The Morrison Game Factory

PostCurious

Players: 1+ (1-3 recommended)

Playing time: 2-4 hours

Difficulty: 2.5/5

Awards: Golden Lock Award - Tabletop (2024)

My solo Melbourne trip to play Carnivorous with the Escape Room Explorer was coming up, but I still had tabletop games I borrowed from him that we hadn’t played yet. One of them was The Morrison Game Factory by PostCurious, a game I had heard great things about and had always wanted to play.

So, despite having a ton of work to finish, the boys and I sat around the kitchen table a few days before my flight and tried to smash through the game.

The Morrison Game Factory was a beautifully designed game. Everything inside the box looked like it came from genuine retro board games, albeit with hidden clues and puzzles that will help you gradually unravel the secrets behind the characters and the story.

It was quite a meta experience, in that most the puzzles revolved around various game components from the fictional board games in the Morrison Game Company catalogue. This was probably the coolest aspect of the game and added an uncanny sense of familiarity and authenticity.

The puzzles were also definitely more challenging than I had expected. There were some basic ones but also some that required a lot of strategic thinking and logical deduction — having pen and paper was essential.

One thing I didn’t expect, however, was how much the game relied on a computer or smartphone with network connection. Similar to some of the other high-end tabletop rooms we’ve played, there was a chat function and plenty of writing to read online, but it surprised me that the majority of the story unfolded in this manner.

Admittedly, we did not play The Morrison Game Factory under the best conditions, which was a real shame because it’s a game that deserved our time and full attention. We still appreciated the design of the game, the puzzles, and the moving story that it had to tell. But between running back and forth to my phone and computer to respond to emails and texts, and the kids not wanting to do so much reading, I feel like we short-changed ourselves on what should have been a much more immersive and rewarding experience.

Rank: A-