How do the Cryptomania puzzle games work?

Cryptomania Trails are exciting games with puzzles where your 2-5 player team advances through the trail. You can expect a gripping story, ingenious puzzles and logical tasks and of course interesting, often unconventional places.

Who will enjoy our games?

Cryptomania Trails are made mainly for adults (well, they are not primarily intended for children). That doesn’t mean they can’t be enjoyed by older children (secondary school age) and teenagers. Smaller children (primary school age) can also participate by searching for checkpoints and other easy tasks but most likely will not be able to solve the puzzles by themselves.

You don’t need any prior experience with puzzle solving. The puzzles are designed so that even an absolute beginner can enjoy them. Nevertheless, keep in mind that in order to crack the cipher, patience, willingness to try different approaches if the previous ones are not working or team creativity are often required. Whoever is able to spend at least a couple of minutes thinking about the task and won’t give up after the first failure can boldly set off for the trail. You will be rewarded with great fun, adventure and discovering new fascinating places.

Relaxed pace or setting a new record?

Our games are designed so that everybody can enjoy them. Be it the teams with a competitive spirit who like to push themselves and others or the teams who want to experience the game at a relaxed pace. It’s up to you which approach you will take. The competitive teams can walk the whole trail as fast as possible and not take any hints when solving the puzzles in order to achieve the best score. Others might appreciate a hint when they feel lost and the right idea doesn’t seem to come. A hint will point you at the right direction but won’t take the experience of solving the puzzle itself away. There is no point in being stuck in one place for an hour…

What game to choose?

Presently we can offer you games in Brno, Prague and Bratislava as well as in some other corners of the Czech Republic. You can play them in Czech, some in English or Polish. You can find which games are available in the language of your interest by switching the language in the top part of this page.

Different games have different levels of difficulty indicated by stars (1 star = easy, 3 stars = difficult). None of our games require prior experience with puzzle solving but we strongly recommend to start with the easier ones and then move on to the trickier ones.

Every game is entwined with a storywhich can also be helpful in choosing the right game for you. All the necessary information  (trail distance, time required, number of checkpoints, wheelchair or pram accessibility,…) can be found after clicking the game title or picture.

Types of games

You can choose between two types of games on our webpage. We explain the differences in the table below.

Public games

Custom made games
Game operator: Cryptomania Game Partner
Getting a ticket: at out webpage trails.cryptomania.cz not necessary or directly at the start of the game
Access to the game system: in the confirmation email the game’s webpage or at the start of the trail
Starting the game: whenever you choose, the time must be confirmed by the game administrator anytime at the starting point of the game during the opening hours
HOW TO BUY A TICKET HOW TO REGISTER

traily5traily2

Before the game

Your team will need one charged smartphone/tablet with internet access as the online game system will accompany you all the way through the game. There are parts of trails with the possibility to use Wi-Fi but we don’t recommend relying on that.

If your smartphone/tablet can’t read QR codes we recommend either Barcode Scanner (Android) or Seznam.cz QR reader (iOS). You might need some special equipment for some of the games (e.g. torch,…), which will be clearly stated on the game’s webpage and also on the ticket/voucher which you will receive once you order the game.

Apart from the above mentioned gadgets a pen and paper will also come in as well as a good mood among the team members.

The game

How does the online game system work?

After logging into the game system the game checkpoints will start appearing one after another. Each station needs to be unlocked first either using an access code or scanning its QR code which can be found close by. This is what you will see upon unlocking:

  • Fragment of the story – the text can be linked to the puzzle, so read carefully!
  • Puzzle
  • Field for the code
  • Possibility to get a hint or the complete solution (for the price of losing points)

What does the puzzle station look like?

You will usually get the puzzle in the online game system, but sometimes there are parts of it to be received directly on the trail (in a cafe, sight,…). The puzzle can come in many different forms – text, pictures, video, object etc. All you need to solve the puzzle should already be with you or found close by. Google can help out on rare occasions. Our puzzles aren’t focused on any specific knowledge though, so you don’t need to worry that we would ask about the successor of Charles IV., for instance.

Every puzzle contains elements showing you the way to revealing its concept and discovering the code. The puzzles always have an unambiguous solution (you are able to get a code – one meaningful word) whose discovery often comes hand in hand with excitement and adventure. You can learn more about puzzles in the
Cipher & logical tasks section.

You receive points for solving the puzzles. The amount depends on whether you solved it by yourselves (10 points), using a hint (5 points) or looking at the solution (0 points).

traily1

trails8

You have completed the trail – what now?

There is a scoreboard available at every game’s webpage, where you can find your results and compare your performance with other teams. The main criteria is the points scored for solving the puzzles. If there is a tie then the time it took to complete the trail is taken into consideration.

In case you liked the game you can choose another one from our offer. And we would appreciate it greatly if you tell your friends about us or post pictures on social media (we only ask you not to make any puzzles or solutions public – it is hard to enjoy the game when you know the solution in advance). We are also on Facebook and would be very happy if you liked our page.

Thank you for reading this text. If you have any questions or need help with anything please contact us, we will be happy to assist you.

Cryptomania

trails4