The Seventh Fire Overview

Type: Immersive Narrative Escape Experience / Live Performance/ Puzzles

My Role: Creator, Narrative Designer, Puzzle Architect, Producer

Tools: Twine Mapping, QLab, Physical Prototyping, Arduino, Improvisation Workshops

The Seventh Fire is a one-room immersive narrative experience that merges puzzle designs, escape-room mechanics, and live performance. Inspired by historical fragments and hidden campus lore, the piece invites players into what appears to be a simple anniversary event, until time fractures, memories surface, and the room begins to reveal a secret ritual buried beneath Wesleyan’s past.

Opening in February 2026, this installation represents the culmination of my Theater × IDEAS linked-major capstone. Development began in September 2025, supported by a student forum I created and taught: THEA 419 – Playing the Story And Escape the Room.

Room 1 : The Storage

Narrative Focus

Players enter as invited guests helping prepare a campus anniversary exhibition. In a basement storage room, a staff member, Arthur, asks them to sort through boxes and organize materials.

The space feels ordinary at first, but small details begin to shift the tone: burned documents, missing records, and repeated references to a group called the “Secret Seven.” After Arthur leaves and the door locks, players realize they are not just organizing objects, but piecing together fragments of a hidden history.

The room marks the transition from task → curiosity → unease, as players begin reconstructing something that was intentionally scattered.

Puzzle Design

The core mechanic is sorting and counting.

Players group objects (magazines, archives, objects) and use a checklist to determine a 3-digit lock combination. Each digit corresponds to a different category in the space.

One number cannot be directly counted: the number of society members. Players must infer it from environmental clues, including archival materials and the recurring symbols.

Opening the lock reveals a ritual chant. To progress, players must read it together, shifting the experience from individual problem-solving to collective action.

Room 2 : In Between

Narrative Focus

After the chant is completed, a hidden space opens. The environment shifts from a storage room into a fragmented archive: part attic, part museum.

Players encounter two versions of the same place: a past filled with presence, and a present that has been carefully curated. Objects from the past reappear, but their ownership is unclear. In the present, museum-style descriptions reference individuals without fully naming them. Identities feel incomplete, edited, or displaced.

As players move between these layers, they begin to reconstruct the members of the society through their personal relics: a diary, a candle, a mask, a letter, a goblet, a key. Each object carries a part of the full story.

The task becomes clear: to reconnect objects to their owners, and in doing so, restore a version of the past that was never fully preserved.

Puzzle Design

The core mechanic is cross-temporal matching between objects and identities.

Players collect physical objects associated with the past and compare them to descriptions presented in the present-day museum display. Each object must be placed in the correct position, aligning it with its corresponding individual based on fragmented textual clues, visual details, and narrative context.

The system is implemented using an Arduino-based reed switch network embedded in the environment. Each object contains a hidden magnet, and each display location contains a reed switch. When an object is placed correctly, the circuit closes; when all objects are correctly matched, the system registers a complete configuration.

When the final correct configuration is reached, the system triggers a mechanical response. The group photo from the past drops into view, revealing a hidden key behind it. Players use this key to open a locked box and retrieve a personal object belonging to Arthur.

Room 3 : That Moment

Narrative Focus

With the object retrieved, players enter the final space. The environment is stripped down to a site where memory and space begin to overlap.

Arthur is present for the first time as himself. The staff identity collapses, and the fragments from the previous rooms begin to align. He remembers the people, the ritual, the atmosphere, but one moment is still missing.

The most important one.

Players are no longer searching for information, but helping Arthur complete a memory he could not reach on his own. The space holds the structure of that moment: a ritual circle, symbols on the floor, candles waiting to be placed.

As the reconstruction progresses, the boundary between past and present dissolves. The room begins to recreate the conditions that led to the moment.

When the final configuration is reached, the missing moment returns.

The fire.

Arthur remembers.

A sequence of choices—hesitation, action, and abandonment. The truth that had been fragmented and redistributed across objects is finally spoken in full.

Puzzle Design

The core mechanic shifts into ritual completion as interaction.

Players must match the candles in the space to the corresponding symbols on the floor, reconstructing the original ritual layout. The system relies on spatial reasoning and collective coordination, requiring players to move together and align their actions.

When the correct arrangement is completed, the system triggers a full environmental response. Lighting, sound, and atmospheric effects transform the room as it becomes engulfed in simulated fire.

Arthur’s memory resolves in sync with the system. As the room fills with fire, he recounts what happened: the ritual, the escalation, and the moment no one turned back.

There is no further puzzle to solve.

The moment has been completed.