The Box
In 2021, I went on a two-month volunteering trip to Europe. Before I left, I gave four different friends a box and told them not to open it until the day I left.
The boxes each contained a note along with a puzzle element that needed to be combined with the others to be solved:
- One box contained a Rubik's cube that, when solved, opened up to reveal a black light
- Another box contained crossword puzzle that revealed a code word when solved
- The third box contained a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle that revealed a code when solved
- The last box contained a small hotel safe along with a hidden cipher that was only revealed by black light
The goal of the puzzle hunt was to open the safe, but in order to get there, my friends had to find each other, combine their items, and work together to solve a variety of puzzles around the city of Seattle including:
- An online game that revealed a clue when a certain high score was reached
- GPS coordinates leading to a lockbox buried in my back yard
- A SoundCloud account that contained a song, which revealed a message when played backwards
- A trivia game where the answers could be found on the trail signs at a nearby hike
- A sticker put up in a public graffiti area in the city that contained the code word for a cipher
In the end, the final cipher revealed the code for the safe, which had some little prizes inside, and a note congratulating them on finishing.
