Mairi Nolan

Bluesky, London

🕹️ Puzzle Designer @ Video Games, Board Games, Escape Rooms ✍️ Words in @escapeindustry & @theescaperoomer 🇬🇧 TERPECA, and ER Champ Ambassador 🌈 #LGBTQ+

Featured in: Favicon

medium.com Favicon

thinkygames.com

Articles

Escape room thriller Your House hides its secrets between lines of text

1 month ago | thinkygames.com | Mairi Nolan

, 19 March 2025 As soon as I played the haunting demo of Your House at Steam Next Fest I knew this was no ordinary puzzle game. A mystery thriller, deep inside a puzzle box of a house, all told through a text-based adventure. Developers Patrones y Escondites, you’ve got my attention. Something about Your House feels very familiar, almost like I know this story from somewhere.
The House of Tesla demo captures the electrifying feeling of scientific discovery

Jan 13, 2025 | thinkygames.com | Mairi Nolan

, 13 January 2025 Back in April 2024, I attended WASD at the London Games Festival. Having spent countless hours on Blue Brain Games’ masterful The House of Da Vinci series, I made a beeline for their booth to get my hands on the recently announced The House of Tesla. Now available on Steam, the demo remains largely unchanged in its current incarnation, though the release window has shifted from 2024 to 2025 - perhaps fitting for a game all about manipulating electricity and time.
Peering through the keyhole: a deep-dive into The Room series - Thinky Games

Sep 19, 2024 | thinkygames.com | Mairi Nolan

It’s not true. I did naaahht- Oh hi, Thinky Games readers! In this article, we’ll be talking about The Room. No wait, I’m not referring to the 2003 Tommy Wiseau film (although that might just be the crossover I’ve been waiting for my whole life). I’m talking about Fireproof Games’ incredibly popular escape room puzzle game and its equally successful follow-ups. Now before we get into it, a quick spoiler warning.
Untangling the strange and compelling world of Rusty Lake - Thinky Games

Aug 22, 2024 | thinkygames.com | Mairi Nolan

Before we dive into the dark and surreal world of Rusty Lake, a word of warning: This article will discuss characters, places, moments and puzzles from all across the strange winding timeline of games. To talk in-depth about the series we need to… well… talk about the games. While I’ve done my best to avoid major spoilers, you’ve been warned!The Rusty Lake series is more than just a collection of escape room-like puzzle games; it’s a little hard to define exactly what it is.
Heavier than a Feather

Aug 16, 2024 | mairispaceship.itch.io | Mairi Nolan

Heavier than a Feather is my entry to GMTK 2024 (Built to Scale). This whole thing was made in about 5 hours on Saturday August 17th ðŸŽ‰ All art, coding, puzzles, everything my own (@mairispaceship) Clue 1 Every letter is assigned a digit, from 1 - 26. There are no duplicates. Clue 2 My name, Mairi is 24. Clue 3 M is 4, A is 5, I is 3, R is 9... After that, you're on your own, sorry!Published 5 minutes agoStatusReleasedPlatformsHTML5AuthormairispaceshipGenrePuzzleTagsTwine
Beyond the screen: The interplay between video games and escape rooms - Thinky Games

Jul 16, 2024 | thinkygames.com | Mairi Nolan

So today, we see the video game influence everywhere in the escape room world. For example:Rooms that make good use of a single-use inventory system, quests, or checkpoints. Real life rooms whose gameplay is structured entirely like a game with live avatars you can control. Escape rooms that are quite literally based on video games. It’s not quite an escape room, but London and Seattle are home to the immersive Tomb Raider experience, based on Lara Croft.
How I tried (and failed) to be rejected 100 times this year

Dec 18, 2023 | medium.com | Mairi Nolan

Maybe it’s not a lot if you’re an author sending off hundreds of book and article submissions a year. Heck, maybe you’re a pick-up artist. I’m pretty sure those guys get through thousands of rejections a year. But for me, it’s a lot. I’m just a random person. A particularly rejection-adverse random person. The kind of person who never ever rejects a grocery replacement, and who is perpetually too nervous to point out when people are sitting in my pre-booked seat on the train.