Ever wondered what happens when graphic design expertise meets a passion for sci-fi and puzzles? In this week’s What If blog, I’m chatting with Harriet from Minty Noodles about their upcoming game “Interstellar Adventures.” This cooperative puzzle adventure blends retro sci-fi nostalgia with innovative gameplay mechanics that promise something for everyone at the table. We’ll explore how Harriet and her husband Cole approach puzzle design, the challenges of creating single-play experiences, and how they’ve developed a hint system that enhances rather than interrupts the story. If you’re curious about the journey from creative professional to game designer, you’re in for a treat!
Joe: Welcome to the What If blog! Can you start with a short introduction? Who are you and what brings you to the world of board games design?
Harriet: Hi Joe! I am Harriet, a co-founder of Minty Noodles Ltd. After being a graphic designer for many years, my husband, Cole, and I decided to become business partners, as we had the exciting opportunity to create a game together. Cole is a video games designer (ColePowered Games), and by combining his game design experience with my graphic design experience, we make a great team! More recently, I’ve taken the lead, as Cole has been so busy with the launch of his game Shadows of Doubt. However, I’ve been loving and fully embracing this new challenge!
Joe: You’re currently working on your first game, can you tell me a little bit about where the inspiration came from?
Harriet: I have always loved sci-fi and grew up watching a lot of Star Trek, Red Dwarf, and SG-1. Our first game, Interstellar Adventures, is a cooperative, puzzle adventure game set within the world of a retro sci-fi TV show inspired by the ones I’ve always had a soft spot for.
The game itself contains three episodes, over which players face peril, explore planets, and make tricky moral decisions. With a range of puzzle types, we’ve made sure every player has an opportunity to see their strengths shine.
In terms of gameplay, we are big fans of The EXIT Games, Unlock!, and more recently, Decktective. With Interstellar Adventures, we aim to take inspiration from those elements we love, whilst adding more diverse mechanics of our own, all the while being woven into our strong, story-driven style.
Joe: I’m a sci-fi fan myself – particularly TNG and SG-1! It’s great to see that genre mixing with puzzles. How do you go about integrating the puzzles into the narrative? Did you start with a story, and then slot puzzles in? Or do the puzzles prompt the story arc?
Harriet: The story came first, and then we created puzzles that naturally reflected the challenges the characters were encountering.
It was important to us to keep the players as immersed as possible, and by creating puzzles and solutions that felt authentic to our characters’ stories, we feel we’ve achieved this.
I have always loved sci-fi and grew up watching a lot of Star Trek, Red Dwarf, and SG-1. Our first game is set within the world of a retro sci-fi TV show inspired by the ones I’ve always had a soft spot for.
Another way we strive to build on this world-building is by keeping our mechanics in-world as well. One of the most prominent examples of this is our hints system. If the players choose to take a hint, they will draw a corresponding adventure card where the characters remember relevant information or use their knowledge to point the player in the right direction.
Lastly, a component that was crucial to us for this immersion was being completely offline—keeping the game in the moment and shared on the table.
Joe: The idea of the hint system being thematically aligned, and even developing the story further is excellent. Do players run the risk of not getting the full experience if they don’t seek out the hints? Or is it something that will also unfold during non-hint gameplay?
Harriet: The story stays in the core gameplay, but the hints add to the experience rather than feeling separate and taking the player out of the game world.
Joe: This all sounds like an incredibly immersive experience. You mentioned that Minty Noodles is a two-person company. There are many designers out there who work in partnership, but also many going it alone. What do you find are the benefits to working alongside someone to design games?
Harriet: I think working creatively on your own, you can get stuck in an echo chamber where ideas become stagnant or over-engineered. I think having two of us allows us to create more efficiently. Also, we both have different approaches which work well when we are creating a variety of puzzles and mechanics. Cole designs more technical puzzles, and I am more drawn to materials and visual puzzles.
By combining his game design experience with my graphic design experience, we make a great team!
Having said that, outside of initial puzzle development, I work on the game alone. So I understand the difficulty of working by yourself. A game changer for me has been regularly going to in-person playtesting sessions and also being part of the BoardGameProtoHype community. It’s great to have a space to ask people’s opinions or advice for development.
Joe: A creative partner does sound like something I’d enjoy!
I’m always super interested in where ideas come from. I understand how the theme of your game has come about, but where do the ideas for puzzles come from? My guess is you do a lot of puzzling. But what are you looking for in a good puzzle, what does it need to make the Final Cut?
Harriet: I do a lot of puzzling and escape rooms, to the extent I can’t go to a café or hotel without automatically trying to find codes in the questionable art.
There is a difference between what I personally think is a good puzzle, and what makes it into the game. I set out to make a game that could engage as many of the players as possible. I have tried to do this by having a variety of styles of puzzles. I have noticed, over years of playing games like this, that the most successful experiences come when each player in a group can have a ‘win’ moment, as opposed to one player dominating the game. Also, people’s brains work very differently, and what is obvious to one person is baffling to another. I have tried to have a balance of puzzle types to help create more win moments and collaboration.
Joe: Thanks for that, it’s interesting to see how you’re treading that line to find just the right level of challenge. Something like the Exit games have a difficulty rating, do you have a sense of where your game will lie in terms of challenge? Or even how you might go about rating difficulty in a new puzzle?
Harriet: Playtest, playtest, playtest. I ask all my playtesters for a difficulty rating and I will take an average of it. It’s key to remember I can’t judge any of my puzzles. Currently it’s looking like a 3/5 which is what I was aiming for. A good entry level, with a few more challenging bits. Playtesters are another challenge though. As the game is single play through, I have to find new playtesters every session.
Joe: Finding your new players must be time consuming. You’ve set me up nicely for the next question I’ve been keen to ask. Maybe tabletop creators will be designing and publishing games that can be played multiple times. Your game is different, it’s a one shot puzzle. I wonder if we could explore how that is making you think differently about how you’re going to market the game?
Harriet: It is time consuming to find new playtesters, but I’ve grown to love it. I love getting to meet all the new people!
Being a single play through we have one chance to make an impact on players and to give them an experience that’s worth buying a whole game for. The game is split into three episodes with around 3 hours of play time total. Each episode builds on the adventure and introduces a new play style and mechanics to provide a good amount and variety of play experience.
Marketing and Kickstarter is its own challenge, we want to show people the gameplay they get and all the cool things that Interstellar Adventures does, but that’s really hard to do without spoilers! I do want to show some more of the components we have though. We will be adding them to the campaign as we get some of the art and renders through. I feel like some of the components, out of context, won’t spoil puzzles but will help communicate that this game is tactile and interesting and worth backing!
Joe: Thanks Harriet. The “3 episodes” of a story definitely feels like you’ll be backing something with longevity and scope to continue the play over three sessions.
Let’s round this off, tell us how we can support you and your game.
Harriet: Sign up to our mailing list at mintynoodles.com, follow our Kickstarter and tell everyone about it. Your friends, family, postman, people in the street, anyone that has vaguely mentioned liking puzzles, or space, or Star Trek. Any support is much appreciated! 💚
A huge thank you to Harriet for sharing insights into the fascinating world of Minty Noodles and their upcoming game Interstellar Adventures! If you’re as intrigued as I am by this blend of puzzles and sci-fi storytelling, be sure to follow their journey on Instagram (@mintynoodlesgames) and sign up for updates on their website mintynoodles.com.
The Kickstarter campaign is just around the corner, and this looks like one space voyage you won’t want to miss. For more interviews with innovative game designers and the stories behind their creations, don’t forget to subscribe to our What If blog mailing list. Your inbox will thank you for the regular dose of tabletop inspiration!
