Writing
Katamari Damacy for Boss Fight Books (2018)
I wrote a book about the design, production, and meaning of my favorite game, Katamari Damacy, and its creator Keita Takahashi, for the third season of Boss Fight Books.
Planning Your Escape: Strategy Secrets to Make You an Escape Room Superstar (2021)
I wrote about the history of the immersive entertainment genre and escape rooms, and included a toolkit of puzzles, cipher, and locks for players new to the genre, for Simon & Schuster.
Escape Rooms in Media essays (ongoing)
In an essay series, I’m documenting rooms shown in television shows and in films, their puzzles and game flow, and how these games are used to advance the show’s narrative, and showcase character dynamics and development.
Letterboxd: Dating the Movies
For Letterboxd, I curated a list of movies set on every day of every month for all of 2022.
Escape Rooms, Puzzle Games, and Immersive Experiences
- 2023 projects coming soon
- The Forgotten Forest (Portland, Oregon) (on hiatus)
- The Traveler’s Guide to Little Sodaburg (online) (2021)
- The Wandmaker’s House (Portland, Oregon) (2018)
- Immersive Speakeasy (XOXO Festival, Portland, Oregon) (2018)
- Remnant Immersive Dinner with Mixed Flour (Copenhagen, 2018)
- The Silence In Room 1258 (Now Play This, London, England) (2017)
- RESIDENT EVIL Escape Experience On Tour (San Francisco, Chicago, Portland, New York City, Boston, Austin) (2017)
- RESIDENT EVIL Escape Experience (Los Angeles, CA) (2016)
- Satanic Panic (Austin, TX) (2016)
- Adidas Uncaged (New York City, NY) (2016)
- Weaving/Dreaming/Exploring at the Portland Art Museum (2015)
- Spark of Resistance (Portland, OR) (2014) (Golden Lock-In Award 2015)
For more information on my escape room and puzzle experience games, please click here
Game Design & Writing
- My work post-2020 is largely under NDA
- O.R.B. (2019)
- The Traveler and the Tree (2018)
- Little Black Dress (unreleased, 2018)
- Teenage Dream (unreleased, 2018)
- Hunters vs. Campers (Overlook Film Festival) (2017)
- Tarotno (XOXO Arcade 2016)
- ORNI (2016)
- COMPRESSION GHOSTS (2015)
- Dysforgiveness (IndieCade Showcase @ E3 2015, Big Games showcase IndieCade 2015)
- The Roots That Clutch (2015)
- Limn (2015)
- Marionette Soccer (Come Out & Play NYC and Come Out & Play SF 2015)
- Outside, there are 13 kids in spooky costumes (2014)
- Cuppa Quest (2014 IndieCade Finalist)
- Kill Your Grandfather (Come Out & Play Festival NYC 2013)
- The Loom Becomes Our Voice (2013)
- YODO (You Only Die Once) (2013)
- The Manor at Whitby (2010)
Community Management, Building, and Moderation
- Wieden+Kennedy (Laika, W+K brand, Kraft, Sony, Levi’s) (2011-2015)
- Moshi Monsters, Mind Candy (2011)
- Monster High Wiki, Wikia/Wikia Community Council (2010)
- GOIV/Levi’s GoForth (2009)
- PMOG/The Nethernet (2008)
- Superstruct future forecasting game, Institute for the Future (2008)
- Perplex City Alternate Reality Game (ARG), Mind Candy (2005-2007)
My detailed resume is available upon request; I am not currently seeking community management work.
Side Projects
Today On Screen (2019-current)
Inspired by the celebration of films that state specific dates in their scripts, like Back to the Future and Mean Girls, this account posts the day’s events from movies and TV for lovers of film, pop culture, calendars, and fun. Now on the Fediverse!
Fauxmoji (2016)
A Tumblr documenting renditions of new, made up, and/or desired emoji, created by corporations, news organizations, sports teams, artists, and more. Sometimes, interesting emoji culture and news.
X-Files Documents (2016)
A periodic Tumblr collecting the ephemera used in on-screen storytelling, narrative enrichment, and world-building in the X-Files, including files, slides, faxes, folders, reports, photographs, posters, renderings, and scraps of paper.
31 Days of Halloween (2015-current)
Every day during the month of October, I send a Tinyletter of lovingly curated Halloween links, videos, music, stories, and more, to get you in a spooky mood.
A (Snapchat) Ghost Story for Christmas (2015)
An on-the-fly spooky story about a haunted house, transmitted in a series of ephemeral Snapchat postings.
Benson Bubblers (2013)
A site dedicated to the iconic copper drinking fountains that dot the Portland, Oregon landscape. Enter your location to find the nearest five, and learn about their history and where to see the significant ones.
Second Life’s Non-Decaying Ruins (2012)
In which I take and share images of spaces in Second Life that have been abandoned, but that will never gather dust or accumulate decay (unless its programmer has designed it that way). (I also wrote about this for The Atlantic in 2014: What Happens When Digital Cities Are Abandoned?)
Portland History Ephemera Art Boxes (2012)
A set of ephemera-filled story boxes designed for a vending machine art show to support arts education in Portland public schools.
British X-Mas Music (2012)
For expats, an auto-playing internet music video station playing the top British holiday hits.
Anglofilmia (2010)
In which we educate ourselves about British history by watching chronologically-ordered films.
Help Us Find Satoshi (2006)
A challenge to locate a man using only his photograph and his first name—successfully completed in 2021! In February 2020, I was interviewed by the YouTube channel Inside A Mind, and in December 2020, Satoshi was found. Read more about the project on FindSatoshi.com, listen to our interviews on BBC Radio 4, and read about the changing internet in Wired UK. In 2022, NHK released a documentary about the Find Satoshi project.
Laura E. Hall 