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Missing on the Moon
Date: April - November 2023
Role: Creative Co-Manager
Teams: Project Management, Sound and Lighting, Story, Operations
Location: Blackbox Theater, Student Activity Center at UT Austin
Missing on the Moon was a fully-functioning escape room created by Texas Theme Park Engineering and Design, a student organization that I am part of at UT. It was our most complex escape room to date, with 3 different rooms, extensive use of electronics, many lighting and sound cues, and a thrilling narrative.
As Creative Co-Manager, I was responsible for ensuring creative intent was brought from concept to final execution, and worked with the Project Director and Technical Co-manager to lead the functional teams such as Puzzles, Set Dressing, and Electrical.
This was a 7 month project from concept/planning to finish, with work beginning in April of 2023. As with all of TxTPED’s projects, the story is our the first priority. We began with the narrative of a mysterious disappearance of astronauts from a moonbase, and eventually developed this into four unique characters, a discovery journey for the guest experience, and puzzle sequence planning. Our escape room opened to the public in early November, and was a huge success.
One of the creative challenges that I worked on in this project was the mood shift that occurred about halfway through the escape room. At first, guests entered a living area, with relaxing jazz music playing and warm colors being brought out by the props and lighting. However, once they discover that the previous astronauts were eaten by vicious aliens, the mood switches to an eerie, suspenseful, race to escape.
We achieved this sudden change by making the “power go out” with a loud crash, and subsequent flashing lights, and then guiding guests into our third room with colder colors, strange alien “goo” all over the set, and urgent audio cues. I loved watching guests react to this change- my favorite part is always seeing the emotional reactions that our work can cause.
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