Inventory

PRE-CLUES

Web Site

NICKNAME: Web Site

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Before game

LOCATION: Game Web site

PLOT SETUP: tabula rosa

PROPS: web site

PUZZLE THEME: n/a

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: In character: a corporate web site that introduces players to the look and feel of Doctor When's high tech startup as well as invites worthy scientists, investors, members of the press, etc. to see his mysterious invention. Out of character: Introduces players to the game and its tongue-in-cheek tone, builds excitement, and sets expectations that the game will be more theatrical and less competitive than many games; also introduces the creators of the game (us!) in the lab's "staff" section.

SOLUTION: n/a

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: n/a

TO DO: ?

Pre-Clue

NICKNAME: Pre-Clue

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Before game/application

LOCATION: Game Web site

PLOT SETUP: A major scientific breakthrough will be demonstrated at an invitation-only event.

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY:

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: Not clear whether we want to do this or what purpose it would serve (other than providing entertainment value for all).

Science Fair Projects

NICKNAME: Science Fair Projects

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Before game/application

LOCATION: Game web site

PLOT SETUP: Only those of appropriate (pseudo) scientific bent will be able to appreciate this demonstration.

PROPS: none

PUZZLE THEME: Mad science

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY:

SOLUTION: Applicant teams must submit a science fair project. We will reuse their projects in the science fair set.

BUDGET: n/a

CREDITS: teams

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: n/a

TO DO: ?

NOTES: Hopefully this will both be fun for the applicant teams and get them in a participatory frame of mind.

Part 1

Introductory Lecture 1

NICKNAME: Introductory Lecture 1

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity 1

LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Players have all come to see the unveiling of Doctor When's life's achievement

PROPS: PowerPoint presentation, projector, screen, PA system, time machine with sound/light/smoke special effects.

PUZZLE THEME: n/a

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The Doctor's creation is a time machine. Tongue-in-cheek tone of game through homologous survey of others' failed time travel efforts (lots of references to time travel in pop culture). Doctor When has been working on this problem since high school and is about to demonstrate. The Doctor's high school friend, Prof. Catherine Chronus has flown in to assist. Two of the key components of the time machine are the "tachyon aether pep ring" and the "quantum chronomentometer." Doctor admonishes audience to "Never use time travel for petty personal gain." Machine goes haywire.

SOLUTION: n/a

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

Jiffy Pop Solve In Part 1

NICKNAME: Jiffy Pop Solve In Part 1

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity 2

LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Machine has gone haywire. Instead of Doctor When returning, a bunch of gadgets returned. Each one is labeled with the name of a team.

PROPS: One physical puzzle (gadget?) for each team

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Doctor When is bouncing around in time and needs help to fix the machine/rescue him

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: The prop will be reused in at least one other puzzle.

Core Dump

NICKNAME: Core Dump

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity 3

LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Machine is malfunctioning, but no one knows why.

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: Something that looks like a stream of data (error log?) from the time machine.

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Doctor When is leaving subtle notes in the historical record to help. The problem with the machine is that the "tachyon aether pep ring" is all screwed up. Luckily Prof. Chronus is an expert in such matters.

SOLUTION: "Tachyon aether pep ring", or some similar pseudo-tech phrase that includes a subtle Pepsi reference.

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: Need at least one "help debug/fix the machine" puzzle/activity, but could have many more...and not all teams need to do all activities. Spongebob, Pineapple juice?

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity m

LOCATION: ?

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus needs a piece of information or hardware to fix

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The machine is fixed. Yay!

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity m

LOCATION: ?

PLOT SETUP: Machine has been repaired to enough functionality that it can be used to view the past.

PROPS: Video of time stream 1 of "the science fair incident"

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Doctor When’s real goal was to fix his childhood trauma: he had a crush on Buffy the cheerleader and thought he could win her heart with his science fair project. But some sort of interaction with Prof. Chronus's project made his contraption go awry and the cheerleader laughed at him instead of falling in love.

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

Puzzle suggestion (from ES): I like the "I need my locker combo!" puzzle, and the motivation could be that a geeky Dr. When actually created some sort of puzzle back in his high school daya that would remind him of his locker combo (he was absent-minded, even then!) but not let someone else easily figure it out. Since he created it as a geek in the 80's, this seems like an opportunity for a puzzle-y 80's reference - like, say, some sort of Rubik's Cube assembling puzzle, with the answer being a locker combo. (Oh, and if we can have actual locks that open "lockers" with those combos, that would be ideal.)

Jiffy Pop Puzzle, Closing the Loop in Part 1

NICKNAME: Jiffy Pop Puzzle, Closing the Loop in Part 1

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity m

LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: With the time machine now working, each team needs to reassemble its Jiffy Pop gadget and send it back in time to itself. [not sure how they figure that out...]

PROPS: Each teams' original Jiffy Pop gadget

PUZZLE THEME: Causality loops

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY:

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity last

LOCATION: Not in the lab

PLOT SETUP: Doctor When wants to fix his past.

PROPS: Video of time stream 2 of "the science fair incident"

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: With the players’ help the Doctor changes the past...but not in quite the say the Doctor intended. In some bizarre, unintended, Rube Goldberg way it actually works and Buffy takes a shine to Doctor When. Also, the Doctor will rematerialize at XX PM. Be back in the lab by then.

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

PART 1--OPTIONAL PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES

PART 1--OPTIONAL PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity optional

LOCATION: ?

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus needs a piece of information or hardware to fix

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The machine is closer to being fixed.

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

PART 2--MANDATORY PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES

PART 2--MANDATORY PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES

Introductory Lecture 2

NICKNAME: Introductory Lecture 2

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity 1

LOCATION: Prof. Chronus's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Players think they've returned to the Doctor When's laboratory to see him rematerialize

PROPS: PowerPoint presentation, projector, screen, PA system, time machine with sound/light/smoke special effects.

PUZZLE THEME: n/a

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The time stream has been altered. Prof. Chronus's high school friend, Doctor When has flown in to assist. Two of the key components of the time machine are the "tachyon aether pep ring" and the "quantum chronomentometer." Prof. Chronus admonishes audience to "Never use time travel for petty personal gain." Machine goes haywire. Prof. Chronus is bouncing around the timeline and needs help to return.

SOLUTION: n/a

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity 2

LOCATION: Prof. Chronus's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus is bouncing around the timeline and needs help to return. Machine is malfunctioning, but no one knows why.

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: Like in Part 1, some sort of data stream (error log?) seems appropriate here. Of course, we want to avoid the actual _puzzle_ being similar to the one in Act I...

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Prof. Chronus is leaving subtle notes in the historical record to help. The problem with the machine is that the "quantum chronomentometer" is all screwed up. Luckily Doctor When is an expert in such matters.

SOLUTION: ... should be the phrase "quantum chronomentometer" or some similar pseudo-tech phrase including a subtle Mentos reference.

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity m

LOCATION: ?

PLOT SETUP: Doctor When needs a piece of information or hardware to fix the time machine

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The machine is fixed.

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity m

LOCATION: ?

PLOT SETUP: Machine has been repaired to enough functionality that it can be used to view the past.

PROPS: Expanded video of time stream 2 of "the science fair incident" showing how the previous fix caused a trauma for Prof. Chronus.

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Prof. Chronus’s real goal was to fix her childhood trauma: she had a crush on Doctor When and thought she could win his heart with her science fair project. But the fix from Part 1 caused it all to go awry.

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

Puzzle suggestion (from ES): as with Act I, perhaps Prof. Chronus needs some information from her past, and this seems like a place where a geeky 80's reference could go over well. If Dr. When was a Rubik's Cube to encode his locker combo, Prof. Chronus is... a secret message included in her diary? An audio clue contained in a mix tape she made for Dr. When (never delivered)? What would be a geeky, gender-stereotyping, puzzle-accomodating thing that a 80's girl would use? The solution could be another locker combo, but that's boring. Maybe the solution is the name of a popular 80's book (Melissa suggests "How to be a Valley Girl" that she used as a one-time pad to decode her diary, which then reveals her whole science fair plan?

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity last

LOCATION: Not in the lab

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus wants to fix her past

PROPS: Video 2 of time stream 1 "science fair incident" showing that they've eliminated Prof. Chronus's science fair trauma (but not quite tipping the hand that they've returned everything to time stream 1)

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: With the players’ help Prof. Chronus fixes the past. Prof. Chronus will rematerialize at XX AM. Be back in the lab by then.

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET:

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

PART 2--OPTIONAL PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity optional

LOCATION: ?

PLOT SETUP: Doctor When needs a piece of information or hardware to fix the time machine.

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The machine is closer to being fixed.

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

PART 3

Introductory Lecture 1, Reprise

NICKNAME: Introductory Lecture 1, Reprise

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity 1

LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Players have just fixed Prof. Chronus's time machine and are returning to see her rematerialize.

PROPS: PowerPoint presentation, projector, screen, PA system, time machine with sound/light/smoke special effects.

PUZZLE THEME: n/a

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The time stream has been returned to the same condition as at the start of the game and only the players realize they're in an infinite time loop. Doctor admonishes audience to "Never use time travel for petty personal gain." Machine goes haywire.

SOLUTION: n/a

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

Jiffy Pop Solve In Part 3

NICKNAME: Jiffy Pop Solve In Part 3

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity 2

LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Machine has gone haywire. Instead of Doctor When returning, a bunch of gadgets returned. Each one is labeled with the name of a team.

PROPS: One physical puzzle (gadget?) for each team

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Players have to take charge/do something different this time to break the causality loop

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: The prop will be reused in at least one other puzzle.

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity 3

LOCATION: ?

PLOT SETUP: Machine is malfunctioning.

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The players know more than the in-character actors; they can fix the machine (solve the required puzzles very quickly this time...much to the surprise of Prof. Chronus).

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: Need at least one "help debug/fix the machine" puzzle/activity, but could have many more...and not all teams need to do all activities.

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity m

LOCATION: ?

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus needs a piece of information or hardware to fix

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Prof. Chronus is amazed at how quickly the players solve the puzzles. The machine is fixed. Yay!

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity m

LOCATION: ?

PLOT SETUP: Machine has been repaired to enough functionality that it can be used to view the past.

PROPS: Video of time stream 1 of "the science fair incident."

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: There is a way to hook up Prof. Chronus and Doctor When back in high school, thus breaking the time loop.

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

Jiffy Pop Puzzle, Closing the Loop in Part 3

NICKNAME: Jiffy Pop Puzzle, Closing the Loop in Part 3

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity m

LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: With the time machine now working, each team needs to reassemble its Jiffy Pop gadget and send it back in time to itself. [not sure how they figure that out...]

PROPS: Each teams' original Jiffy Pop gadget

PUZZLE THEME: Causality loops

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY:

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity next-to-last

LOCATION: ?

PLOT SETUP: Doctor When wants to fix his past, but doesn't realize he's causing his own problem (nor that Prof. Chronus is a better romantic match).

PROPS: Video of time stream 3 of "the science fair incident"

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Players change the past in a manner different from what Doctor When intended...but it has the happy result of pairing Doctor When + Prof. Chronus (and unintentionally "sliming" Buffy).

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

Dénouement

NICKNAME: Dénouement

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity last

LOCATION: Doctor When & Prof. Chronus's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Players have done something different to the timeline.

PROPS:

PUZZLE THEME: Wrap-up lecture, not puzzle

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Prof. Chronus and Doctor When are now a professional and romantic pair. Working together they accomplished what neither could do separately: build a functional time machine. "Never use time travel for petty personal gain." Buffy is now a time travel expert (and perhaps she's bent on fixing her past, too...).

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

PART 3--OPTIONAL PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES

PART 3--OPTIONAL PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES

?

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity optional

LOCATION: ?

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus needs a piece of information or hardware to fix

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The machine is closer to being fixed.

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?