This puzzle for Reality Break Escapes in Bellevue, WA was made using a variety of materials and techniques. The base and rocks were sculpted by hand, while the almost all of the creatures were 3D printed. The barnacles, sea urchins, and hermit crab shells had to by modeled from scratch, but public domain models were available for the crabs, hermit crab bodies, and scallops, so those were used instead for the sake of cost and time. The final touch was the resin pour over the top of the model, simulating the calm, shallow waters of a tidal pool. All work was done by me in my home studio.
Working with Reality Break Escapes, I designed, built, and painted several puzzle props for a mobile puzzle game designed to encourage students to pursue STEM fields.
The first of these puzzles was a street lamp puzzle, consisting of strips of buildings and lamps that could be arranged to form a city layout. These would be handled often and needed to be strong, so the lamps were designed larger than scale and with a centre hole that would be threaded with a steel rod. The entire model was coated in epoxy resin, painted, and varnished.
This prop was needed in a hurry, so only picture I have is of the 3D mock-up. These boxes were modeled after sample containers. They needed to be simple, and not distract from the label, which is the most important part of the puzzle. They also needed to come in single and double sizes. These were modeled in Blender, printed on an FDM printer, then epoxy-coated, painted, and varnished.
