The famous Scandinavian catalogue store flatpak seems in good health, but is it? Rumours abound, and an inside ‘colleague’ has hidden a series of clues within the pages of the otherwise innocuous furniture catalogue. Conveniently, they have left a website trail to help eagle-eyed shoppers solve the many puzzles, and see if they can uncover the mysterious goings-on before anyone else does…
Background
Matt and Stephen form The Escapages, a publisher of interactive puzzle books, all with a strong narrative theme. Whilst their books Miracle 47, Prisoner 7, Arrival,Escape The Compound and Vice Versa have become internationally-popular puzzle escape books, they wanted a much grander challenge. Enter flatpak.
Puzzles are everywhere, as are catalogues. Early in 2019, an idea was formed – what if there was a puzzle book, disguised as a Scandinavian furniture catalogue, where there was a logic puzzle hidden on every single page? It would have to be a good length, use gorgeous full-colour photographs and images, look almost identical to other catalogues you may have on your coffee table and, most importantly, have a really strong narrative arc hidden within the puzzles.
Under the hood
This is a grand ambition, and we have released over 60 mock-up pages on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as part of the play testing process. Having fully funded in under 36 hours, we are now keen to develop our catalogue even further, with your feedback and stretch goals.
On almost every page will be a logic puzzle of some sort, all originally created for flatpak. There will be number puzzles, anagrams, hidden words, morse, braille and some image clues. This will be supported online by our website, which will give 24/7 access to check your answers and help build the narrative. We also have a growing forum, and will add hints and clues to help you along the way.
Rewards & Stretch Goals
We have a whole host of fantastic rewards, from a physical copy of the catalogue, right through to the chance to name a product or even use a photo of your own furniture item in the catalogue. We also have a tier for people who want to buy two catalogues, and for catalogue/book combinations. We also have some incredible, and met, stretch goals.
Join the flatpaker community! Tape measure optional.
We have spoken to several commercial printers, and have chosen one in the UK with a worldwide reputation. As well as having the narrative fully planned out, we have a functioning website to supply answers, and have built the frameworks for many of the pages already. Our supplier has confirmed a nine day turnaround, and we will endeavour to send out catalogues from our UK base by the end of March 2020. We know the importance of communication, and will update all our backers with all the juicy behind-the-scenes footage and detail that is so important. We are working together on this project, so we are far less reliant on one person slowing the process down. What’s more, we are too ridiculously excited to see this project come to life to want anyone let down. We have delivered worldwide, ahead of schedule on other projects outside of Kickstarter, and will use this prior experience to ensure no-one is let down.