PG’s Playhouse: Puzzles, games, trivia, & general nerdery

13: Neotropolis (ft. Jared Butler)

Every year, thousands of people (including me) gather in the Mojave Desert to live out their wildest cyberpunk fantasies. Jared Butler, owner and creator of the immersive festivals Wasteland Weekend and Neotropolis joins us this week to chat about Neotropolis, including the ever-evolving larp and missions aspect. We also talk about the variety of experiences available, including the interactive modules called "factions" and the distinct daytime and nighttime vibes.
Today's game is called New City, where every answer is a movie title with either the word "new" or "city" in it, but with a twist. I've changed a letter in the title of the movie, and players must give me the new movie title.
For a deeper dive into Neotropolis and Wasteland Weekend, check out our REPOD interview with Jared Butler in Season 7, Episode 2.
Wasteland Weekend website
Neotropolis website
Please note that after this episode, we will be changing our publishing schedule for PG's Playhouse. We will be publishing episodes every other week, and episodes will release on Wednesday
Full Show Notes
Production Credits
Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira
Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Theresa Piazza
Supported by Lisa Spira
Edited by Peih-Gee Law
Music by Matt Farthing
Logo by Theresa Wagner

12: Cyberpunk (ft. Jared Butler)

"Technology will not save us."
In the shadow of neon-lit streets, kids are jacked in and tuned out. This is the world of cyberpunk, a genre with a view on what the future can look like when technology goes awry. Jared Butler joins us to explore “cyberpunk” as a genre and what it means. Jared Butler is a voice actor who has also created two incredibly immersive desert festivals—the Mad Max-inspired Wasteland Weekend and the cyberpunk themed Neotropolis. We dive into the evolution of cyberpunk, its themes and aesthetics. Jared also shares the origin story and development of his immersive festivals and their unique take on combining live-action role-playing with post-apocalyptic and cyberpunk narratives. Today’s game is called Digital Rebellion, where the titles of cyberpunk movies have been translated into Chinese and then back again.
Full Show Notes
Production Credits
Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira
Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Theresa Piazza
Supported by Lisa Spira
Edited by Peih-Gee Law
Music by Matt Farthing
Logo by Theresa Wagner

11: Salad Towers of Pizza Hut China (ft. Lisa Spira)

" If we're only going to get one trip to the salad bar, we're really going to make that one trip count."
Only one trip to the salad bar? Lettuce really make it count.
David's wife Lisa Spira, co-founder of Room Escape Artist, joins us again for a trip to the salad bars of Pizza Hut China. Pizza Hut has developed many innovative market strategies, including stuffed crust pizza and PizzaNet, but when opening locations in China, their innovation may have backfired. Peih-Gee tells the story of how Pizza Hut limited patrons of their Chinese locations to only one trip to their famous salad bars, and how that led to a brief cultural phenomenon of building these architectural towers of veggies and fruit.
Lisa and David, who run RoomEscapeArtist.com, discuss their journey in covering escape rooms and the nuances of editing and managing a team of writers. Today's game is called Lettuce Play, a friendly competitive salad trivia game testing their knowledge of salads from around the world.
Full Show Notes
 
Production Credits
Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira
Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Theresa Piazza
Supported by Lisa Spira
Edited by Peih-Gee Law
Music by Matt Farthing
Logo by Theresa Wagner

10: Gladiatrix (ft. Lisa Spira)

“High Risk, High Reward.”
Fighting for fame, fortune, and glory? As it turns out, women also fought as gladiators. Just as with sports today, women in the ancient Roman empire had to battle stereotypes, societal norms, and adverse conditions to win a bit of freedom for themselves. Lisa Spira, David’s wife and co-founder of Roomescapeartist.com joins us on this episode exploring gladiatrix, the female gladiator. She also tells us about Escape, Immerse, Explore, their escape room tours.
Today’s game is called Off With Their Heads, where we take a word and remove the first letter to form a new word.
Full Show Notes
 
Production Credits
Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira
Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Theresa Piazza
Supported by Lisa Spira
Edited by Peih-Gee Law
Music by Matt Farthing
Logo by Theresa Wagner

9: Disney's The Extraterrorestrial Alien Encounter (ft. Theresa Piazza)

What's a day of family fun at Walt Disney World without churros, Cinderella's Magic Castle, and a show so terrifying they had to strap down the hapless guests to keep them from fleeing? In today's episode, we talk about the short-lived, bone-chilling attraction, The Extraterrorestrial Alien Encounter. This attraction only existed for eight short years, but it made quite an impact, earning the distinction as quite possibly the scariest Disney attraction ever. Our podcast producer Theresa Piazza joins us again to talk about working at Great Gotham Challenge, an immersive puzzle hunt adventure that takes place in New York City. Today's game is called A Ride Down Memory Lane. It's a grab bag of trivia about Disney attractions that no longer exist. There's also a bonus Before and After puzzle which combines Disney rides with movie titles.
Full Show Notes
 
Production Credits
Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira
Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Theresa Piazza
Supported by Lisa Spira
Edited by Peih-Gee Law
Music by Matt Farthing
Logo by Theresa Wagner

8: Why Do We Sleep? (ft. Theresa Piazza)

Theresa doesn’t sleep on the weekends, she says sleep is for the week. What is sleep, and why do we need it? Our podcast producer Theresa Piazza joins us to explore this bizarre activity that we spend almost half our lives doing. We talk about what happens when you don't get enough sleep, and share some tips and tricks for how to fall asleep when the dreaded insomnia hits. Theresa also shares some insights from producing our podcasts. The game today is called Catching Some ZZZ's, inspired in part by Theresa's last name. The first half of the game is finding words with a double Z, and the second half plays with idioms about "sleep."
Full Show Notes
Production Credits
Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira
Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Theresa Piazza
Supported by Lisa Spira
Edited by Peih-Gee Law
Music by Matt Farthing
Logo by Theresa Wagner

7: The Bat Bomb (ft. Dani Siller & Bill Sunderland)

The story of the bat bomb begins as so many horrible things do: with a dental surgeon in Pennsylvania who had some connection to Eleanor Roosevelt. In this episode, David tells the story of a completely insane weapon that was built and tested during the World War 2 era, but was ultimately never used. Bill Sunderland and Dani Siller of Escape This Podcast join us again to dive down the rabbit hole of the bat bomb. They also tell us about their podcast Solve This Murder. Today’s game is Right Off the Bat, where every answer is a word containing the letters “B A T.”
If you enjoyed this episode, check out our interview with Dani and Bill on REPOD S5E8, and you can find all their projects at ConsumeThisMedia.com.
 
Full Show Notes
 
Production Credits
Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira
Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Theresa Piazza
Supported by Lisa Spira
Edited by Peih-Gee Law
Music by Matt Farthing
Logo by Theresa Wagner

6: The Rise of the Golden Idol (ft. Dani Siller & Bill Sunderland)

Blank? Blankety blank! No, we're not censored. Rather, we're filling in the blanks to solve the mystery sleuthing game The Rise of the Golden Idol. This game plays a little bit like a graphic novel, where you're given images of fictional crime scenes and you need to figure out the order of events. What sets this game apart is the unique mechanics and fun storytelling elements. Guests Bill Sunderland and Dani Siller are writers for this game, and they join us again to solve some puzzles and talk about The Rise of the Golden Idol, including the game mechanics, hint system, and upcoming DLC (downloadable content). Our game today is called Precious Metals, where all answers are common phrases containing a metal, along with a twist.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out our interview with Dani and Bill on REPOD S5E8, and you can find all their projects at ConsumeThisMedia.com.
 
Full Show Notes
 
Production Credits
Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira
Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Theresa Piazza
Supported by Lisa Spira
Edited by Peih-Gee Law
Music by Matt Farthing
Logo by Theresa Wagner

5: Escape This Podcast (ft. Dani Siller & Bill Sunderland)

"Death Chalk... is it death chalk?"
Escape This Podcast? But we're just getting started! Of course we couldn't have a game show style podcast without having our good friends from Escape This Podcast on to share the fun. Bill Sunderland and Dani Siller, hosts of the popular audio escape room style podcast, join us this week to run a mini-puzzle for us that involves David having to put on some makeup. The game today is called Common Grounds (inspired by the NYT game Connections, no matter what Bill would have you believe.) The players must take four clues and find the word that connects them, and then take those four answers to create a new set and answer the meta.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out our interview with Dani and Bill on REPOD S5E8, and you can find all their projects at ConsumeThisMedia.com.
 
Full Show Notes
 
Production Credits
Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira
Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Theresa Piazza
Supported by Lisa Spira
Edited by Peih-Gee Law
Music by Matt Farthing
Logo by Theresa Wagner

4: Mini Golf (ft CU Adventures)

What a tee-rific idea! Today we're talking minigolf, the entertaining twist on a classic sport with an interesting history. Anne & Chris Lukeman, owners of CU Adventures in Time and Space join us again to tackle a subject very close to their heart. As they tell us in the episode, they're taking everything they know about creating amazing escape rooms and applying it to their new venture, Parcadia — a magical minigolf tavern inspired by D&D aesthetics. Our game today is called Hole in One, where I took a word, and "added a hole in one" by inserting an "O" into it to make another word. David then gives us a short history of minigolf, and Anne & Chris tell us about creating a new type of minigolf adventure by adding a story-telling element to the game.
If you enjoyed this episode, you can also hear more from Anne & Chris on Season 1, Episode 4 of Reality Escape Pod and consider joining the Escape Immerse Explore Time & Space Tour which will visit CU Adventures in Time and Space to play all their wonderful games.
 
Full Show Notes
Production Credits
Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira
Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law
Produced by Theresa Piazza
Supported by Lisa Spira
Edited by Peih-Gee Law
Music by Matt Farthing
Logo by Theresa Wagner