Exhibit 05 · The funding case
Fund the Sixth Floor
The Kickstarter has not opened. This is the whole ask, line by line: what the money builds, what comes back to you, and the limits we will not cross to make it exciting.
Dallas, Texas·Venue address: to be confirmed·Opening date: TBA
$85,000
Goal
Dallas, Texas
Built in
30 days
Pledge window
5
Reward tiers
Not yet counted
Backers so far
Exhibit 06 · Why this room
The room is only as good as its sources
Escape rooms sell you a fantasy and ask you not to look too closely. Oswald is the opposite: the room is only allowed to be as good as its sources. Every object you pick up traces back to a named document, and every puzzle resolves to something that actually happened on November 22, 1963.
That discipline is expensive. A period set is not a coat of paint, artefacts have to be licensed or rebuilt, and a puzzle that teaches the timeline has to be tested until it stops teaching the wrong thing. The Kickstarter pays for that work before the doors open, so the first players are not paying to debug it.
You should leave having solved the room and read the day — and be able to name the document that told you so.
Exhibit 07 · Where every dollar goes
A line-item case, not a round number
Goal breakdown
$85,000
- Set and period set dressing$34,000
Sixth-floor storage bays, crates, cabinetry, lighting and the window bay
- Artefact licensing and reproduction$21,000
Archive access, scans, print rights and period-correct reproduction
- Puzzle engineering and QA$18,000
Fabrication, locks and sensors, plus three full playtest cycles
- Accessibility and safety$12,000
Step-free routing, captioned audio, lighting that never traps a player
Figures are the working budget and will be re-published as the final quote sheet the day the campaign opens.
Stretch goals
$110,000
A printed source annex for every team — the citations behind each puzzle, to take home.
$140,000
A second, shorter classroom scenario built for school visits and library groups.
$180,000
A travelling exhibit case for museums and civic centres, with a facilitator guide.
Exhibit 08 · Reward tiers
What comes back to you
Digital campaign pack: the annotated timeline, the source list, and your name on the supporters page.
One seat at the first public playthrough, plus your name printed in the room's founding credits.
Two plays, plus a printed case-file keepsake: facsimile exhibits, the timeline board, the source annex.
A private sixty-minute booking for your team, hosted by the designer, with the post-game sourcing walk-through.
A dedication marker built into the room beside the puzzle you fund, and two plays every year for three years.
Exhibit 09 · Production timeline
From pledge to first seating
Q1
Campaign live, pledge window open, reward sheet published
Q2
Set build, artefact sourcing and archive reproduction
Q3
Puzzle integration, three playtest cycles, accessibility audit
Q4
Soft open, backer playthroughs, public booking opens
Exhibit 10 · Accuracy commitments
On file for anyone to check
- The Warren Commission Report and its supporting exhibits
- AP and UPI wire files for November 22, 1963
- Newsreel and home-movie records of the motorcade
- The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza as a published further-reading pointer
What we will not do
- No theory presented as fact, and no verdict handed to the player
- No gore, no scare actors, no reenactment of anyone's death
- No real person's voice or likeness used as a gimmick
Exhibit 11 · Questions on file
+When does the campaign open?
Not yet confirmed. The date goes to the waitlist first, then to the site, and nothing is pledged before it happens.
+Where will the room be?
Dallas, Texas. The city is settled and it is not decorative — the room is built around the records of a place that is still standing here. What we have not published is the street address: that waits until the lease and the build are final, so nobody drives to a door that does not exist yet.
+Do I need to know anything about 1963 first?
No. The room teaches the timeline as you go, and the post-game walk-through shows exactly which document each answer came from.
+Is this respectful of a real tragedy?
That is the design constraint, not a disclaimer. Nothing in the room simulates the shooting, no one's death is a puzzle mechanic, and the sourcing is public so anyone can check us.
+What happens to a pledge if the room does not open?
Rewards are fulfilled or refunded, and the build's records — sourcing notes, playtest data, fabrication drawings — are released publicly either way.
+Can a school, library or museum take part?
Yes. Group and educator interest is collected on the same waitlist; tell us in your own time and we will scope a session that does not turn a killing into a game.
Exhibit 12 · Register pledge interest
Be in the room when it opens
Nothing is charged today. Leave your address and you get the launch date, the reward sheet, and the founding-backer window before anyone else.
Other ways to help before launch
- Tell a history teacher, a librarian, or a museum educator
- Send us a period artefact you would trust us to display
- Pass this page to someone who funds rooms like this