To prepare for your NooZoo escape party…
Play or click through the game yourself so you know what to expect and what people are looking at. You’ll have what you need in the “During the party” pages but if you want to be a great host, it’s best you come to the game as clued up as possible. The page your players will be starting on is www.quarantini.space/nzp-noozoo (once they click on the Visitors’ entrance). Open this in a new tab and use your “During the party” pages (and overview diagrams) to walk yourself through it when you need to. On the day, you will be playing as their host, ALEX-A.
Now that you know a bit more, decide who to invite and when! There is no maximum number of players in theory but 3-4 players or teams is probably ideal. More than that and you’ll find the game is much harder to host (with 9-10 passwords to send per player, plus requests for help over the course of around 60-120 minutes), so keep this in mind when you’re planning! Note that some parties have chosen to host this as a more collaborative game, with different players helping each other with clues. This is absolutely fine if you prefer - it will make your job as host a lot easier but will mean your friends are no longer competing for time. For players living together, they can either form one team or play individually, but every player or team will need their own laptop or desktop and access to WhatsApp*.
Copy all the passwords to the notepad app (or another easily accessible app) on your phone so you can copy/paste/find them easily when you need to. An easy-to-copy list is provided at the bottom of this page. Make sure you understand what you’re going to get and what you need to send in return.
Pick a name for your escape party. This is the name for the group visiting NooZoo Park that they will provide on entry. It can be anything you choose, so make it unique to your group.
During the game you’ll use WhatsApp to communicate with players*. There will be one group chat, where players will send a lot of their photo and video submissions, and you will also have individual chats with each player or team. It’s a good idea to set up the WhatsApp group chat and the individual chats in advance of the party. Choose a suitably creepy picture for the group chats and make sure you choose names that help you remember which is which!
You’ll probably want to use a video chat function to give overarching instructions, and to keep tabs on players while they’re playing - but if you take any screenshots to share to the group chat, please remember to ask permission before you post them to the Internet! Decide what video chat to use: www.thepubhub.me is free to use (works on a Chrome browser only) but Zoom, Google Hangouts or similar will all work fine if you have an account. Make sure you send the invite link to everyone.
Read through the “Starting the party” section to get familiar with your script on the day.
Familiarise yourself with the format of the passwords and hints pages in the “During the party” section. Ideally you should only need the passwords but even the best of us need a little help occasionally. Every screen players will see is numbered from 1 to 30 (bottom right) so you can more easily ask them what they are looking at when they get in touch. Clicking on that number in your view (located at the bottom of the main Passwords page or at the top of each of the hints pages) will bring up a picture of that page with additional hints to get them going. The URL of the page itself and any password needed to open it is at the bottom, in case you want to go in and interact with the page yourself.
If you want to go super geeky, make yourself a spreadsheet so you can easily work out everybody’s time… or you can use this one we made earlier. There’s details on how to calculate times under “Finishing up”.
On the day… make sure your phone is not on silent, with volume turned up, good battery and notifications turned on (including the group chat notification setting within the WhatsApp app*).
Remember: You will need to remember not to post hints and passwords to the group chat. It is inevitable that you might accidentally send the wrong thing to the wrong chat, but don’t beat yourself up. Just delete the message and re-post it in the right place… or don’t. This is just a fun game to get you some silly photos. If things go wrong… they go wrong! The main thing is to have fun!
And finally… this game is free to play but if you can afford to, we’d ask that you consider making a donation to one of our recommended charities… and asking your guests to donate too! Thanks in advance!
*We mention WhatsApp here as this is the one we play with! You are of course free to use an alternative group chatting app (e.g. iMessage) if you wish. Just make sure your chosen app allows you to send picture and video messages for free, with low latency, and that everyone invited has the app and is comfortable using it.
List of passwords to copy to your phone:
To get everyone going…
Password to start is RABID
Party name is: <insert a name of your choice>
Batteries photo…
I see you are resourceful. Shame you have the life expectancy of a MAYFLY
GD…
92
Animal picture…
Search for a button under the fox. If you want to avoid detection you must WHISPER
FIND Sofia…
You’re doing pretty well but if you’re going to get out of here you’ll have to RUN FASTER
Finger on nose…
You may enter the tunnel SOFTKILL. That’s your name now.
Restarting after the break…
It’s time to go and all you have to protect yourself with is this THIMBLE
Prussian Blue…
You’re so happy ‘cause today you found your friends, they’re in in your head. Better take LITHIUM too.
My name is…
My name is MAISIE
Impression of Captain Holt/chicken dance…
Hahaha! MISSING LINK
Audio transcript…
You’re looking for a village. It’s 52.949 by 0.932. Good luck!
Stiffkey…
I used to live in Stiffkey, but after the “incident” I’m much happier up the coast in SALTHOUSE