The Veiled Note: VeiledFest (Play at Home)

This is how you invite friends to a festival!

You have to get yourself ready for our very own fictitious festival – VeiledFest. With an unbelievable lineup, VeiledFest will be the best festival you’ll never be able to actually attend!

Since (the first) lockdown began there have been a number of companies formed to offer play at home experiences that you can send to friends and family with a secret message they have to reveal; the latest such experience is VeiledFest by The Veiled Note.

I must admit that in the time between arranging to receive The Veiled Note and actually receiving it, I had completely forgotten that it was coming. This meant I was both pleasantly surprised and confused when a very fancy looking envelope arrived through our letterbox. Other companies have gone for the discreet option with the puzzle envelopes, but Veiled Note decided to go front and centre with the bling – VeiledFest was beautifully presented even before opening it, in a striking maroon and gold envelope.

We happened to have booked a nice little (escape room orientated) weekend away in Cardiff so of course The Veiled Note was the first thing we packed. We sat down one evening and finally got around to solving the puzzles so we could see what message we had been sent.

Although this is a play at home game and something you physically receive in the post, you will still need access to the internet in order to retrieve your hidden message.

CONCEPT/EXECUTION

I love these puzzle envelopes, the concept is really quite simple and they’re a great way to send a message to a friend without just sending a simple message. I find that the theme of the game will dictate which puzzle envelope we recommend to people (obviously it has to be a good game too), well VeiledFest is the perfect way to invite friends to a music festival – we happened to be playing this game while friends were at Reading Festival so it just seemed to fit well.

Credit to The Veiled Note, VeiledFest is certainly one of the ‘fancier’ envelopes we’ve seen so far, it reminded me of a doily (is that a good thing?) Either way, it was fancy and had a quality feel about it, kind of like a wedding invitation. Ohhh that’s a great idea, why not send out a puzzle envelope as a wedding invitation instead of actual boring invites?! That’s a great idea, someone do that (I’ll take commision).

I digress. VeiledFest is a simple concept, where you solve the puzzles and each puzzle gives you a number that you then enter on a website, along with your unique ID code. Once you get this correct you will be able to see the message that has been left for you, it could be a video, photo, text, or a mixture of the three. We received a message from the creator, Sam, as our reward.

One nice feature that we haven’t seen in other games was the ability to reply to the message directly from within this portal, perfect so the recipient can send a quick thank you. When sending The Veiled Note, you can also specify a ‘Do not open until’ date which would be printed on the envelope. If the recipient ignores that, they will find the video/message isn’t available until that date – good move!

PUZZLES

With The Veiled Note you know exactly what you’re getting, ten puzzles. These puzzles are a mixture of maths, wordplay, observation, logic and lateral thinking, but none of them would be too challenging for people who aren’t puzzle enthusiasts. You will also need access to an email account and a phone capable of scanning QR codes.

I say there are ten puzzles, but I think working out the order of the puzzles is technically another puzzle, or that may be part of the ten? I can’t remember now – either way, there are ten or eleven puzzles. The puzzles also benefited from decent signposting which was nice to see, if you needed to turn to the internet, then you were guided in this direction quite clearly.

For the most part we enjoyed the puzzles and found them quite simple, although one puzzle did stump us for a little while. There were also some puzzles which are the usual ‘facebook’ style puzzles which normally end in a fight – we’re not a fan of these as they feel lazy and a bit annoying but I imagine we are probably in the minority here.

CLUE SYSTEM

If your recipients do get stuck on any of the puzzles, there is a decent clue system to ensure that they’ll be able to get through and still get to their message. A link to the clue system is included in the introductory letter, this system will give two hints to guide you back in the right direction, and if that doesn’t work, the solution can also be revealed. Simple, and effective.

FINAL THOUGHTS

VeiledFest is certainly one of the prettiest puzzle envelopes we’ve seen and this game would be great to invite a friend to a festival or gig. The puzzles weren’t overly challenging but still kept us occupied for 20 minutes, which we were quite happy with. If it didn’t have those annoying ‘Facebook’ style puzzles, we would have probably enjoyed it a bit more, but the other puzzles were solid.

TOOLS REQUIRED

• Email account
• Phone for scanning QR Code
• Internet

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players

Time Taken: 20 mins

Website: https://www.theveilednote.com/

*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review