Articles

Our 5 Favorite Mystery Box Game Subscriptions - New York Times Wirecutter July 2021

This International Women's Day, Meet Jodie & Mairi - Glitchers Blog March 2021

Sleuthing Skills - The Week Junior October 2020

Talks

The Diegetic Lock: Designing Puzzles for Your world - AdventureX November 2025

The Future of Escape Rooms - Game On Conference May 2025
Entrepreneurship x Immersive Sector - Immersive Experience Network Summit October 2024
Freelancing in the Tabletop Games Industry - Tabletop Scotland September 2024

Live, Laugh, Logical Deduction: Mental Health and Puzzle Design - Games Leadership Network August 2024

Relikpunk Oddities - Narrascope June 2024
Beyond the Screen: Thinky Games and Escape Rooms - ThinkyCon 2024 April 2024

Mimesis & Diegesis in Puzzle Design - Astra Fellowship Talk October 2023

Podcasts & Radio

As a cohost of The Infinite Escape Room since January 2025, you can find all of our episodes here.

Specifically, puzzles I designed and hosted include:

A Series of Purrfectly Normal Rooms The Infinite Escape Room Apr 2026

The Thing in the TV The Infinite Escape Room Oct 2025

Takeover the Tower ft. Escape This Podcast The Infinite Escape Room Aug 2025

Ice Cream Wars: The Burnt Beach The Infinite Escape Room July 2025
Summer Solstice: Rock Bottom Prices ft Aurelius Whitlock The Infinite Escape Room June 2025
Nursery Crimes: There was an old lady who swallowed a truffle The Infinite Escape Room Mar 2025

Planet of the Dogs: The Woof Factor The Infinite Escape Room February 2025

A Very Criminal Christmas: Yorkshire Nanageddon - The Infinite Escape Room Dec 24

Other Podcast Appearances

[Episode Pending] - Get Inspired to Get Hired [date]
Mairi Spaceship Nolan, Puzzle Designer - Red Tunic Mar 26

Our Favourite Games of 2025 - Draknek & Friends Official Podcast Jan 2026
Puzzle Design with Mairi Nolan - Horrors Untold May 25
Route to Misery Pt 1 (ft. Mairi Nolan) - Aurelius Whitlock's Murder Museum April 25

Route to Misery Pt 2 (ft. Mairi Nolan) - Aurelius Whitlock's Murder Museum April 25

Interview with Mairi Spaceship Nolan - Escapuzzled Jan 25
Our Favourite Games of 2024 - Draknek & Friends Official Podcast Jan 25
Mairi Nolan (escape room aficionado) - Draknek & Friends Official Podcast Jan 25

A Puzzle Adventure - Pal Keys Dec 2024
The Cobbler and Shiv - The Infinite Escape Room Oct 2024

Stupid Sexy Ardvarks - The Infinite Escape Room Sept 2024
Flavoured beers, stolen artefacts, and Mike's new book - The Infinite Escape Room May 2024

The Museum Anti-Heist - The Infinite Escape Room May 2024

Mairi Nolan & Escape Industry News - The Cager Express: Escape Break March 2024

Pubisode: Bad Popes and Jeff Besoz - The Infinite Escape Room October 2023

Stop the Presses! - The Infinite Escape Room September 2023

What We Expect to See - Life is an Escape Room May 2023

Pubisode: Down the Rabbit's Hole - The Infinite Escape Room April 2023

Down the Rabbit's Hole - The Infinite Escape Room April 2023

008 - The History of Escape Rooms - Sipping Time Podcast March 2023

Escape Room - BBC Radio 4 May 2020

Interviews & On Screen

Season 3 Episode 11 of Riddiculous - Channel ITV February 2026

Episode 8 Puzzling - Channel 5 August 2023

Season 3 Episode 6 | Mairi Nolan - Psyched to be With You June 2023

The Escape Roomer interview! With Escape Room designer Mairi Nolan - Legacy Escape Box April 2023

Chernobyl: A Puzzle Septology Livestream - ESCAPETHEROOMers May 2021

Announcements

TERPECA 2025 Finale - December 2025

TERPECA 2024 Finale - December 2024
Lock Me "The Best Escape Rooms in Poland" - March 2025
Second Annual Thinky Games Awards Announcer - March 2025

Selected Media

Written by Mairi

I love writing about escape rooms and puzzle games! Over the years, I've been the Editor in Chief at The Escape Roomer, Escape Industry News, and written for a range of publications on the topic of escape rooms, puzzle design, and video games.

Read all my The Escape Roomer articles here (reviews & news about escape rooms)
Read all Escape Industry Newsletters here (escape room industry news)
Read all my Buzzshot articles here (B2B escape room management)
Read all my Thinky Games articles here (video game essays and reviews)

Selected Articles

PUZZLE GENRE

Thinky Third Thursday March Edition Thinky Third Thursday March 2025
Thinky Third Thursday February Edition Thinky Third Thursday February 2025
The best escape rooms in Edinburgh The Escape Roomer February 2025
Thinky Third Thursday Games of the Year Thinky Third Thursday January 2025
"Peering through the keyhole: a deep dive into The Room series" - Thinky Games September 2024
"Untangling the strange and compelling world of Rusty Lake" - Thinky Games August 2024
"Beyond the screen: The interplay between video games and escape rooms" Thinky Games July 2024
Inside Buzzshot's Puzzle Hunt at 2024 TransWorld Show for Escape Rooms - Buzzshot April 2024
"6 Game Jams in 2 Months with Astra (& everything I learned doing them)" Medium September 2023
"Gather, Solve, Connect: The Guide to Global Escape Room Conventions" - Buzzshot September 2023
"Resilience, Riddles and Reality: Why I Design Puzzles" - Safe in Our World June 2023
"Marketing Tabletop Puzzle Games on Kickstarter" - Medium May 2023
"Building communication into the heart of a puzzle game" - Unity Blog March 2023
"So you want to be a puzzle designer?" - Medium February 2023
"An Interview with Professor Puzzle" - The Escape Roomer May 2022
"Meet Tomislav, one of Escape Simulator's Co-Creators" - The Escape Roomer January 2022
"We've Escaped 2021 - An Escape Room Round Up" Buzzshot December 2021
"Sea Hero Quest relaunches as new, research edition" Glitchers Blog October 2021
"How long could someone ACTUALLY survive in an escape room?" - The Escape Roomer, August 2021
"Find Satoshi - How a 14 year old online puzzle was finally solved in 2020" The Escape Roomer January 2021
"Here lies John Renie, a Puzzle from Beyond the Grave" - The Escape Roomer April 2021
"20 things for Escape Room fans to do during lockdown" - The Escape Roomer November 2020
"A brief guide to Geocaching" / "A brief guide to Randonauting"- The Escape Roomer September 2020
"7 Lessons the Film "Home Alone" taught me about solving escape rooms" LinkedIn November 2019

SELECTED REVIEWS

Escape room thriller YOUR HOUSE hides it's secrets between lines of text Thinky Games March 2025
The House of Tesla demo captures the electrifying feeling of scientific discovery - Thinky Games Jan 2025
Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff at Escape Plan - The Escape Roomer October 2024
Video- No, A Murderer Killed the Radio Star - The Escape Roomer June 2024
"The Medusa Report by Diorama Games Review" - The Escape Roomer May 2023
"Detectiving at it's Finest in Case Closed, Edinburgh" - The Escape Roomer February 2023
"An Anxious Mind, Struggling to Sleep, Listens to the Crepuscula Call of Birds" - The Escape Roomer July 2022
"At the Tomb of the Wandering King I met a traveller from an antique land..." - The Escape Roomer May 2022
"Professor Puzzle's ambitious new tabletop escape game: Curse of the Dark" - The Escape Roomer May 2022
"Jersey Island: The Escape Room guide" - The Escape Roomer October 2021
"It all began with memory loss, and I woke up in a spaceship" - The Escape Roomer July 2021
"In an alternate universe where the internet was never invented... We Still Fax!"" - The Escape Roomer May 2021
"The Balthazar Stone is sheer, treasure hunting pirate goodness." - The Escape Roomer May 2021

Contact Me

Looking to hire a journalist or speak to an expert for your escape room article? Please do reach out on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or direct to email:

mairinolan (a) gmail.com