What inspired us to create Pandora’s Legacy? #shorts #puzzle #escaperoom #boardgames

Hello, my name is Alex Rosenthal,

and this is a game that I've been creating: Pandora's Legacy.

It is a hybrid jigsaw/escape room/ legacy board game.

There's nothing quite like it that's ever been made,

which  is part of why I'm really excited to put it out into the world.

TED-Ed's hit riddle and mythology series had a baby

and it is Pandora's Legacy.

Our riddle series is a series about math and logic problems

told through a narrative lens.

Ever since we first created it,

we wanted to create something that was actually interactive

not just sitting back and watching a video,

but something that you could actually play.

Everything we do is about fostering curiosity.

All the animations we make,

we want to use those as jumping off points for people to want to learn—

about whatever it is, whether it's mythology or history or science.

And so a game that is all about curiosity and mystery and something unfolding

where you're getting deeper and deeper, you're exploring layer after layer,

couldn't be closer to what we try to do and what our mission is for TED-Ed as a whole.

We've designed Pandora's Legacy to be fun first and foremost,

but being TED-Ed there are many deep educational layers to this.

There is the Greek mythology,

and the various characters and figures and tropes from it.

Then there's also just the act of playing the game and solving the puzzle

is an exercise in critical thinking and deductive reasoning

and thinking outside the box and also communication.

So much of the joy of puzzle solving is in working with others

and articulating your ideas and sharing insights.

To do that well, solvers have to be able to communicate what they're thinking.

And it's one of the things that I love the most about puzzles;

that when you're solving puzzles, you are building your own knowledge base,

and your own skills at being a collaborator,

and then also just approaching problem solving from many dimensions.

Puzzles are full of delightful failure—

where you try something out and it doesn't work.

And so you try something else and then when things do click into place,

it's a beautiful "aha!" moment.

And it's all about fostering that.

And that is a skill that is very readily transferable to many, many settings,

whether it be school, or professional lives,

or just wanting to solve the world's problems.