Laura E. Hall

Last updated
Laura E. Hall
LauraEHall.jpg
Hall speaking at the 2017 Game Developers Conference
Other namesL. E. Hall
Occupation(s) Game designer, puzzle designer, author
Website lauraehall.com

Laura E. Hall is an American immersive artist, puzzle game designer, and writer. She has written several books about video games, immersive entertainment, and escape rooms.

Contents

Hall co-created one of the first escape rooms in the United States. In 2022, Hall was the subject of a documentary about solving an alternate reality game puzzle 14 years after it was set, called Finding Satoshi (""謎の日本人サトシ""). [1]

Puzzles

Hall began participating in alternate reality games in college, and played Perplex City. She became invested in puzzles after moving to Portland and attending Puzzled Pint events. [2]

After Perplex City's completion in 2007, Hall continued to work on a puzzle that was still unsolved, Billion to One. The puzzle focused on exploring the concept of Six degrees of separation by presenting a man's photograph and his first name, "Satoshi", asking players to locate him. In 2020, Tom-Lucas Säger used image recognition software and located Satoshi, reporting it to Hall, who ran the website tracking information about the hunt. [3]

In 2022, Hall was the subject of a documentary about the Billion to One puzzle, Finding Satoshi. [4]

Installation Art and Game Design

In 2014, Hall and five friends opened the first escape room game in the state of Oregon [5] and one of the first 22 escape rooms in the United States. [6] [7]

She has since created escape rooms and immersive experiences around the United States [8] and the world. [9]

Her installation art and games have appeared in the Portland Art Museum, [10] XOXO, [11] and the London Games Festival. [12]

Writing

Hall writes about films, games, and culture for Letterboxd , [13] Dan and Dave’s Art of Play, [14] A Profound Waste of Time , [15] and The Atlantic. [16]

Katamari Damacy (2018)

In 2018, Hall published Katamari Damacy with Boss Fight Books about the creation of the 2004 video game Katamari Damacy , featuring interviews with creator Keita Takahashi. [17]

Planning Your Escape (2021)

In 2021, Hall published Planning Your Escape: Strategy Secrets to Make You an Escape Room Superstar with Simon & Schuster, about the history of the immersive entertainment genre and a toolkit for new escape room players. [2]

Related Research Articles

<i>Katamari Damacy</i> 2004 video game

Katamari Damacy is a third-person puzzle-action video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2. It was released in Japan in March 2004 and later in North America in September. Designer Keita Takahashi struggled to pitch the game to Namco's superiors, eventually seeking student aid from the Namco Digital Hollywood Game Laboratory to develop the project for less than US$ 1 million. As director, Takahashi emphasized concepts of novelty, ease of understanding, and enjoyment.

<i>We Love Katamari</i> 2005 video game

We Love Katamari is a 2005 puzzle-action video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2. It is the sequel to the 2004 sleeper hit Katamari Damacy. The player controls a diminutive character named the Prince as he rolls around an adhesive ball called a "katamari" to collect increasingly larger objects, ranging from coins to pencils to buildings, in order to build stars as ordered by his father, the King of All Cosmos.

<i>Pac-Attack</i> 1993 puzzle video game

Pac-Attack, also known as Pac-Panic, is a 1993 falling-tile puzzle video game developed and published by Namco for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis. Versions for the Game Boy, Game Gear and Philips CD-i were also released. The player is tasked with clearing out blocks and ghosts without them stacking to the top of the playfield — blocks can be cleared by matching them in horizontal rows, while ghosts can be cleared by placing down a Pac-Man piece that can eat them. It is the first game in the Pac-Man series to be released exclusively for home platforms.

Perplex City was an alternate reality game (ARG) created by Mind Candy, a London-based developer in 2005. Adrian Hon was the producer, designer and director of the game's first and only completed season, in which players searched for "The Receda Cube", an artifact of spiritual significance to the inhabitants of a fictional metropolis known as "Perplex City" which had great scientific value. In the game, "The Cube" had been stolen and buried somewhere on Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King of All Cosmos</span> Video game character

The King of All Cosmos is a character from the Katamari video game series. Created by video game developer Keita Takahashi, he first appears in the 2004 video game Katamari Damacy and is presented as a colossal-sized, god-like monarch who rules over the cosmos, which encompasses all the stars and planets in the sky. In the Katamari series, the King of All Cosmos instructs the franchise's player character, the Prince, to collect and roll up assortments of objects using a ball called a katamari until they are large enough to become celestial bodies. The character has had recurring appearances in the Katamari video game series as a major supporting character, as well as a number of crossover appearances. The King of All Cosmos is generally well received by critics and players, and is often cited as one of the most memorable or influential characters in the history of the video game industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keita Takahashi</span> Japanese video game designer

Keita Takahashi is a Japanese game designer and artist, his most notable titles being Katamari Damacy and its sequel, We Love Katamari. The original Katamari game was a surprise hit and was praised for its quirkiness, originality, and charm. Takahashi is married to pianist and composer Asuka Sakai, who has worked with Takahashi on various projects.

An escape room video game, also known as escape the room, room escape, or escape game, is a subgenre of point-and-click adventure game which requires a player to escape from imprisonment by exploiting their surroundings. The room usually consists of a locked door, objects to manipulate, and hidden clues or secret compartments. The player must use the objects to interact with other items in the room to reveal a way to escape. Escape the room games were born out of freeware browser games created in Adobe Flash, but have since become most popular as mobile games for iOS and Android. Some examples include Crimson Room, Viridian Room, MOTAS, and Droom. The popularity of these online games has led to the development of real-life escape rooms all around the world.

<i>Beautiful Katamari</i> 2007 puzzle-action video game published by Namco Bandai Games

Beautiful Katamari, released in Japan as Beautiful Katamari Damacy, is a video game by Namco Bandai Games for the Xbox 360. Beautiful Katamari is the fourth game in the Katamari series of games following Katamari Damacy, We Love Katamari, and Me & My Katamari.

<i>I Love Katamari</i> 2008 puzzle-action video game published by Namco Bandai Games

I Love Katamari was a third-person puzzle-action video game developed by Namco Bandai Games for iOS. It is a continuation of the Katamari Damacy series of games. It was released worldwide in the App Store on December 14, 2008. A Windows Phone 7 version of the game was released in 2010. The version for Android was released in 2012 exclusively for Samsung Android devices. In this game, the King of All Cosmos instructs the game's protagonist – the Prince – to gather as many objects as possible to grow a highly adhesive ball called a Katamari large enough so that he can pick up special objects to bring to the King so that he can regain his memory.

Katamari Damacy is a third-person puzzle-action video game that was published and developed by Namco for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The success of the game led to the release of six sequels in Japan and other territories: We Love Katamari, Me & My Katamari, Beautiful Katamari, Katamari Damacy Mobile, I Love Katamari, and Katamari Forever. It also inspired a spin-off game, Korogashi Puzzle Katamari Damacy.

<i>Katamari</i> Video game series

Katamari is a Japanese video game franchise created by Keita Takahashi and developed and published by Namco. The series puts players in control of a young character called The Prince as he assists his father, the King of All Cosmos, in the re-creation of stars and planets by using a ball called a katamari to roll up objects. The first title in the series was Katamari Damacy for the PlayStation 2, which became a cult classic and led to several sequels and spin-offs.

<i>Katamari Amore</i> 2011 puzzle-action video game published by Namco Bandai Games

Katamari Amore was a third-person puzzle-action video game published and developed by Namco Bandai Games for iOS. The game was revealed in a pre-release state at E3 2011, and was released to the public on September 29. Katamari Amore is the second game of the Katamari franchise to be released on iOS, and it featured Game Center integration.

<i>Touch My Katamari</i> 2011 puzzle-action video game published by Namco Bandai Games

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References

  1. ↑ Barthelemy, Laurent (director), Dafoe, Willem (narrator) (28 February 2022). 謎の日本人サトシ～世界が熱狂した人探しゲーム～[Finding Satoshi] (documentary) (in Japanese and English). NHK.
  2. 1 2 Brown, Andy (30 October 2021). "Laura E. Hall on how escape rooms are more like video games than you'd expect". NME. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  3. ↑ "A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years". Wired UK.
  4. ↑ "Finding Satoshi". IMDB. Mt. MELVIL. 28 January 2022. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  5. ↑ Hale, Jamie (2014-10-25). "Escape games come to Portland: 60 Minutes to Escape offers an interactive puzzle adventure". The Oregonian. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  6. ↑ June, Sophia (21 July 2021). "Laura Hall Created Portland's First Escape Room. Now She's Literally Written the Book on Them". Willamette Week. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  7. ↑ Spira, Lisa (26 June 2016). "Two Years of Room Escapes: The Growth of the US Market" . Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  8. ↑ Diehl, Caleb (21 December 2017). "Power Gamer: Laura Hall". Oregon Business. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  9. ↑ Kunkel, Leigh (1 October 2019). "Mind Games". American Way.
  10. ↑ Coleman, Ben. "Laura E. Hall, Escape Artist". Portland Mercury. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  11. ↑ D'Cruz, Andrew (13 June 2016). "This Shared Portland Office Could Save Our Souls (and Our Wallets)". Portland Monthly. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  12. ↑ "2017 Festival". Now Play This. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  13. ↑ Hall, Laura E. (1 January 2022). "Dating the Movies: A Calendar of Film Moments • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine". letterboxd.com. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  14. ↑ "The Art of Escape Rooms: Six Strategies for Success". Art of Play. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  15. ↑ "A Profound Waste of Time magazine Issue 2" . Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  16. ↑ Hall, Laura E. (13 July 2014). "What Happens When Digital Cities Are Abandoned?". The Atlantic . Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  17. ↑ Hall, L. E. (17 October 2018). "Katamari Damacy's Creator Had To Move Mountains To Get His Game Made". Kotaku. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
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