Welcome to Wyrd Artifice! We are a dynamic husband-and-wife team with a passion for all things tech, based in the Huntington, WV Tri-State area.
As seasoned technology generalists, we've harnessed our combined expertise to offer a diverse range of services.
Whether you need a sleek website built from scratch, intricate scripting to automate your processes, or professional livestream equipment installation and training, we've got you covered. But that's not all! Our creative flair extends beyond the digital realm. We're also experienced actors who can breathe life into your next stage or film project, and our knack for designing mind-bending escape room props and effects will leave your guests both puzzled and delighted.
Let us be your go-to creative tech wizards - because when you work with us, innovation is just a click away!
Need a website? Devops scripting? Mike has spent the bulk of the last 18 years in software and full-stack web development, primarily in Python and Django. As a web developer, Mike has been responsible for the coding and upkeep of both individual websites and huge templated systems supporting hundreds of websites with customization and content creation interfaces. As a sofware developer, Mike has taken on projects in real estate and entertainment industries from the normalization and processing of MLS data from over ten different US markets into a single datastream, to DMX lighting and 5.1 audio effect software for escape room applications. Check out some featured projects below, and in the Escape Room Props section!
One of Mike's frequent clients is involved in the entertainment industry, and needed a way to manage the application and scheduling process of hundreds of volunteers at multiple convention appearances across the country. TDvols.com does just that - custom-build from top to bottom, this Django-powered website allows admins to manage application processes for upcoming conventions, create schedules and roles, and schedule volunteers. Volunteers can manage their profile of skills, apply for conventions, manage their schedules, and receive SMS notifications one hour before their shift. Staff can check in volunteers during the convention, and coordinators can see their volunteers' status and leave reviews.
This website was built for Alchemy Theatre, a non-profit arts group. The website includes promotional material for past and future productions, as well as information for prospective sponsors. A back-end interface allows staff to manage shows and performance times, actor bios, show programs, ticket links, photo galleries, and more. Each show has a digital program showcasing cast and crew photos and bios, and actors can even share their bio with all their past productions. Naturally, every show and actor page is built with social media sharing in mind.
Mike spent nearly 15 years creating software and websites for the real estate industry. His work included porting legacy web applications from Coldfusion to Django, and building a massive suite of tools allowing realtors to manage content and customizations on their personal and brokerage websites, manage leads and maintain a sphere of influence, create detailed listing presentations with comparative MLS market data, and much, much more. Staff tools included a full back-end of data management tools, including a system to manage print media orders. Automated systems create packages of personalized postcards in PDF format for customers' contacts, along with all the documents required by USPS to send them in bulk, allowing staff to send that data straight to print and post office. Other staff tools included prospective customer identification based on individual sales trends, including detailed analysis of repeat customers and lost potential sales. On the scripting side, Mike built and maintained tools to automatically pull MLS data and media from a large number of US regional markets and normalize that into usable data, powering customer websites, magazine ad and postcard generation, and much more.
Another frequent client of ours is Trinity Episcopal Church in Huntington, WV. Trinity had a very dated web presence that needed modernization. We collaborated with Trinity staff to find a look and feel that fit the atmosphere and goals of the church, and designed a website to match. The result is easy for their creative staff to maintain and we're always on hand to add features or answer questions.
Do you have a church or venue that needs to have a better online presence? Why not add streaming video capabilities, or upgrade your current process? Mike and Jenn have worked with several organizations to replace their "someone holding an iphone" system with a professional livestream installation, including multiple pan-tilt-zoom cameras and the software and hardware needed to switch cameras and angles/zoom levels. The upgrades have driven large gains to their social media channels and allowed them a clean and professional way to reach their intended audiences with crisp audio and beautiful video. All installations include training sessions with staff and a guided service if desired. Call us to schedule a free estimate and consultation!
Trinity's setup includes two gold standard pan-tilt-zoom cameras from PTZ Optics, and a statically mounted camcorder they already owned - supporting up to 19 preset camera angles in addition to manual control. Existing audio was tied into the system, and a full production console set up in their balcony. We trained their staff in the use of the system, and still provide upgrades and support. We've also provided networking, web development, personal computer, and other IT infrastructure support!
St. John's needed a full overhaul of their audio system in addition to livestream equipment installation. We installed a full audio rack with digital mixer managed via iPad, wireless handheld and lavalier microphones, wireless podium microphones for their lectern and pulpit, and an ambient microphone for organ, choir, and congregation. Three PTZ Optics cameras were installed, allowing for up to 27 preset camera angles as well as manual control. A full control room was set up just outside of their sanctuary. We recently added support for a wireless camera via iPad/Android so that they can begin streaming some services outside, transitioning to wired cameras once back indoors!
Mike and Jenn have over 50 years of combined experience in theatrical arts, onstage and off, with over a hundred credits in film and stage productions. With singing and dancing talents and training at Marshall University, technical skills, and extensive fight choreography and direction experience, we can probably help you out - no matter your project. Check below for headshots and resumes!
Mike's life has revolved around the arts since he was a toddler listening to his mother practice Chopin late into the night. A member of choirs, bands, and casts throughout high school, Mike graduated Marshall University with honors in 2003 majoring in Theatre with a minor in Music. Since then Mike has been active in professional and volunteer community theatre productions and local film projects, was a company member at Arts Resources for the Tri-State, and serves as a founding Board Member of Alchemy Theatre Troupe.
Over the years Mike and Jenn have collaborated with multiple organizations to build props, puzzles, and costumes for escape room like events and theatrical productions. Ranging from lasers to custom hardware, sand to snow, hell gates to roller-skating robots, we've found ways to make magic in venues across the country. We've worked extensively with multiple Raspberry Pi versions, as well as hardware from Fright Props - a popular product line in the escape room and haunt industries. If you have a need for some technical wizardry, give us a call and we'll find a way to make your dream a reality!
Please note: A large portion of our work was done with True Adventures, the creators of True Dungeon - a 40k sqft live-action D&D inspired escape room experience. For many of the projects below "construction" parts of the build were performed in collaboration with TD employees (which we were, for a time). We've noted below what aspects of each project we were responsible for.
Who doesn't love lasers?! This was an awesome puzzle, and one that required a LOT of preparation. A class IIIb laser was suspended over a "lava pool" with a large rock in the middle. The players' objective, a special skull, rested on the rock but was protected by three forcefields of rainbow laser light! The players had to solve three puzzles to bring them down and retrieve the skull.
Bringing this puzzle to players required special meetings with the FDA to gain an exception to the usual rules for patron proximity to a class IIIb laser. We created extensive plans and diagrams, including barriers to keep players from getting too close, multiple safety shut-off switches, and an operator (trained by Mike) in a crow's nest above. The FDA approved our design, and Mike obtained registration as a laser safety officer and filed approval paperwork in multiple states. It was a lot of work, but the effect was magical! We were responsible for all of the tech for this build, oversaw the design, and were part of the construction effort in collaboration with True Adventures staff, with whom we were employed.
What do you get when four sentient skulls with no respect for adventurers (or the fourth wall!) are trapped for centuries in an infernal dungeon? Hilarity, that's what!
Four skulls on pedestals greeted the players and challenged them to solve their riddle - which they then sang in four-part harmony! As the players attempted to solve the puzzle with clues and objects around the room, the skulls kept up their witty and sometimes rude banter with each other and the players. This tongue-in-cheek puzzle allowed us to break the fourth wall a few times with dialog alluding to the creator of the event and the game itself. Players had a blast, and so did we!
Mike and Jenn costumed the skulls and handled all technical aspects of the build, including the 5.1 surround audio tracks that allowed each skull's mouth to move only when they were "speaking". We also wrote the skulls' puzzle song and harmonies, and provided the voices of two of the skulls.
Another custom hardware build, the "Master Blaster" and "Mini Blaster" fill a need we saw in the escape room space. Inexplicably, we couldn't find a product that would simply allow you to record and then re-play an IR sequence on demand - so we built it. The Mini Blaster repeats an IR sequence continuously, while the Master Blaster provides an optional "Triggered Mode". In Triggered Mode, the Master Blaster waits until it receives a 5-12v DC pulse from another device to blast the recorded IR sequence. That pulse could come from a Fright Props Escape Keeper or similar device, or simply from a power supply on a switch, relay, or smart outlet. The Blaster has DUAL IR emitters for a wide beam, allowing it to blanket an entire room!
The possibilities are endless! A recent use case involved placing a Mini Blaster inside a bed of glowing "coals". Players could hold a torch over the coals and it would "light", having received the IR command to turn on its flame LED bulb. Sweeten that effect by using a Master Blaster to "blow out" all the torches in the room by transmitting the "power off" sequence when triggered, simultaneous with the sound effect of a ghostly wind. Awesome!
The Mini Blaster sports a very simple interface. Just hold down the record button and point your existing remote control at the sensor. Press a key, and the Blaster's status LED turns green to let you know that press has been recorded. Repeat for any other remote key presses, and then release the record button. The Mini Blaster will immediately begin blaster your IR sequence every half-second. The Master Blaster includes an LCD screen to show status information, as well as a switch to change from "Continuous Mode" to "Triggered Mode". An included dongle with a 3.5mm jack can be connected to any DC power source of 5-12 volts, and the Blaster will continuously blast the recorded IR sequence for as long as it is receiving power on that connector.
The World Tree was a delightful and mind-bending puzzle built for True Dungeon's "Odin's Haven" adventure. Players found a huge tree with hanging globes, each marked with the name of one of the nine realms of Norse mythology, and all un-illuminated. Players could place glowing gems in the "sockets" around the tree, illuminating some globes and darkening others. The puzzle was solved when players correctly deduced the effects of each socket and managed to light all nine globes.
We had a lot of fun with the build of this puzzle, which we undertook while employed with True Adventures. Mike was responsible for all the technical aspects of the build, which included a custom Raspberry Pi hat wired to reed switches in the sockets to sense the gems, and sending the appropriate DMX signals to an AC dimmer pack controlling the illumination of the globes.
This was a very cool puzzle, and is still a fan favorite for many after 10 years! UC Davis' has created an "Augmented Reality Sandbox", designed to help with the understanding of watershed over a landscape. It uses a Microsoft Kinect to determine the height of the sand, while an overhead projector updates the color being projected on the sand in real time. The Kinect can also sense if the users hold their hands farther above the sand, and "rains" over the landscape, simulating the flow of the water over the terrain. We customized the software to create a desert landscape, and instead of "rain" falling when players held their hands over the puzzle, BLOOD fell and ran in rivulets. The players had to draw the correct rune in the sand (determined from clues around the room), and then "cut" their hand over it to fill the rune with "blood"! Only then could they pass on to the next room. It was an amazing effect, and a truly memorable puzzle! Wyrd Artifice was responsible for all the technology for this build - sandbox and mounting hardware were built by True Dungeon employees.
Why let a great effect go to waste?! The Sand Table was such a hit we decided to bring it back in a different incarnation several years later, this time with snow. Players were challenged to turn the path between pairs of "map markers" in the snow to specific colors by manipulating the snow height, and then to "frost over" the correct path. The puzzle was a huge hit once again!
This was another project undertaken while in True Adventure's employ where we were responsible for the technical aspects and collaborated on puzzle design. Mike hacked around in the Augmented Reality Sandbox code to drastically change the look and feel. Instead of the usual topographic map colors, players could pile up fake snow to specific heights to achieve bright colors. The viscocity of the "rain" was reduced to zero, allowing the players to hold their hands over the table to "frost" the landscape. It was a very cool effect.
A campy android costume built for Alchemy Theatre's production of Return to the Forbidden Planet! The costume included oodles of small LED lights that blinked on and off in sequence, as well as 'emoji' faces in electroluminescent wire triggered by buttons on the chest piece. A small belt pack contained the battery and microcontroller to drive the effects. We had a lot of fun with this one!
Two more costumes and props built for Alchemy Theatre's production of Return to the Forbidden Planet, these creepy aliens had wacky eyestalks and SIX tentacle arms each! We also built two giant tentacles that spread across the stage, manipulated by the actors to create an attack on their spaceship. *Great* fun.
The Waiter is a custom-made device that allows an escape room operator to require that ten different countdown clocks expire at the same time. The original purpose of this device was a puzzle in which the players must turn over 10 different hourglasses, each of which starting an electronic timer when turned over (via magnetic reed switch). The duration of each hourglass and a "grace period" is programmed into The Waiter using the Select and Change dials. When each timer expires, a corresponding "activation" light turns on via one of the 12v output wires. If all timers expire within the grace period, a separate "WIN" light is turned on. If not, all 10 activation lights turn off, and a "FAIL" light turns on.
Another very cool prop! This timbered doorway had glowing runes that players had to activate in the correct sequence in order to disable the "force field" preventing their escape. The force field was a swirling sheet of green laser light!
This project, undertake while employed with True Adventures, was a lot of fun to construct. Many in the haunted house industry will recognize the "laser swamp" effect, usually used to create the effect of green "water" at knee height. We literally turned that idea on its head! The doorway featured a fog delivery system, designed to fill the doorway from top to bottom with a light covering of fog. Wide-angled lasers were placed all around the doorway - you could walk through without disrupting any of the beams on the other side of the obstruction. Sprayed acrylic allowed the colored runes to magically appear in the surface of the door's timber when activated. We were responsible for all technical aspects, and collaborated with True Adventures staff on the physical build.
It's never wise to rob a sarcophagus in a haunted house! To cap off an adventure, players could raise the lid of the sarcophagus to reveal the mummified corpse of the baroness of the house, along with her prized ruby pendant. When the players took the pendant the sarcophagus was suddenly bathed in red light, and a a blood-curdling scream accompanied a blast of red fog erupting from the corpse's chest!
Mike was responsible for all technical aspects of the build, and collaborated with True Adventures staff on the design and construction, which included sound effects and DMX fog and lighting controls. Jenn took a standard "bucky" skeleton and dressed and painted it to create gruesome "mummified flesh", costuming it to match the victorian feel of the adventure.
No haunted house is complete without the decrepit skeleton of a jilted bride. Jenn dressed and painted a standard "bucky" skeleton to add mummified flesh, and then costumed it beautifully to provide the players with a very lovely - and creepy - corpse.
This prop wasn't used in an adventure, but it was too cool not to include here. The same laser used in the "Lava Pool Hellgate" above was used to create this beautiful effect - a holy shrine protected by constantly shifting rainbow light from above.
A twist on an Adafruit classic! This prop was destined for an adventure cut short by the 2020 pandemic. Mike assembled a set of Adafruit's Animated Eyes, then modified the existing code to allow for pre-programmed eye movements, blinks, pupil dilations, etc. Need a skull to blink out morse code, the numbers for a "date of death", or convey a path with their movements? Here ya go. Imagine your player looks in a dark hole and their proximity triggers the eyes to open in the darkness!
When you need to commune with the ghost trapped in a "spirit box", you obviously need to hold a seance. This puzzle used a set of ten discs that would light up with magical runes when the appropriate artifact was placed on them (in this case, controlled via RF remote). Once all ten artifacts were placed correctly, a ghostly scream sounded and a light inside the box's one way mirror glass revealed the spinning head inside! We designed the puzzle in collaboration with True Adventures staff, and were responsible for all technical elements of the build.
In a forbidden jungle temple, players were confronted by a cryptic stone walkway, illuminated from within by ghostly light! This puzzle used "stones" inspired by garden pavers with individually controllable LED light strips inset. The colors around each tile could be changed individually to mark out a path to safety... or to destruction! We were responsible for all technical aspects of this build, and collaborated with True Adventures on the puzzle design and construction.
