NOW SHIPPING: The Morrison Game Factory

PostCurious, the brainchild of creator Rita Orlov, has long been the gold standard for compelling experiences delivered in a box that manage to evoke the sense that we’ve stumbled across a hidden secret or got misdirected mail from an alternate reality.

The Morrison Game Factory, from designer Lauren Bello, keeps up that tradition with a tale that is both whimsical and poignant, taking the form of a game about the surprising secret of a board games factory.

We asked designer Bello to kick off our Now Shipping series by answering a few questions about the game.

Like the title says, The Morrison Game Factory is now shipping and will run you $39.

This is No Proscenium’s NOW SHIPPING, a look at ongoing immersive experiences that come in packages of many sizes. To learn more about how your event could be considered for the feature check out How To Get Covered By NoPro.

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No Proscenium: Tell us a little bit about your experience! What’s it about?

Lauren Bello: It’s a narrative tabletop puzzle game about love, board games, and connecting across time and space in the face of isolation.

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The premise is that an urban explorer has recovered a package from an abandoned board game factory — a box containing playing cards, a toy catalog, and other miscellanea. As you sift through the artifacts inside, you discover a narrative thread to pull…and a puzzle adventure begins.

NP: What was the inspiration for the experience?

LB: I designed the game in 2020, so…obvious pandemic influences in the theme. (See: “connecting across time and space in the face of isolation.”) But most of all, Morrison was an homage to so many games, experiences, and pieces of writing that I have loved. To name just a few:

• The Ukiyo at Home games by Ukiyo Melbourne — especially “Bird Cage” and “Loom” — which used Twine in some delightful and unexpected ways, and expanded my concept of what was possible in Twine world-building
• The “Text Messages From” series by Daniel Lavery on The Toast and The Hairpin — especially “Text Messages from a Jack O’Lantern” and “Text Messages from a Ghost” — featuring inanimate objects or unembodied characters with a sweet earnest center, a relish for life, and often an unexpectedly poignant edge to their understanding of mortality
• Surprisingly, the GamePigeon games for iPhone Messages, which made board games feel like language — stretching them across time, making it so “sending a game move” could mean “I’m thinking of you”
• The game “S.O.U.P.”, designed by Jen and Cheryl McPhilimy and published by Crack-A-Nut Mysteries — which committed to the bit in every possible way, including the in-character hint system
• The summer nights years ago spent with my family staying up past midnight playing board games and eating popcorn

NP: What do you think fans of immersive will find most interesting about this latest experience?

LB: My careful, spoiler-free answer is that I think immersive fans (at least, immersive fans in Los Angeles, which is the community that I know best) often crave story that feels responsive, even if it technically isn’t. They’re less interested in opening an envelope that’s been sitting in front of them the whole time, containing the correct answer; they’re more interested in feeling like they’ve made a difference in a character’s life or world. Like they’ve changed someone, or have themselves been changed. I think they’ll find the structure of Morrison to their taste in this regard.

NP: Once you started designing and testing what did you discover that was unexpected?

LB: In the original prototype I had a sticker puzzle. Stickers are such a pain to reset! I ended up redesigning that puzzle.

NP: What are you most proud of about this project?

LB: Getting the Golden Lock Award! But in all seriousness — I love that so many people have reported playing Morrison with the kids in their life. I would love to think that the game could be a spark for the next generation of puzzlers. And I love that the game has made some players cry (in a good way!). Not because of a writer’s wicked glee at evoking a reaction — but because I hope they found the catharsis I have found myself in narrative games.

(In fact, can I plug a great parser game for catharsis here? Apropos of nothing? OK, go play “Map” by Ade McT. On Lectrote. Several times.)

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