The Puzzled Maker: Date Night Treasure Hunt

Love is in the air!

Rating: Romantic
Completion Time: 1hr30
Date Played: 13th of July 2020
Party Size: 2

I was sceptical! Okay, I’ll admit it! We’re not a lovey-dovey couple … But then maybe that’s why this game ended up being so darned perfect? Being forced to sit down and work through your relationship with a series of puzzles and games made an average Monday evening just lovely. It reminded me a lot of the 36 Questions to Fall In Love article the New York Times ran a few years ago. After reading about it, I booked a dinner for my other half and we went through the questions together and yes, we fell in love again. The same effect that had could also be found in the Date Night Treasure Hunt.

Full disclaimer however, we did not realise it was an interactive PDF and meant to be played on a tablet. We printed the whole thing out – hah! There are some elements in the game where it encourages you to “click here” or pick from a selection of buttons … But it still very much worked as a printable game. In fact, a few of the puzzles (such as the word searches) worked a lot better printed anyway.

In terms of gameplay, the Date Night Treasure Hunt is quite simple. It’s not an escape room – not even slightly. It’s a couples game and revolves around activities for pairs. Some of them will challenge the puzzling parts of your mind, there’s a bit of hunting and searching for things and coming up with ideas. But there’s also truth and dare, questions to asked your loved ones, and an activity where you must synchronise your thought processes (which took us a very, very long time to get right!).

The most charming part of the game was it’s competition. At the start, you’re encouraged to set your own prize. My prize was a “surprising edible treat”, player 2’s prize was me sitting down to watch a film in full and enjoying it (hey! I’m not a film person. I’ve got no attention span whatsoever). Thankfully, I won and bagged myself a box of Crosstown Donuts the following lunch time. It was a really nice touch though, in most games (or escape rooms), you don’t get a prize. In this one, you do. I like that!

As a final challenge, @societyofcuriosities on Instagram challenged us to create a pick up line from the words we got from the wordsearch! I found:

• Wonderful
• Dub
• Par
• Marie
• Tada
• Tool
• Rod
• Raw
• Connection

Every pick up line I came up with was honestly horrifying based on these words. I can safely say I’ve failed the challenge.

The Date Night Treasure Hunt can be purchased for $25 AUD on The Puzzled Maker‘s site.