"CURIOUS READERS MAY FIND MORE BEYOND THE PAGE: How I created my cipher zines"
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"CURIOUS READERS MAY FIND MORE BEYOND THE PAGE: How I created my cipher zines"

Written by: Joelyn Alexandra, ESCAPETHEROOMers // Writer

“There’s a bonus story? How? Oh, but I’m not a puzzle person, can you just tell me how to get the bonus story?”


My first encounters with stories that had more lore situated outside its printed / presented forms were various indie video games back in the early 2010s - “Five Nights at Freddy’s”, “Doki Doki Literature Club”, “Undertale”, “Inscryption” etc… Particularly, games that rewarded curious players with bonus lore or answers to lore gaps after they respond to the seeds the game makers planted (e.g. game files, website source codes, parallel storytelling in books). Personally, I did not play the games, but watching videos by The Game Theorists, led by Matthew ‘MatPat’ Patrick, as they dissected and crafted the game series’ lore became an anchor point in my storytelling career.


I am a writer - by trade, for fun, and anywhere in between. Specifically, I am a writer interested in thrillers and investigative games. Therefore, each adventure book, escape room, or investigative experience brings about a slew of ideas and inspiration. Quelle surprise. And I am always looking for ways to immerse readers in the universe I built.


Gamebooks around me mostly fell into the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure category. At the same time, my previous attempts at seeding routes to bonus lore in my previous works have fallen quiet. This was especially prominent with longer works, where the seeds can be entirely ignored. And with festival and artist markets returning, I was looking for a way to showcase my niche and work in a quicker, more compact version.


Enter the Cipher Zine...


Cipher Zine?


As I mentioned above, I got a huge burst of storytelling inspiration through the likes of lore-heavy games - Curious Correspondence Club, Big Fish Games’ Mystery Case Files, and Inscryption (I’m not joking - there’s a hidden story you can dig for, FIND IT). This was also around the time where I got into Tabletop Role-Playing Games (RPGs), where the stories were rich (shoutout to my amazing Game Master (GM) - Shao Han!) and the puzzles / problems were improvised. Coming at this as a writer who had spent a bit focussing and creating only in prose and comic writing, watching Escape Room / Immersive Experience creators combine story with puzzles was highly refreshing.


Listening to Tommy Honton (Stash House) speak on Reality Escape Pod (Season 3, Episode 7) in the middle of one of my commutes through the tiny island of Singapore was probably what pushed me over the edge. He was talking to David and Peih-Gee about the impact of a story when the consequences were personal (this kid you knew was sick and you needed to find a cure) versus when the consequences were apocalyptic (and we all hear this with almost every blockbuster). And thus, the question that bloomed:


If Daniel Mullins is able to immerse players into his story by seeding clues and curiosities through his games; If my GM is able to immerse us in the world he built without the use of a built-up room or pages of descriptions, what is stopping me from doing the same?


About this time, I got reminded of a quick print format illustrators and comic artists use (thanks to my husband) at times to collect illustrations or tell short stories. Using only an A4 / A3 piece of paper, folded to the shape of a booklet, creators have up to eight (8) sections to work with on either side.


So that’s how the cipher zine came about - a short story on one side of a folded zine, and a puzzle experience on the other. Each story and its corresponding puzzle is based on a character I have in the fictional universe I’m currently working on.



How Do You Fold a Zine?


The short answer - You create, you format, you print, and you fold. And there are many pages that will show you how to fold a zine.


For the longer answer, buckle up. And hint: The puzzles are the easy part.


The first consideration that came to mind was not the puzzles or the mechanics, but the story - what is the story I wanted to tell? What was going to hold everything together while we dive into this lore? Why are we even solving puzzles?


The second consideration was how compact the stories had to be. Like many rooms that have to compress lore into a couple of hours, I did not have my usual prose-writing luxuries. I had 5-6 sections (about A6-size) on an A3-size sheet of paper to work with, leaving the zine cover, back cover, and administrative page left for consideration. So this was going to be a glimpse or a slip of a major story, perhaps a single incident or turning point, where a puzzle experience would be relevant.


So I chose turning points - newfound discoveries in the digital world, last gifts, instructional letters, that sort of thing.


And the next step was to write and edit the story. This is not an article on craft, but what I learnt from this experience was simple - keep your story simple and direct. There is another platform if you are inclined to provide context and countless descriptions. The objective here was to give my readers a quick glimpse into my fictional universe, and how my works can be ideally read in the future.


After that, it was formatting. Images do more justice than anything else here so this was how I did it:


Story on One Side, and Puzzle on the Other?


Aligning the puzzle experience with its short story varied depending on each story. I knew I wanted a puzzle that both the character and the reader can experience, so it had to be there for a reason and not for the sake of one.


(If you wanted to push it, you could also argue that the nature of each zine’s puzzle dictated how the stories they were paired with ended.)


When I settled on the scenario of each puzzle, it was time to put in the mechanics. This was relatively easier, considering how the restrictions have been set and I did not have to deal with the tyranny of choice. A puzzle box? Simple, one-and-done puzzles that could fit on the face of a box. How about a letter? Deliberate typos can be a start to a multi-layered puzzle.


And that process was fun. I just had to make sure that I could fit the puzzles legibly into the dimensions of the zine. In my case, as long as the entirety of the puzzle experience could fit into a single A4 page, I was satisfied.


However you wish to format your puzzles on the other side is up to you. The one thing I would ask you to take note of would be the following: You will be cutting a slit down the middle of the zine paper to fold it into a booklet. Test to see if any puzzle intricacies will be affected.


As for me, I chose to place the puzzle on one side of the paper, with a space for notes, and the link to check the puzzle answers on the other.

And you are on your way!


Note: Remember to test print your various formats - because zine-folding is so personal and hands-on, you would want to make sure that your printed products align before you head into mass production.


Can I Make One Myself?


Personally, the journey itself was the most fun I had as a creator in a while. The ability to combine my interests in the most fun and rewarding way possible was an outcome of this project that I will be highly grateful for.


Therefore, if you are a creator looking for a possible step into the creation of story-driven puzzles, or puzzle-accompanying stories, I would say - Give it a try. You might just learn more about the world you just created.


And I look forward to your creations (and whatever springs forth from there)!



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