Ravenchase, in the NYT!

The company that I used to work for, Ravenchase Adventures, just had an article published about them in the New York Times. It focuses on the trouble that such a company would have in this economic climate, but has an overall positive tone. I have a certain, extra measure of pride in this because, before I left the company, I was put in touch with the reporter who I in turn put in touch with the company president. It's like I'm almost famous!

My shallow pride aside, it's a really great company and I hope that this brings them some more well-deserved attention!

Photo of the Day

Zombie Hunters preparing for the Undead Invasion in front of Notre Dame

Pretending to do Graphic Design

Part of the fun of my job is that I get to pretend to be a graphic designer and teach myself all sorts of tricks in Photoshop and Illustrator. Here's a graphic that I made for a 007-inspired "luxury adventure experience" that we're starting to market.

If you know anyone with $20K to burn on two crazy days, let me know!

Family Fun in Paris

Ravenchase Paris did something particularly fun this past Saturday; we created a game for the next generation of treasure hunter and their parents! It was great to see how deeply the kids got into the game. The difference in the level of excitement between a six year old and a thirty-six year old finding a treasure chest is a matter of orders of magnitude. Here's the moment of discovery:

The only hitch was that these little geniuses (and their parents) solved the clues much quicker than expected. Next time I'll give them something deeper to chew on. Here's more pictures from the afternoon:

A Family Affair

What shall we call it, RavenKids perhaps?

Merry Thanksgiving Day!

One unanticipated pleasure of working for a treasure hunting company is that I get to deal directly with Chinese suppliers because, when cost is your primary motivator, there really isn't anywhere else to turn.

Most recently, I bought 100 promotional LED blacklights to give to players. We often use invisible ink in our clues thereby making blacklights an indispensable part of the effective treasure hunter's toolbox. I spent a good amount of time looking for the best price online until I came across Quality China Goods. In addition to the confidence-inspiring name and the website full of flashing HTML, they had ridiculously low prices and the option of getting the Ravenchase logo printed on them for a reasonable charge. I ordered them through "Joel", my customer service representative who was very attentive and professional. I had to get the express shipping to be sure that they would be here in time for the Paris Expat Olympiad (otherwise shipping would have been free) and they arrived on Saturday. I opened the box and, well, they are a little crappier than I was expecting, but still worth the price I paid for them. Suffice it to say that I'll be going back to Quality China Goods and their parent company, Shenzhen Wholesale, for future blacklight needs.

Beyond the general pleasure I get, as an economic liberal, from dealing with a Chinese manufacturer/wholesaler, I also get to read nearly perfect emails from their customer service reps. In their quest for good relations with their American customers, they are careful to never forget a national holiday (would we, in comparison, remember the date of the Zhonghe Festival?) which, when mixed with nearly perfect English results in well wishes of the sort that I received from "Joel" which serves as the title to this post.

Mmm, globalization. Merry Thanksgiving Day to all, and to all a good turkey!

Ravenchase: The Expat Olympic Adventure Race!

Brits? Yanks? Aussies? Canucks? Kiwis?

Just which national allegiance claims the title of the wittiest, the cleverest, the most cunning Paris expat community? Well, on December 1st, Ravenchase, with the help of several meetup.com groups, intends to determine just that. On that day, I'll be running an event for several different Paris Expat meetups, I've already got the Brits and Yanks on board, whether the Canucks, Aussies, and kiwis come out is yet to be seen, but it's hard to imagine that they could turn something like this down.

Ravenchase is offering this as a free event for the meetup groups as means to get our good name out in front of interesting, adventurous people. With just the Brits and the Yanks, I'm expecting at least 30 people, throw in the other nationalities and that could climb rapidly.

All in all, it's good news for Ravenchase Europe. It gives us some practice in creating larger events and, naturally, shows people how awesome we are. (Anyone other than myself notice how I've begun to refer to Ravenchase in the third person? I think it helps me separate the professional life from the private life which is, in general, a good thing to do.)

If you know any Anglophones in Paris, let them know, it should be a real hoot!

Ravenchase!

So, now that we're happily married (it's true! we're really happy that we got married!) I've had some time to dedicate to other things, like my job. "What's your job?", you ask. "Have you been living under a mushroom?", I respond.

It's working for Ravenchase Adventures, of course! According to my business card, I am "Regional Director, France". Translated, that means that I do everything, from creating their games, to finding actors, to finding clients, to putting on the games, to... well, you get the point. I do it all, but, thankfully, with a lot of help and support from the US.

"So, wait, back it up a little bit. What is Ravenchase?", you ask in wonderfully colloquial American English. Well, according to the website (now also linked in the sidebar on the left), "Ravenchase is the best thing that has happened to guide your adventure since the compass." I'm pretty sure that maps came before compasses, so if the list goes:

1. Map
2. Compass
3. Ravenchase

I think that I would have to agree with it. More directly, Ravenchase creates experiences, adventures really. Most of the adventures are something like treasure hunts, but not your average, everyday treasure hunts. These events have stories, actors, magic potions, and gadgets. There are public games, corporate games, and custom private games. In brief, if you can imagine it, it's safe to say that Ravenchase can create it and a lot more that you could never have imagined.

My job, then, is to produce all Ravenchase operations in France, based out of Paris. So far, things are off to a good start. We had our first event this past Saturday. It was called, The Quest for the Docteur's Dark Secret and it revolves around a World War II figure named Dr. Marcel Petiot who used his profession to kill dozens of Parisians. Mix in the Freemasons, a secret society in the Freemasons, executions, prison, and plenty of other ugly things. (Here's the promotional flier I created for it.)

All in all, it went really well. Everyone that played said that they had a great time and it would seem that it was sufficiently immersive that they were willing to run around with treasure maps without the slightest hint of self-consciousness. Here are pictures from that event:

Ravenchase - Event 2007-10-27

I'm already working on the next game, it should be a lot of fun.

That's about it for now, I'll be trying to post more soon, but chasing ravens is hard work... And if you know anyone in Paris looking for a good time, tell them to give me a ring.