P is for Puzzle
Location: Washington, DC
Date Played: June 9, 2024
Team Size: 1-4 players per case; we recommend 1-3
Duration: Up to 60 minutes per case
Price: $30 per case
Ticketing: Private per group, but in a shared play space
Game Breakage: Yes; only 10 of 26 total cases were available at the time of our visit. Others were being repaired or still being finished.
Accessibility Consideration: The Planet Word museum is fully accessible
REA Reaction
Planet Word's Lexicon Lane has the potential to be a puzzler's paradise. Yet, it may be the most ambitious permanent public puzzle project that nobody has heard of.
Comprised of 26 different puzzle box experiences, one for each letter of the alphabet, and set in a beautifully decorated puzzle-themed town, Lexicon Lane will delight wordplay-loving puzzlers of any experience level. Each case is an hour-long mini puzzle hunt, guided by a spiral-bound clue booklet along with various objects in the case and additional information and items scattered throughout the surrounding environment. (If you're new to the concept of puzzle hunts, you can learn more at Puzzle Hunt 101.)
I found Planet Word to be one of the most alluringly innovative and interactive museums in Washington, DC, and I adore that they chose to lean so strongly into puzzles. The pairing is natural; language is deeply puzzley. We piece together words to form meaning, finding just the right combinations for the right contexts. Puzzles add an extra layer of explicit play to language, enhancing our awareness of the patterns that surround us.
The puzzles in Lexicon Lane were solidly designed with this mindset. They were varied and meaningfully themed, often utilizing custom handmade components in creative ways. I'd usually expect an experience like this to take place mostly seated, so I was pleasantly surprised by how many puzzles got us out of our seats and exploring storefronts and objects in the surrounding environment. Given how many different puzzle trails were overlapping in the space, signposting was quite direct by necessity while still embodying a strong sense of discovery.
Our group split into two subteams. My team played through 4 cases: Riddles in the Key of G, Computer Machinations, Trouble on Mount Olympus, and Purplebeard's Lost Pirate Treasure. We primarily used the Expert difficulty clue booklets, occasionally peeking in the Classic difficulty booklets when we encountered unclear cluing. Our experience across these particular cases was overwhelmingly positive. With only a few small exceptions, the puzzle design was elegant and satisfying, reflecting the designers' extensive experience in the world of puzzle hunts.
However, your mileage may vary depending on which case(s) you end up with. Our other team had a somewhat rougher experience, reporting multiple small maintenance issues, environmental inconsistencies that weren't reflected in the clue booklets, and certain puzzles that were more tedious than clever. They still enjoyed their time at Lexicon Lane overall, but their experience highlighted the importance of maintenance and thorough playtesting across every single element of every single puzzle. Especially when designing an experience for novice puzzle hunters, it's much easier to lose their trust than it is to gain it back.
There was also some room for improvement around the expectation setting and marketing of Lexicon Lane. Planet Word has created an experience with an immense potential for replayability, yet it's currently being presented primarily to attract single-time visitors. The addition of some sort of loyalty card to track progress, along with a metametapuzzle completable only upon solving most or all of the 26 cases, would not only attract repeat players but also add more meaning to the alphabetic structure. As more of the cases become available at a time, I'd also like to see Planet Word list the full set of titles on their website; the 3 currently enumerated don't come close to representing the immense amount of content they've created.
There is already so much to love at Lexicon Lane, and with a handful of tweaks and improvements, it could easily rise to become one of the top attractions for puzzlers in the D.C. area. Bring a puzzle pal or two and plan to make a day of it; Planet Word is a hidden gem.
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