November 18, 2025: A Mystery Where You Use A Computer To Pretend To Use A Computer

The escape-room enthusiasts of The Escape Game have a neat activity called DESCEND Inc. that can give you a few minutes of mystery-solving fun in your web browser.

It looks like it'll be a five-part "story"; so far, four folders have been unlocked. One neat aspect I'll have to remember for my own puzzle-making endeavors is that the solutions to the challenges are a word, which the directions then tell you to add to the URL.

This can be borrowed for any gaming-type endeavors where you host a website. For example, I could imagine an RPG where I send the heroes to TotallyNotEvilCorp[dot]com, the players solve a puzzle on the site that results in (say) "ribbit," and thus they then go to TotallyNotEvilCorp[dot]com/ribbit.

Anyway, DESCEND Inc. is a fun way to spend a few minutes, and maybe uncover a larger mystery at the same time . . .

-- Steven Marsh