The Curious Crate is a 6-month subscription adventure for children ages 8-12 that involves receiving physical objects in the mail and corresponding digital experiences. A teenage boy named Rigby gets stuck in a time portal and the child helps him through puzzles and clues in journals, floppy disks, videos and more. Over the course of the subscription, the story unfolds as Rigby travels back through history from the present to the 16th century. The goal is to provide children with experiences of curiosity, anticipation, exploration and discovery through a combination of traditional and digital media.

1. The Curious Crate
Project Concept Overview

2. The Curious Crate is a transmedia adventure; a physical object subscription
service that delivers a unique experience to children 8-12 and their parents.
Rigby Hale, a scientist’s teenage son, stumbled into a time portal and only
you - the recipient of his mailings, video dispatches, and puzzles - can help
him find the legendary object that will return him to the present day.
The adventure takes place over six centuries of history and spools out over
the course of six real months. Eleven physical objects and corresponding
digital experiences follow the discovery and opening of the Curious Crate.

3. Purpose
Remember the joy of getting mail or having to wait for the next comic book
or catalog to arrive? Remember when the answers to puzzles weren’t
merely a Google search away? Remember using so-called “modern
antiques” like floppy disks, VCRs, drive-in theaters, and paper maps?
Modern technologies and the internet are wonderful - absolutely - but so too
are some of the invaluable lessons we learned as kids because of things like
snail mail and physical objects:
• surprise
• delayed gratification
• long-term problem-solving, and
• integrating old-fashioned bits and new-fangled bytes

4. Goal
Our goal for The Curious Crate is to deliver:
A journey of The gift of
curiosity anticipation
An appreciation of
exploration
Some delight in A discovery of
perseverance interconnection

5. Idea
The Curious Crate is an immersive exploration story that unfolds over the
course of a half year, delivered by way of 12 mailed objects and 12
corresponding digital experiences.
As the surprise recipient of a curious wood box and its miscellaneous (and
mysterious) contents, your child will stumble into a role assisting 15-year-old
Rigby in his accidental quest back in time. With your son’s or daughter’s help
he will find and activate a series of “date posts,” markers that trigger
subsequent mailings and dispatches - each one using the communications
methods of decades and centuries past.
Part book, part subscription, part game, The Curious Crate is designed for
kids aged 8-12, with their parents in on the adventure too.

6. Story
Your daughter/son opens the curious wood crate to find a thick, faux
leather-bound journal tucked inside. The book looks dusty and care-worn,
its antique pages brittle with age. The journal is filled with technical drawings,
diary entries, symbology and hand-drawn maps. At first, it appears to be the
work of an old explorer, field notes from some long-forgotten scientist
but, upon closer inspection, it seems that things are much more puzzling
than that.
As she/he begins to page through the astonishing manuscript, your child
discovers that much of the text inside the journal is also muddled, words re-
arranged, unaligned and out of order, as if assembled after-the-fact. Several
items appear to be missing; a bundle of opened envelopes are without
their letters, while places in the book that once held specimen samples are
now conspicuously empty. As many questions as answers. And when she/he
reaches the bottom of the box, there’s the most surprising element of all: a
handwritten note, addressed to her/him and inviting them into the story!

7. Framework
The story begins with the core crate. We’ll deliver that to you (the parent) in
December for you to give to your child for Christmas.
A couple of weeks later the first of 11 deliveries will arrive by post. We’ll
send these out roughly every 2-3 weeks and we’ll send a heads-up email to
you with each shipment.
With each dispatch, the protagonist moves back in time - at first by decades
and later by centuries. Each dispatch’s object and experience relate to
these different times and places.
The core crate and each subsequent dispatch package will variously include
hints, clues, tips, red herrings, as well as codes linking to text and video
messages from the story’s main character.

8. Framework
Using the Warms platform, text messages, audio clips, photo galleries,
videos, and links to closed games/apps can be accessed along with Rigby’s
message. Each month’s mailing reveals one such multimedia
component. Some may be passive entertainment while others are
interactive and consequential.
Often the dispatches require puzzles to be solved - everything from figuring
out a virtual VCR or typewriter (comical to us, perhaps perplexing to kids) to
finding clues hidden in music box melodies or 15th-century paintings.
Parents will receive an email before each delivery which includes cheat
notes should they need to provide a nudge.

9. A small wood crate delivered in
December (to parents) contains a
mysterious and incomplete field
book and various artifact clues.
A code entered online reveals an
intro video and dispatch from the
main character.
An envelope mailed in early
January includes an old floppy
disk with coded label.
Another dispatch is revealed as
well as clues hidden within a
series of ASCII art.
An envelope arrives in late
January containing a VHS
cassette tape.
A code on the tape label unlocks a
virtual VCR on which to view an
interesting short film.

10. An envelope arrives in early
February containing an old IBM
computer punch card.
After decoding the card using text
in the field book, an interactive
fiction Q&A terminal is presented.
An envelope arrives in late
February containing a 35mm film
slide with an elaborate clue-filled
photo.
The video dispatch invites viewers
to visit a virtual drive-in theater
and to “pay special attention to the
newsreel”.
An oversize envelope arrives in
early March containing a 7” record
with two exclusive songs relating
to the plot.
A code on the label gives access
to an online virtual record player.

11. An airmail-style envelope arrives
in late March with an official
looking typed letter.
Access to a typewriter app allows
for a form to be filled in and
submitted to the proper (in-game)
authorities.
A box arrives in early April
containing a hand-crank music
box which plays a classical song.
Per the video dispatch, the song
must be transcribed note-by-note
on a piano app to unlock another
storyline.
An aged and wax-sealed envelope
arrives in late April containing a
handwritten letter.
Instructions within the letter reveal
a small online gallery of 16th-
century paintings, each depicting
key scenes in the story.

12. A tube arrives in early May
containing part of a canvas map
(half of what was in the crate).
The map corresponds to a
special-access “old world
explorer” iPad app in which the
whereabouts of a key item can be
discovered.
A small crate arrives in late May
containing a real brass pocket
watch, the object which returns
our protagonist home.
After solving a riddle related to the
timepiece, a video plays out
concluding plot lines.
Finally, in June, a success poster
arrives in the mail which recaps
the many scenes and characters
in the story.
A farewell thank-you dispatch is
followed by access to a virtual
letterpress where “I was here”
posters may be created.

13. The Rewards
The Main package includes the core crate and its contents, 11 letter/object
mailings (including postage), 12 video dispatches, and 12 digital
experiences.
The Deluxe package includes the same elements, plus the following:
• One of Rigby’s video messages - at random - will be personalized. The
actor playing Rigby will specifically say your daughter/son’s name and
other inside references (which you provide us).
• The prized pocket watch received near the end will have your daughter/
son’s name engraved on it.
• The adventure poster received at the end will have your daughter/son’s
face drawn in (based on a photo you send us).
• The digital letterpress message that your daughter/son creates for the
final task will be printed by us and mailed to another random Deluxe
member (with your consent, of course), hopefully beginning a penpal
collaboration between curious young minds.

14. Requirements
• A computer with internet connection and the parent’s email account
• An iPad and iTunes account
• A postal address (countries to be determined)
• A kid with insatiable curiosity, ingenuity, and a little patience

15. Collaborators
The Curious Crate will be produced by the creators of Warms gift
boxes(givewarms.com); a team with toy industry, web/app dev, and
magazine publishing experience.
We plan to work with a variety of talented artists and suppliers.

16. Project Concept Overview