This is a puzzlehunt! It’s a cross between a treasure hunt, an escape room, a novel, a video game, and that one time you and your friends built a mind-reading Tesla coil that could beat AlphaGo and got raided by the FBI (we don’t talk about that any more) (how did the FBI find your Svalbard fortress anyway?)
There’s a story to follow, a mystery to solve, and plenty of puzzles.
You’ll begin at a yet-to-be-revealed location in Kentish Town and be given a puzzle. The solution to that puzzle will send you to the next location, where there will be another puzzle, and so on.
The whole thing lasts somewhere between 1.5 and 3 hours, depending how quickly you solve the puzzles.
That would be telling. But you can get an idea by following us on Facebook and looking out for our teaser puzzles, which we’re posting from now until the date.
That being said... there are certain types of puzzle you simply can’t do over the Internet, so there will still be a few surprises in store on the day.
We put our puzzles into a highly scientific Difficulty-O-Meter and it determined that our puzzles were 35.EOB QUITE HARD. You can get a feel for what sorts of things they involve on our Facebook page, where we’re posting teaser puzzles.
Our team of puzzlemasters will be on hand to provide hints, and we’ll have email and WhatsApp contacts you can use to get in touch if you are stuck.
We also have lots of different types of puzzle, designed to test you in many different ways - so you may find you alone have strengths your teammates lack.
Like escape rooms, puzzlehunts are best solved in a team! We recommend teams are between 3 and 5 people, but you play however you like. The maximum number of people we can accommodate in one timeslot is 15.
No. If you’ve played our puzzlehunts in the past, those pitted teams against each other in a race to the finish. Dreamcatcher takes a different approach.
You’re very welcome to play against teams of your friends to see who can finish first, but you may find that by the end of the hunt, rivalry will be the last thing you’re worrying about.
You’ll need at least one smartphone with a camera, a QR code reader app (like this one for Android or this one for iPhone), and some data. We need to be able to contact you throughout the hunt, so please make sure it’s fully charged.
You’ll also need decent walking shoes; the route is about 2km long but you’ll be on your feet most of the time. You might want to consider bottled water and some snacks.
Once you’ve booked on we’ll also email you with this list of things to bring.
There is a time limit of 3 hours for this hunt. However, we expect most teams will be done long before that.
Dreamcatcher takes place across several venues in Kentish Town. The start location is an as-yet undisclosed spot in NW5 2RX.
The easiest way to get here on public transport is to Kentish Town station, on the Northern Line and Thameslink. It’s 7 minutes from King’s Cross and 26 minutes from Paddington.
We don’t advise driving to the puzzlehunt, or indeed driving in London at all. If you need to drive, your best bet for parking is probably the JustPark spots on Regis Road, or try your luck with the residential spots off Leighton Road.
Yes but we’ll need to know in advance so we can make provisions - please get in touch if you need wheelchair/step-free access and let’s work something out!
There's nothing in this hunt that is unsuitable for children (e.g. in terms of graphic content). However, some of the puzzles are fairly hard so it's most appropriate for teams where most of the players are 14+.
If you child is 8 or under they do not require a ticket.
Absolutely. Some puzzles require an element of general knowledge and there is no shame in not knowing something. We actively encourage resourcefulness and a willingness to research.
All profits from this puzzlehunt will go to Ashanti Development. They work to improve the lives of people in rural Ghana by improving access to sanitation, education and medical care. Based in London and run entirely by volunteers, many of whom are Ghanian expats, Ashanti's operating costs are low so 100% of your donation will go to supporting the work they do. You can read more about the amazing work they do here.
We’re doing this for the love of puzzles, so we have kept the price of tickets deliberately low. If you enjoy the hunt and want to show your support for this awesome cause, do stick a few pennies in our online fundraiser! Every pound we raise will be doubled thanks to generous matching from Softwire Technology Ltd.
We'll not rule it out but... probably not. Our puzzlehunts are usually one-off affairs; see The Thief and the Alchemist (2016) and The Spy Who Puzzled Me (2017).
Do follow us on Facebook or on Twitter if you'd like to keep in touch and you'll be the first to hear about when the next event is taking place!
We’re a team of puzzle enthusiasts, makers, builders, hackers and science fiction nerds. We’ve even got an about us page if you want to know more.
More questions? Get in touch.