New Adventure Game Released: Indiana Jones And The Temple Of The Golden Spider

[Mandle]

INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF THE GOLDEN SPIDER

Ahem...Now that I have everyone's attention...

This was the name of our Halloween Party this year at the kids' English School I co-own here in Japan with a fellow Aussie...

This year we decided on an Indiana Jones themed, adventure game style attraction for our "Ghost House" at the party...

Over the course of four days hard labor we managed to build a devious maze of physical and mental challenges to put our kids through what Indy himself would probably describe as: "Just another day at the office..." (For Indy)...

The kids were told only this hint before entering the Temple: "Follow the spiders...And you will find the treasure..."

The "Spider" in question was an image of the famous Nazca Lines Spider Glyph, and we had a trail of that image leading the kids from one challenge to the next, and on to the eventual treasure...

The Temple itself was very dark and the kids went through in teams of 2-3 people, with only the Leader holding a "Burning Torch"...The 30 or so kids ranged from 3 years old up to 12 years old.

Not one child failed to complete the adventure. (There were a few tears and moments of hesitation along the way but we managed a 100% survival rate, and everyone came out with big smiles and an even bigger swag of treasure.)

Here are some pictures which will hopefully take you through The Temple Of The Golden Spider in style:

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When our adventurers first enter the dark tunnels of the temple they are immediately confronted with:

THE SWINGING BLOCKS TRAP!

Three solid stone blocks swing from side to side for the adventurers to dodge lest they be crushed...

Although Tinkerbell seems to be performing a bit of faery magic to halt their monolithic momentum in this particular shot...



Just when they thought they were safely past the first trap, a mystical Indian temple guardian appears and threatens the adventurers with a sword, forcing them onwards and into:

THE TUNNEL OF INFINITE HANDS!

Here we see a Mummy entering the tunnel...Many hands hang down from the ceiling of the tunnel...Some are mere facsimiles...But one or two might actually come to life and grab unwary souls!!!

The tunnel snaked around a bit and then went up a few ledges to the top of a precipitous slide back down:



Here we see an intrepid adventurer (dressed as a large strawberry) approaching the top platform above the drop itself, her flaming torch in hand...



A brave adventuring brother and sister make their way to the top of the plunge into darkness. The sister (in the lead) fumbles for a hand-hold in the darkness (Their team "leader" with the torch unwisely chose to go last...In this shot they are illuminated by the camera flash but otherwise they were pretty much in the dark at this point.). They cannot see what awaits them at the bottom of their slide into the unknown...(Especially after the camera flash...)

It is:

THE PUZZLE OF THE GOLDEN SPIDER!

Our adventurers have now proved their physical worth...Can they prove their cleverness and solve this puzzle before they can continue any further?



The top of the puzzle dais is adorned with skulls staved onto poles!



Surrounded by flames, two adventurers place their first piece into the puzzle, attempting to replicate the image of the spider shown on the dais...

They figured it out quite quickly at 4 and 5 years old...



These later adventurers do not seem to be having the same kind of luck (despite being a few years older...)

They kind of got it...ummmmmm...eventually...

What can I say? The Temple was starting to back up, so close enough was good enough...

On to:

THE WALK OF THE S-P-I-D-E-R!

GAH! Don't you just hate it when a puzzle is immediately followed by another puzzle?

The adventurers now have to walk the letters to spell the word "S-P-I-D-E-R" in the correct order.

A false step spells not "SPIDER" but "INSTANT DEATH"!!!



Our brave adventurer is standing on the letter P and her comrade behind her is standing on the letter S...

Do they both know where to step next or will they plunge into the abyss?

You can see her gnawing over the problem...Will she make the right choice?



Once again, our younger adventurers just breezed straight through it...

THE BOX OF SLIME!

We didn't manage to get any good pictures of this challenge in action due to distributed manpower, but I'm sure the concept is familiar to anyone who attended a Halloween party as a kid:

Reach into the small hole and find the hidden lever buried in a sea of slime and bugs etc. ("WE...ARE...GOING...TO...DIE..!!!")...



Best shot we got of it. The hole was just under the ubiquitous Golden Spider and the ground under that was decorated with skulls. The "lever" was a big rubber spider the kids had to pull up to the hole to see and identify. The "slime" was "Konyaku" and "Shirataki" (Google if interested), two very slimy and fishy smelling Japanese foods, immersed in water in a bucket inside the box. The whole room stank of it, to add to the ambiance..

Oh, speaking of ambiance, I also forgot to mention that we had ambient jungle sounds of birds, insects, waterfalls, and drums etc. playing on a loop throughout the whole adventure...

Next up:

THE PIT SWING!

What Indiana Jones adventure would be complete without a perilous swing over a pit?

The adventurers now get to swing on a ragged rope over a pit of slime:



Back uuuuuuppppp...



And swwwwiiiiiiiiinnngggg!!!



Or just do it the easy way and fly over without a care like Tinkerbell...



BEST "SWINGING OVER THE BOTTOMLESS PIT" PIC EVER!!!

Oh, and don't forget to "Follow the spiders...To find the treasure"...

There was a final Nazca Spider Glyph on a wall just before the exit which led to the hidden treasure room...


Snow White finds gold coins more tempting than some Prince Whatever...



Yon chest be mostly empty YAAAARRR...But I still got me plunder!!!



The Spiderman brothers, and their offscreen Jack Sparrow brother...(Hand only)..., haul in their just rewards!

(I just hope they didn't forget to leave One-Eye'd-Willy's gold just for him...)

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And that was our Halloween party's Indy Jones adventure this year...

It was a total blast designing a real-life adventure game for the kids to figure out (some of the coding was pretty tough though)...

And yet...What is that I hear you ask:

"If it was all about Indy...Where was the big rolling stone ball?"



Well...We didn't forget it...

Here's a kid dodging it during our:

"Indiana Jones Big Rolling Stone Ball Dodgeball Knockout Game"

(Held just before the main adventure event)

[Snarky]

That's really cute. Wish we'd had something like that when I was a kid! Looks like a blast to take part in.

[Chicky]

How wonderful Mandle, what a lovely idea which the kids seem to be really enjoying

That last action shot with the Big Rolling Stone Ball Dodgeball Knockout Game is super and i love the little dude's stockings! This sure beats trick or treat, Tinkerbell is adorable :3

[AprilSkies]

Wonderful!
Nazca Spider puzzle is fantastic and Stone Roller Ball too!

[EliasFrost]

That's really cool! Very creative! Looks like everyone loves it

[Andail]

Awesome!
I would have loved doing that as a child! And even more so now!

[Mandle]

Thanks for the comments.

Yeah, it was a blast. During the week following the party I took a survey when the kids' came to their classes about which particular challenge was the most fun for each.

Every stage got its own votes, which was cool as we were striving for diversity, but the rope swing won out hands down

I mentioned above that it took four days for two of us to build the whole thing. Forgot to mention that it took only a single hour, after the party's were over, for 5 of us to rip it all apart and package up the throwaway materials for garbage day (a heartbreaking job every year we run these events)...

My business partner and I have already decided on next year's theme:

Time-Travel!

[Technocrat]

That is adorable, I should have thought of that when I was teaching out in Korea.

My business partner and I have already decided on next year's theme:

Time-Travel!

Do any of the kids know Doctor Who?

[Ghost]

That must've been the most adorable party ever. Great to see something like that!

[Guybrush Nosehair]

First off, I hate you so much for the thread's deceiving title

Secondly, this looks like a lot of fun and the kids look like they had a great time.

Thirdly, in Latin, spider starts with the letter a

[Bulbapuck]

That's so awesome

[Mandle]

First off, I hate you so much for the thread's deceiving title

Secondly, this looks like a lot of fun and the kids look like they had a great time.

Thirdly, in Latin, spider starts with the letter a

"Deceiving"? "Title"? "for"? I really do not know what you are referring to...

LOL @ Latin spider...I see you got the reference this puzzle was inspired by