Murder Killed The Radio Star

Murder Killed The Radio Star was a murder mystery treasure hunt around London, which took place on Saturday 24 April 2010. Over 150 people took part, playing in teams of 3-6.

Our teams of intrepid investigators were charged with uncovering the truth behind the mysterious demise of fame hungry pop starlet Eva After, following her exit from prime time reality TV show Celebrity Water Beach! Drawing on leads buried in tabloid newspaper FLASH, players had to recover as much evidence as they could from five areas of central London, including interactions with extra characters hidden around town. The more clues they discovered, the more chance they had of correctly identifying which of our five suspicious characters committed the foul deed.

Our fiendish plot encompassed jealous lovers, desperate ambition, crazed stalkers and some very questionable audition tapes! After several hours of adventuring, our teams returned to the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane where all was revealed and our winners awarded a personal guided tour on The London Eye, worth over £800!

Good times were had by all and Visit London were kind enough to give us a very positive review.

An Expedition With Mr Mirrors

In March 2010, we collaborated the splendid folks at Failbetter gamesto create An Expedition With Mr Mirrors, a large scale game designed for Hide & Seek's Sandpit night, held at the Victoria & Albert museum as one of their monthly 'lates' evenings.

Mr Mirrors was just one of many games taking place that night and over 4000 people turned up to enjoy, amongst other things, balloon races, spy games, face puzzles and one giant pass the parcel!

300 people took part in An Expedition With Mr Mirrors, taking on the role of amnesiacs trying to reclaim their memories, all set against the rich backdrop of Fallen London

Travelling the hallowed halls of the museum, our players encountered strangers who offered to help return memories (in flavours of Vengeance, Desire and Curiosity), in return for solving their cryptic secrets. Only if you gathered together enough recollections could you learn who you once were.

There is a nice video of the night, featuring our game at the start, on the right! Thanks to the generous Miss Hannah Nicklin for filming.

A Brush With Death

A Brush With Death was our biggest event ever (at the time). Over 130 people took part, in teams of 3-6, trying to solve the mystery surrounding the murder of art critic Charles van der Rood. Teams were issued with a list of suspects and Charles' final diary entries, from which they had to follow leads and trails of clues to uncover more of the story and sort the guilty from the innocent. Was it Charles' wife? His boss? A sinister cult leader? Or someone completely different – only bold detective work could reveal the truth!

Our teams set off from the Vibe Bar to seven different areas of London where they had to cover as many of the 37 clue locations as possible, including interactions with seven minor characters who each had key information to disclose, in return for a favour or two, of course. Clues involved fictitious magazines, private detectives, secret handshakes, invisible ink, physical art appreciation and celebrity assassins. A good time was had by all, despite the weather not being so friendly.

Back at the bar by early evening, our intrepid detectives had some time to mull over their accusations before the real murderer was revealed. Six teams correctly identified them but there could only be one winner. Team North Horse were victorious, winning some tickets, courtesy of our friends at The Roundhouse and some accessories to assist with future detecting. The afterparty featured champagne, cake, applause and the wonderful indie-electro stylings of Club Rees amongst others.

The event also received a very positive review from Londonist, which you should read!

Adventure Capital

Adventure Capital saw 10 teams of treasure hunters racing around central London, following trails of immersive clues to reveal the finish line destination. The fun began at fantastic pub/venue The Glad in Borough and, after a brief explanation of the rules, the teams were issued with their unique starting clues and dispatched to various districts of central London to begin their quests.

Along the way, cryptic messages came in the form of hollowed out books, hidden packages, fake newspaper headlines, lurid phonebox stickers and even a gruesome hotel room setup, complete with fake blood and butchers offal! After an afternoon's adventuring, we had a winning team who made it the final destination – The Bridge Lounge on the Southbank well before anyone else. The game came to a close at 6pm when prizes were awarded and an evening of merriment could then commence.

The Enhanced Creativity Programme

In May 2009, A Door In A Wall was invited to produce a game for the Turning Point Festival at The Roundhouse in Camden. The festival was entirely organised by young people, drawing heavily on the pool of talent developed within the Roundhouse Studios and featuring an impressive range of live music, dance, visual arts and fashion. The festival took place over three days and was sold out!

The Enhanced Creativity Programme was designed to lead people around the different spaces used by Turning point, enrolling them in a fictitious scientific programme designed to build their creative brainpower by solving a string of puzzles around the building. Clues involved finding hidden photos, deciphering locks and making sense of some cryptic graffiti. Over 120 people took part during two days and we were lucky enough to be able to give away free Roundhouse tickets and limited edition Doc Marten's to our winners.