Hello code enthusiasts, this edition will have you reading about reading!
Noting what you are here for, it is time to take notes on notations!
A previous edition looked at the Bacon Code which also had letters of text being marked, but today’s topic has the additions spread out instead of grouped in close together. So start scanning!
We are going to look at a few ways an Escape Room can mark a body of text to send a simple message. All of these have in common the following:
-the message is read in the same direction as the text (no jumbling about) (unless they are REALLY tricky, and have also directed you to read in a different direction);
-a consistent type of notation per message;
-a potentially confusing lack of punctuation; and
-text that has nothing to do with the message being hidden.
Colour Me Impressed
The most simple one up first: text in a different colour to make it stand out.
Something More Bold
Now we can start mucking around with typography emphasis – this is the fancy way of saying something that is as easy as one two three.
What Type Of Face?
I don’t know about you (how would I?), but I was today years old when I found out that the word ‘typeface’ is the correct word for what I called a ‘font’. Arial, Calibri, and Courier New are all examples of a typeface (whereas a font is used to describe one of these AND the size used, whether it is in bold or not, etc). What a crafty puzzle designer might have snuck in to some text is swapping in a different typeface to indicate their message. I don’t mean our favourite, Wingdings, but something you really have to pay attention to find, such as serif or sans serif typefaces. The serif is the little flicks and fancy bits. Here’s an example with Comic Sans and Times New Roman with directions to find an item:
Many of these can be and have been used to format whole words, but is that too easy?
Note or Not a Note?
At a simple level, we can look for a simple dot above the sequence of letters, or even a little marker pointing to one side or the other to slow down the player reading off each letter marked. This can be drawn on, or you can even grab a pin and poke a small hole through a newspaper!
This one can work a bit better with text that is already in a book or newspaper (designers just make sure you have a spare!). Otherwise you will find yourself making a weird combination of words just to use a certain text, like this:
While today you’ve been confronted with quotes from the Alice books, it does pay off to create your own mundane text to fit in your desired message in a carefully chosen block to read in a shorter timeframe (rather than the above where we grabbed a quote and worked backwards to hide a message within it).
Reading Rooms
When should you look out for a message hidden in text like this? Whenever you notice a letter looking set out differently to the rest, through its font or an extra mark, ask why?! and then go look for more that match it in standing out. It is unlikely you will be given a direct guide to this as it is quickly understood once you have noticed it.
Happy escaping!