“I am fond of games that evolve in fantasy worlds that disconnect the player from their reality.”

Fiona Buchou is a game designer at Kryptex. Her mission: to create the scenario of the game and all the puzzles that will accompany it. She talks about her passion for fantasy and science-fiction universes and explains how she discovered the job of game designer.

What are you doing at Kryptex?

I’m a game designer at Kryptex. It consists in creating the game scenario and its puzzles in relation with the story that will be created and its environment, namely the scenography, the room in 3D with all the game and decoration elements. We also design and model the mechanical and electronic elements of the game. We also realize the plans of partition and electrical plans for the customers. The heart of the job is to create the game, therefore the stories with all the enigmas that will accompany it.

What is your background?

I have a degree in architecture. I worked in an agency before joining a company specialized in the creation of escape games. There I discovered and learned the job of game designer. I play a lot of video games, I read a lot of comics, so it’s a universe that, through games, interested me a lot. But I didn’t know the jobs related to this universe at all.

What made you want to invest in an escape game project?

It’s not a traditional job at all. It’s also a job that evolves a lot with time and technology. With each new project, we have a new story and therefore a new imagination to deploy. We never get bored. What I find great is to be able to create universes and stories that are not repeated. When I did my BTS in space design, scenography had already interested me a lot. Bringing scenarios to life with little space to disconnect the players from reality is a pretty cool challenge.

What type of game do you prefer to work on?

I don’t have a real preference, but I’m particularly fond of games that evolve in fantasy and science fiction universes, which disconnect us from reality. Recently, I loved working on Escape Boxes because it’s a real challenge to get players to stick around a box for an hour. Outdoors, there are fewer limitations in terms of space and you can play with the environment, which is quite interesting.

What are the achievements you have designed that you are most proud of?

There are several, including one that is quite realistic: the Rikers Island Penitentiary . Although the theme was fairly classic, the room included an actor. This particularity allowed to renew the theme of the prison. The room is quite large with a passage in a false air duct. Then, in the universes that I like the most, I really enjoyed working on the room inspired by the universe of Aladdin for Wanderlust but also the room The Cursed Treasure of the Incas . In the escape boxes, the battle box inspired by the magician Houdini was a very interesting project to design. The concept is quite innovative: these boxes can be taken out of the rooms, and played individually. Moreover, the box is in the art deco style with lots of hidden elements in the geometry of the lines.