The Puzzlemaker Chronicles: An Interview With.... Chris Leigh!
Lessons From the Kickstarter: Airmail Adventures
By Brent Price (and interviewing Chris Leigh)
Chris Leigh is an avid gamer and role-player, creator of a set of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition condition chips and the Tome of Spell Holding; and a gamer who hoped to take his love of games to launch his own mail-based at home mystery game. Chris launched a Kickstarter called “Airmail Adventures: The Lost Journal of Flintlock Flynn.” Designed as an at-home mystery puzzle experience, it was kid-focused, planned as 6 episodes, and used paper components, maps, a compass, a journal, letters., and more to take you on an adventure stemming from a family secret!
After sending several prototypes out for reviewers, the game went up on Kickstarter on May 2nd of 2019, and was cancelled on May 30th, having only achieved 31% of the required funding. Always curious as to the experiences of creators and how we can learn from them all, I decided to interview Chris about his experience, and he was gracious enough to accept.
Please note: The interview was done over the course of a couple weeks through Facebook messenger and has been edited/cleaned up. Chris has approved all edits.
Brent: Thank you for agreeing to this interview! The main focus will be on Airmail Adventures, which was a Kickstarter mystery puzzle game that didn’t make it off the ground. We wanted to discuss the game, what got you into the hobby, any future plans, and discuss lessons learned for other creators as they enter this space. But, first, first, tell me a little about yourself and what got you into this hobby in the first place.
Chris: I'm Chris and I first got into the hobby with the idea of ARGs. I really wanted to bring fantasy to life for my daughter, so I wanted an adventure that would seem real to her but just be a fun thing for the family to do. That led to research and the purchase of various similar products--the big one that fired the most ideas was The Mysterious Package Company.
Brent: That is such a nice reason! What is it about The Mysterious Package Company (MPC) that triggered your ideas, and how did that first ideation process go?
Chris: I liked the idea of the mystery parcel arriving and the bigger narrative that ran into that. I was disappointed with the reality of it though.
Brent: The ideas this gave you percolated for about a year I guess?
Chris: Yes, the idea is so great!
Brent: What moved you from thinking about that idea and your disappointment in the execution of MPC, to actually wanting to try to create your own game?
Chris: Well, I started creating a game for my daughter, and after I put a bit of thought into it, I was trying to find a way to roll it out for other families.
Brent: What was your original concept for the game, and did that change at all during the process?
Chris: The original game was bespoke for my daughter. I tried to capture the same essence in Airmail Adventures, but I found it hard to pitch the difficulty of puzzles. Also I hate illogical or irrational puzzles which makes for a highly restrictive design.
Brent: What is the story of Airmail Adventures?
The story is that your great grandfather was a treasure hunter for the league of treasure hunters--parents were going to be able to upload their own photos to the website, so you could literally look your relative up! You would find a map in your attic alongside a letter from the league and a compass. The map had a magnet embedded between the paper, and if you used the compass on the map it stopped pointing north and instead pointed to a single location. You then went on to the website and filled in a form to let them know what you found. That started the adventure off.
Brent: That sounds really cool! What types of puzzles or game elements were included after you got started?
I had a map to be reformed [like a jigsaw], a code hidden in music, a piratical diary and a book cipher and a Where's Waldo kinda thing.
Brent: That really sounds fun! How far along in development did you get before you decided to try Kickstarter?
It wasn’t too long in development. I’m a big boardgamer, so I knew if I was gonna mass produce I’d need to use Kickstarter to get the volume.
Brent: Were any board games an influence on Airmail Adventures?
Chris: Not really it was just a mishmash of narrative ideas
Brent: With the decision to try a Kickstarter, what research did you do on that process, and what lessons did you learn?
Chris: I've done quite a lot of research into Kickstarter from backing a lot of stuff myself, to reading blogs, to looking at promotion.
Brent: If you were to launch a new Kickstarter, what would you do differently now?
Chris: I launched a Kickstarter yesterday! see end of interview of info [For this type of game], I think I would lower the price point and make it more paper based. Selling a singular experience for a kid at £40 is a difficult sell. Plus i'd do [tons] more advertising!
Brent: Those are good lessons! Any last advice for future creators?
Chris: Kickstarter is essentially one big hype machine. The more you sell people on the ideas before it goes live, the easier it is to succeed!
Brent: Any plans to try this one again?
Chris. Not really. The branding needed is too expensive at this point.
Brent: Thank you for your time, and good luck in your future endeavors!
I really thank Chris for his time and insights, and I hope you found this interview as interesting and informative as I did!
To check out his current Kickstarter and Etsy shop, see the links below!
Kickstarter: Tome of Spell Holding
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