My friends and I design puzzle hunts for fun and for business. A puzzle hunt is similar to a scavenger hunt, only instead of collecting objects your team must solve riddles and puzzles to collect answers. If you collect enough answers you can discover and attempt to solve more complex puzzles and try to reach the finish line. For a large hunt we spend months creating puzzles, building props, hiring actors, and researching the event site. Past events included chasing a giant chicken, deciphering an LED display, talking with a mad scientist, interpreting modern dance, decoding a scene from a Shakespeare play, talking with live chess pieces, and visiting the planets.

Below are photos of Skulduggery Puzzle Hunts at Georgetown University, the Mall in downtown Washington, DC, the University of Maryland, and Durham, NC.

In 1990 I inspired my five housemates to turn our home into an art gallery for one night. 

This would provide a chance for us to share the visual art we were creating during the nights and weekends. The show was a big hit and soon expanded to include performers: poets, musicians, dancers, comedians, and story tellers. More and more of our friends shared their creations, and I scanned local coffee shops and galleries for new artists to invite. Preparations increased for each show: moving whole bedrooms into the attic to yield more display space, transforming a whole room into an installation piece, collecting and hanging art weeks before the show, coordinating invitations, cooking food and lots of cleaning. Out of town friends and family would travel to Durham for the weekend, just to see the show. Even the new Duke president (Nan Keohane) showed up with her husband.

Our run lasted 8 shows -- each fall and spring for four years, and the final show in 1994 featured 100 works by 25 visual artists, a handful of performers and 250 guests. 

In 1994 and 1995 we switched to Halloween parties: transforming our home into a haunted house with a dance room, costume contest, guided tour, theme rooms and surprises all around. The last big Halloween party in 1995 attracted 300-400 guests.