How We Turned Llandudno Into a Playground for Adventure
When people play Finding Alice, they see an immersive adventure through the streets of Llandudno. What they don’t see are the hundreds of hours of writing, testing, redesigning and problem-solving that have shaped the experience over the last three years.
Finding Alice wasn’t created overnight. It started with a simple ambition: to bring an immersive, interactive town-wide experience to North Wales that people wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to enjoy.
I’m Eleanor Appleton, the creator behind Finding Alice and founder of Puzzle Junction, an immersive design studio based in North Wales. I’ve worked on projects from immersive theatre and mixed reality experiences but Finding Alice has become one of the most ambitious projects I’ve ever created.
It all started with one simple question:
Could an entire town become the game board?
Bringing immersive experiences to North Wales
I’ve always believed immersive experiences shouldn’t be limited to major cities.
Many of the most exciting interactive adventures could only be found in places like London, leaving people elsewhere with very few opportunities to experience this style of storytelling. I wanted to change that by creating something every bit as engaging here in North Wales.
Before writing a single puzzle, I travelled to London to research similar experiences, studying what made them memorable and, just as importantly, what could be improved. My goal wasn’t to copy what already existed, but to bring the excitement and sense of discovery normally associated with city experiences to a seaside town.
Rather than simply creating a walking trail, I wanted to transform Llandudno into a playground for adventure.
Why Llandudno?
Choosing the location was surprisingly straightforward.
Llandudno already has a unique connection to Alice in Wonderland through Alice Liddell, who spent many childhood holidays in the town and inspired Lewis Carroll’s famous stories. Combined with the collection of Alice in Wonderland sculptures scattered throughout the town and its popularity as one of North Wales’ leading tourist destinations, it felt like the perfect place to bring the idea to life.
The story was already waiting to be told.
Every adventure needs a mission
An immersive experience needs more than puzzles. It needs purpose.
I began by writing a brand-new story inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Rather than retelling Lewis Carroll’s original tale, I imagined a new mystery: Alice had disappeared.
That simple idea became the mission for every team taking part.
Your objective wasn’t simply to solve clues; it was to find and rescue Alice.
In the first two years there was a second storyline running alongside the search, asking players to save Wonderland itself. Although it added depth to the narrative, feedback showed it also made the experience more complicated than it needed to be.
Sometimes the hardest creative decision is deciding what to remove. By simplifying the story and focusing solely on finding Alice, the adventure became much clearer and more engaging.
Building the adventure
With the story in place, I could begin designing the experience itself.
Every puzzle, challenge and direction was written to support the narrative. Rather than sending people from one landmark to another, the clues were designed to make players feel as though they were uncovering the next chapter of the story.
The first version became… rather ambitious.
In fact, it lasted around six hours.
It quickly became clear that while some people loved the depth of the experience, many visitors wanted something shorter that could fit more easily into a day exploring Llandudno.
During the first year, I continued running the original adventure while simultaneously redesigning and testing a much shorter version, eventually allowing both experiences to run side by side until the new format became the main adventure.
Technology had to evolve too
The story wasn’t the only thing that changed.
During the first two years, Finding Alice was built using the PlayTours platform, an internet-based game system. While it allowed the experience to run successfully, it relied on players having a reliable mobile internet connection every time they completed a challenge and moved to the next stage.
Anyone familiar with Llandudno will know that mobile signal isn’t always reliable, particularly when lots of visitors are in town.
For 2026, Finding Alice moved to its own dedicated web app, designed specifically to provide a much smoother experience without relying on a constant internet connection. The technology finally caught up with the vision.
Still evolving
One thing many people don’t realise is that Finding Alice is never really finished.
Every review, every email and every conversation with players helps shape future improvements. Over the past three years we’ve rewritten puzzles, refined the story, introduced new features and continually improved the technology behind the scenes.
Many of the changes players enjoy today came directly from listening to those who have already experienced the adventure.
Looking ahead
Finding Alice has changed enormously since it first launched, but the original ambition remains exactly the same: to create memorable adventures that encourage people to explore, discover and see familiar places differently.
Llandudno was only the beginning.
We already have exciting plans for the future and hope to bring the magic of Finding Alice to other towns, creating new adventures inspired by the places and stories that make each destination unique.
For now, though, Llandudno remains home to Alice’s adventure, and we can’t wait to welcome the next team of explorers to help find her.
