knew nothing about but are now sure glad we do! Everyone seemed to be buzzing from all the introductions that were happening and sometimes we were doing. I genuinely won't be surprised if many of us look back on that night as something special and where a lot of great and lasting connections originated.
Huge thanks to Colab Theatre Productions for facilitating such an awesome evening!