Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
A murder investigation will take place on Clovis’ Main Street on Saturday.
Maybe a clue will be found in front of Red Door? Eddie’s Subs? Kiln Me Now?
Don’t worry. There’s no real killer. It’s just an outdoor escape game, set for 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The game’s called “Hunt the Killer” hosted by Hourglass Adventures where locals will navigate Clovis’ downtown to “solve puzzles, and uncover clues to unravel a captivating story,” according to a company press release.
How it works
Ethan Teas, a member of Hourglass Adventures, said it’ll cost $60 to participate per person or team, which includes up to six individuals. Tickets can be purchased at hourglassadventures.com . Participants will download an app that connects to the game and enables location services. For those familiar with Pokémon GO, the concept is similar to that.
“From there, you then join into the game via the code from the email, and it's just kind of traveling around the city and having an adventure and hopefully trying to figure out who the killer is,” Teas said.
“From there, you'll just travel from one (clue) to the next, to the next, and unlock different pieces of the puzzle.”
Users will be given three files: police, motive, and weapons. Throughout this process of unlocking puzzles and accumulating information, participants will narrow down the pretend killer.
“The story behind it is the police can't solve this murder, so … you're a private investigator, and you're trying to solve the murder yourself,” Teas said.
He said the team figures out specific routes by combing through Google Maps.
“We also have some background softwares that tells us elevations and stuff of the city just so that way we're not sending you up a hill and then back down a hill, and then up a hill and then back down a hill,” Teas said.
He said it usually takes a couple hours to complete the game, but there is a six-hour time limit.
Why Clovis?
Considering that Hourglass Adventures is based in Nova Scotia, Canada – 2,600 miles from Clovis – it makes one wonder: Why here?
Teas said there are a couple of reasons for this.
For starters, with winter creeping in, they’re looking for warm areas. Next, they’ve found doing a “Hunt The Killer” in quieter small towns can strengthen the experience.
“We have done bigger cities like Miami … but we do find that we can actually connect with our audience when they are in a smaller city,” Teas said.
Something different
Teas said the event brings people outside and together.
“We've found that it's important just to get people outside. Nowadays, everybody is so attached to their device that we've found a way to make your device and real life come together and send you on an adventure throughout your city,” Teas said.
He added that, “We found that we're bringing more people outside, getting them out of their comfort zones.
“You don't need to socialize. But when you see people doing the same thing on their phone, they end up socializing, talking about the game and that kind of thing.”
