An Alexandria artist who has invented a puzzle game has started a crowdsourcing campaign to bring it to stores and to customers’ doors.
Maritza Maxwell of Hatch Skills came up with the concept for Trapdoors, a tabletop map in which players take turns sliding tiles to match the challenge image while avoiding trapdoors that take pieces.
Maxwell describes the game as part Rubik’s Cube, part Labyrinth, combining strategy with puzzles. The idea came about after Maxwell made a hex puzzle for a friend and her 10-year-old daughter. They liked the puzzle so much that the daughter carried it around and challenged strangers to beat her time in solving it.
“When I heard that, I thought, ‘I should create a competitive puzzle game!'” Maxwell said. “I recognized that there are few competitive puzzles on the market, and fewer that can be played by people with different skill sets. Fast forward 6 months of intense focus, prototyping, and playtesting, and I created Trapdoors.”
A Kickstarter crowdsourcing campaign is underway to gauge interest before moving forward with manufacturing the game. The campaign started in mid-July and will run for 30 days before manufacturing begins in mid or late August. The crowdsourcing campaign has a goal of $21,000 for the creation of a custom mold for game pieces and manufacturing of 1,000 Trapdoors games.
Maxwell told ALXnow that the game will be available in store at Made in ALX (415 King Street) if the campaign is successful. If it meets a certain threshold, she plans to cover remaining costs and bring Trapdoors to the shop.
Customers can make a pledge on Kickstarter if they want to purchase Trapdoors. If the campaign does not reach its goal, customers won’t be charged, and pledges would be canceled.
If the campaign proves successful, Maxwell expects customers will get orders around late November to early December.
Maxwell has been working as an artist creating crafts in acrylic and other mediums and teaching art classes in Alexandria for several years. Her Hex puzzle and several acrylic pieces are already for sale at Made in ALX.
But she’s not done making games yet.
Maxwell is honing ideas for additional games in the coming months.
“While I continue to make pens, bottle openers, etc, and teach craft classes, I have about 6 more games rattling around in my head that I will be working to finish in 2026 and 2027,” Maxwell said.
