“Loved the collaboration!”
MindBlown is born from our love of treasure hunts, immersive theatre, games, escape rooms, and puzzles. We create adventures we’d want to have ourselves, taking memorable moments from books, films and TV that place you in the centre of the action in a way you’ve never experienced before.
Rob Blakemore – Director
Rob has been a UK Regional Contact for Burning Man for the past decade and Event Lead for numerous UK & European events – with hundreds of volunteers, thousands of attendees, and overall legal & management ownership responsibility.
He has experience building and choreographing ground-breaking creative theatre, from the Olivier-Award-nominated You Me Bum Bum Train to Secret Cinema. He gives performances on several world stages, including at the London 2012 Olympics. He’s games-mastered CGI’s world-leading portable escape room.
He also co-created the industry-disrupting Quest for Collective Intelligence (QCI) for Leadership Development with Living Systems.
His corporate background over 24 years is in Tech Innovation ranging from cyber security for the UK Government (GCHQ), working in USA’s Silicon Valley, to delivering a ground-breaking 5G Innovation Lab at the European Space Agency.
Simon Edwards – Director
Simon is a creative who likes to challenge existing paradigms and norms and sees problems that most would define as impossible as challenges to relish. He designs and creates truly immersive team experiences and games using a wide range of experience from the escape room & video game industries, large interactive and immersive art and events for Burning Man events, IT technology and systems.
Some of his most recent work has been leading design of immersive treasure hunts, such as Midnight Madness in both London & New York and several for Gotham Immersive Laboratories.
With Rob, he has co-created the industry-disrupting Quest for Collective Intelligence (QCI) at Living Systems.
Sarah Dodd – Associate
Sarah began working in the computer games industry, in both design and production, for companies such as Eidos and Atari. She has used her expertise in UX and game design to consult for a number of the largest escape room and immersive event companies in the UK. She has overseen the implementation of games into hotels and event spaces and has created bespoke puzzle events for a variety of companies. She is a lead designer for Midnight Madness.
Sarah also organises the Escape Room Industry Conference and has been a speaker on escape rooms and puzzle design at multiple international conferences. She’s a board member for multiple escape room industry awards and has somehow still managed to find time to have played the most escape rooms (over 2300) in the Western world.
David Middleton – Associate
With over seven years at the leading edge of escape room design, David Middleton is a prominent figure in interactive entertainment. His contributions extend to creating the award-winning Bewilder Box Escape Rooms, co-organising the UK Escape Room Industry Conference and founding Rebel Brain Design. His creativity has injected life into over 50 games, including officially licensed experiences based on Peaky Blinders, Horrible Histories, Roald Dahl’s The Witches and Nickelodeon. He is a lead designer for Midnight Madness.
Recognised for his pioneering approach, David’s work is not just a game; it’s an exploration into the realms of interactive storytelling and imaginative play, where each challenge is a gateway to new worlds brimming with mystery and fun.
Mathilde Heu – Artist / Illustrator
Mathilde is an artist, illustrator and set designer who’s got a knack for illustrating immersive experiences, puzzles, escape games and treasure hunts. She loves the challenge of fleshing out difficult puzzle mechanisms and turning them into complex and beautiful artworks. She has worked with Midnight Madness, Gotham Immersive Laboratories, Sharky and George, the World Wide Fund for nature and the Commonwealth Secretariat.