Another wonderful armchair treasure hunt has been released! This one entitled RABBIT: A HOMECOMING TALE. The hunt was created by Brad Jamieson of MidniteStudio, and while free to access, donations are being accepted to fund Cash Prizes for those who solve puzzles within the charming story. Currently the prize fund stands around $275 dollars with a special mystery prize given to the person who first solves the overall puzzle.
Join the adventures by reading Rabbit: A Homecoming Tale – the tale is of a Rabbit who had gone on holiday with his family but didn’t make it back home. Rabbit is hoping YOU can help. He has left clues within the story for you to discover where he has traveled. Can you solve all the clues and be the one who helps Rabbit back home? NOTE, this hunt is a FULLY ARMCHAIR treasure hunt. There isn’t any need to go to any locations realized.
Let’s learn more! Enjoy!
Six Questions with Brad:
- 1Q) What an awesome tale and hunt! Congrats on its release! Will you share how searchers can get involved and join the adventures!?
Thank you! I am just glad people are enjoying it. Hunters can head over to the website or to the Facebook group and they can find the rules and pdf (downloadable from the FB group only). Note that the mobile website cuts off some of the pdf for some reason. Technology!!!
Once you have access to the pdf, just start reading and solving! It should be noted that there is an initial puzzle in the book that needs to be solved in order to be able to submit solves. All solves need to be sent via the the right place on the website. If you don’t know the right place, you haven’t solved the puzzle!
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- 2Q) What is the treasure prize for solving Rabbit: A Homecoming Tale? Is there an end date for the hunt?
The prize is variable, and will get bigger (hopefully!). I have made the hunt free to join, and have asked anyone who is getting some enjoyment to kindly donate some money to me. Of that money, I am keeping half to cover my costs and time, and donating the other half back as prize money. The Pool currently stands at about $US 275, and will be split across the 7 Chapters. There is also a very secret (fun) prize for the overall win!
As of now, I have no plans for an end date. It will depend greatly on how quickly things are getting solved, how many clues I have to give, and whether or not I jump on to another project and want to wrap this one up.
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- 3Q) Can you offer any advice for those taking up the challenge of Rabbit: A Homecoming Tale, and to those maybe brand new to the hobby?
I am a fan of The Secret by Byron Preiss. I saw some of the John Jude Palencar artwork and researched what it was all about, and got hooked. As that was my introduction to online and armchair treasure hunts, I have taken a lot from the style of that hunt. I love to drop little hints to previous hunts, so looking into that hunt in particular will serve people well. All of my hunts are diabolically simple. Many hunters over-complicate my puzzles and go astray when they are so close to the right place. Use the images and the text equally, as all the clues are spread out.
I will also say, be on the lookout for codes. Codes of all kinds, presented in all kinds of ways. There may be a lot more to the work than will be seen on first glance. By the same token, don’t discount the story- that forest may yield some trees!
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- 4Q) Can you provide a type of rating for this hunt’s difficulty? Do you feel the puzzles of Rabbit are more difficult than previous puzzles you have crafted or about the same? Will you share some about your previous puzzles?
This is a hard question! I think that Rabbit is easy, but I know the answers and the clues. I have purposefully made Rabbit harder than the previous set of hunts I have made. Some of those hunts were solved in hours, some were solved in over 100 days, some, after over a year still remain unsolved. Rabbit is definitely visually harder to ‘read’ as a puzzle, but I could have made it a lot harder, and I am glad I didn’t! If I had to guess a rating, I would suggest 4/5- solvable, but not easy.
The previous hunts I did were based on the major arcana of the Tarot Deck. Each hunt had a theme based around the card (Magician, Strength, Lovers, Devil, etc.) although this was not revealed, and not actually worked out until a long way through the hunt. Each hunt was released one-by-one and was stand alone, containing a card ‘back’ that had a verse, and a card ‘front’ that had an image containing image-based clues similar to The Secret (maps, buildings, rebuses, etc). I am actually quite happy about the imagery in the Tarot hunts. Some of my best work!
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- 5Q) What did you enjoy most about creating the story and hunt of Rabbit?
It took ages and went through so many iterations. It was a puzzle unto itself, and I love puzzles. I actually got attached to the little Rabbit, and felt bad when I wrote some dark sections of the story. I loved doing the imagery, it’s my thing. I have a whole visual diary of hunt ideas, clues and codes, and all of the evolution of them. The problem-solving process of how to present the clues was my favourite. I hope people enjoy the process of unravelling them as much as I enjoyed the process of ravelling them!
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- 6Q) When did you first get involved in armchair treasure hunting? What inspired you to create your own hunts? Do you plan on continuing to create more?
The Secret by Byron Preiss got me hooked. For sure. I love John’s paintings. Then I started researching cities in the US- some of which I had visited- and learnt so much more about the city, and find that an interesting aspect of these kinds of hunts. In trying to solve the hunts (I thought I had SF!!!) I hit a roadblock and decided to put myself in the shoes of a hunt maker to see if I could get some insights into Byron and John’s process, in particular the limitations present in trying to pick spots in certain cities with a certain theme. As a hunt maker, I could also get insights into how hunters think, and how that affects the answers that were generated. I figured I could apply that insight to my own thinking, and reapply my thinking to the limitations that Byron would have had. Sadly, it yielded nothing! But I enjoyed making hunts instead!
People enjoyed the first series of hunts, so I decided to make a more integrated hunt, and out came Rabbit. I ended up choosing Art Nouveau imagery for the hunt because I am a fan of that style. It also lends itself to multiple opportunities to hide clues and codes!
I currently have plans for a real-life treasure hunt, possibly here in Australia, but there isn’t really a precedent for that here, or a community of hunters either. My next hunt will undoubtedly wager technology far more than before. App-based, augmented reality, right on the tech frontier, but that adds a lot of extra time and money to the problem of creating a hunt!