Shannon McDowell

I unironically love this font. But yes, probably.

A wooden box on a messy workbench. The box is painted dark blue and has greeblies to make it look vaguely sci-fi

In progress model of a miniature sci-fi city. The base is unpainted but many of the buildings are painted in shades of blue and grey.

Days 6 & 7 - We’re into the slower building stage where I’m not going to show some WIPs in favour of the finished product 🙂 but I did finish a small box and made significant progress on the city. Aiming to have the model finished tomorrow!

I appreciate the faith! 💕

Large pieces of XPS pink insulation foam laying on a workbench. I got to used my Proxxon hot wire cutter today for the first time. Not a fan of the set up instructions.

Day 5 - I have reached the larger props. No finished products today but lots of measuring and cutting. Half of a hidden compartment was constructed (twice, but I think I’ve got it this time!) and foam was cut for what will soon be a sci-fi computer console. Can’t wait to get back to painting!

I may be trying to build an escape room right now, but I still designed a new card game today themed after crochet. I knew my newest hobby would make it into a game eventually! Working title: Granny Squares

A stack of wood. Literally don’t know what else to tell you. It’s a stack of wood pieces sitting on a chair. The pieces have mitred edges which I now regret. Although I’m sure it will look great once assembled.

Day 4 - Migraines and bad weather made today a bit slower than usual. But I did design a base for the rocket and cut some pieces. In retrospect I should have avoided the mitred edges. Also designed some more buildings for the city but haven’t assembled them yet.

A pile of junk such as old pill bottles, tubes and gum containers arranged in a foam circle. If you look closely it almost resembles a city.

A small desktop cabinet that has metal doors with slats like a locker. The wood casing of the cabinet is painted white and there is an orange stripe wrapping around the cabinet vertically on the left side door.

Welcome to beautiful Crescent City - Home of Superheroes! A retro styled billboard in orange, yellow and blue. Text is mostly white and there are 4 different fonts used. Sorry about that.

Day 3 - Made a start on the miniature city prop - that’s going to take several days to complete. Painted a small locker prop and designed a bunch of graphics for the miniature city. Doesn’t feel like much. Maybe tomorrow I’ll start on some of the larger builds.

Day 2 cont - Forgot that I also had to make a trip to buy some more hardware and wood. I misjudged the size needed for a secret compartment and need to build a new one. Why are cabinet hinges so large??

The wooden rocket all painted and assembled! It stands almost 2 feet tall and is mostly a bright blue with a black pointed tip and fins accented in orange. Other details on the rocket are a darker grey-blue and make it look like a toy or cartoon.

2 small dynamite sticks made from pvc pipe and painted red. TNT is written on the side of both in black. If you look closely, you can see the shininess of the top coat that hasn’t quite dried yet since I was so eager to finish for the day.

Day 2 - Finished painting the rocket and I love how it looks! Very retro and cartoony which is the vibe of the game. I also cut some pvc pipe and painted the pieces to make some dynamite props. So glad I found letter stickers in my craft supplies so I didn’t have to paint them.

A colourful retro themed banner for a mini escape room game. It reads Caped Careers - become a sidekick today! In a 60s era font with an orange and yellow shooting star above the logo. The logo is over a dark teal skyline of buildings with a blue and yellow pixel sky behind.

A tub of peachy orange paint in the in foreground surrounded by a variety of wooden pieces that if you squint may form a cartoony rocket when assembled. All the pieces are primed in white with one piece just starting to get some orange paint.

Day 1 - I designed and ordered the banner for the game as well as some other print materials. Also cut apart the rocket prop that was made for me in advance, glued in dowels and started to prime and paint

Is it possible to build an escape room in 10 days? I’m going to try! I’ve spent the last few months gathering supplies and planning the design, and my goal is to have everything built by the end of the month. (Maybe it will happen, maybe not, but let’s try anyway!)

The end of a busy four days in Toronto! It was great to spend time with escape room friends and board game friends. Can’t wait to do it again!

Trees fill the bottom of the frame as the buildings of Toronto’s skyline rise above into a slightly cloudy blue sky. Looking north into the city, one of the structures visible is the curved towers of city hall.

Ready for @breakoutcon.bsky.social to start today! With a lovely view of Toronto from my hotel room

I think that also evokes the frantically-preparing feeling, just much less fun 😁

Does anyone else spend the night before a convention frantically assembling prototypes?

Ah *hunt*. Of course I make a spelling error in the announcement post 😅

The Cryptex Hint has officially launched!

An advertisement for a company called Caped Careers whose logo is retro styled in orange and blue with a shooting star above and a tagline below that says Become A Sidekick Today! in a 70s inspired font. A banner below the logo reads A Mini Escape Room Adventure only at CK Expo. Above the logo is a futuristic city skyline with a blue and yellow pixelated sky. Caped silhouettes fly through the sky and pose on top of the buildings.

Spending the day working on some escape room graphics and remembering why I’m not a graphic designer 😅

Only a few days left until Cryptex Hunt time! A warm up puzzle is currently available on the hunt site if you’re impatient 😄

Finished my first crochet cardigan! Still need to block it but love how it came out. Lessons were learned and I have a list of things to improve for next time. But I’ve already started on the next sweater!

Congratulations to all the @cardboardedison.com award finalists! Wanderlore didn’t make it through but the feedback will help me rework my pitch so that the gameplay is more clear in the future

The programme for the Lion King musical, yellow with a stylized lion head, held in front of a decorated curtain across a theatre stage - waiting for the show to begin

Second row seats at the Lion King! So close I had to zoom out to get the picture 🦁

I hope that by making a rough sketch of where my strengths are, it will not only help me decide which projects to focus on but also give me a foundation for designing games outside my comfort zone. In the meantime, I would love to talk to publishers looking for the types of games above!

All of my games are very streamlined - you may have 1 or 2 things to do on your turn but the emergent gameplay and combos you can create are what makes the game fun. I haven’t yet managed a heavy game! Family to light/medium strategy is my wheelhouse.

I’ve been doing some thinking on my board game design style recently. I design a lot of co-ops, which are typically focused on teamwork - not difficult to win but a clever puzzle for players to work together to solve.

The last few days have been all Cryptex Hunt all the time as we gear up for the hunt start in a couple weeks. If you’ve ever been curious about puzzle hunts, this is a great one to be your first! Register a team at www.Cryptexhunt.com

Cant wait to see everyone at Breakout Con!

Shopping for used books as props in an escape room tomorrow. What books would a supervillain have on his shelves?

On the other hand, we played several games of Pokémon Splendor which is always fun!

Tried to play some new board games yesterday. You know you’re exhausted/burnt out when you open the box, take a look at all the components you have to punch out and just give up lol. I am definitely appreciating clean, streamlined design recently.