![\"Feedback](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/feedback-button-3687b520f2faa51272e838596f7e0c83.png\")
Back in February I wrote a blog post explaining why we weren't going to make it to Transworld. You can read that here.
\nI wanted to expand a little on what the plans for IgorBox are in the face of all the uncertainty in the United States manufacturing and trade climate. It's no secret that a majority of our electronics components are made in China and we utilize a manufacturer located in Hong Kong for our circuit board assembly. This is problematic for us given that tariffs are so uncertain right now.
\nTo start, I want to give a small break down of how the tariffs affect us and our products.
\nFirstly, I want to talk about the manufacture and assembly of our PCBs. This is a bulk of the underlying cost of our devices. To make the numbers easier, I'm going to use some round numbers.
\nIf the PCB costs us $100 to make, with the Tariff rate (currently) at 145%, we would need to pay the government $145 to import that PCB. This means the effective cost of that PCB is now $245. I hope you can see how this is not good for a small electronics business like ours. I can tell you that our margin is not that high so we are forced to increase prices beyond what we are comfortable with if we change nothing.
\nBased on this first problem, it's clear that we need to move manufacturing out of Hong Kong if the tariffs are going to continue like this. This presents a bit of a challenge for us at IgorBox because we literally just finished tooling and stocking up in the Hong Kong location back in November. We have halted our operations with the Hong Kong manufacturer for the moment while we explore other options. We have been working to identify alternatives and have a few we are working with for samples and test runs.
\nThis brings us to the second issue I mentioned. Most electronic components are made in China. We rely heavily on the Espressif ESP32 micro controllers and many of our other components are manufactured in China. Regardless of manufacturing location for our PCBs, the components are subject to the 145% tariff as well. To try and reduce this cost, we have launched a full review of all of our schematics to find alternative options for some of the more expensive components.
\nWith all this said, I am sure we are not the only electronics company in this situation and I know that many of our friends, colleagues, partners, and competitors also face this same dilemma. I'm also positive that we are all looking at similar options and avenues to ease the retail costs while delivering quality products. I know that paying more for the same thing is not something anyone is interested in doing, and I certainly don't want to raise prices either.
\nBeyond all of this work we are doing internally to mitigate cost spikes to our customers caused by these tariffs, we are also hopeful that deals will be made and the overall tariff burden from China will go down. We just need the dust to settle out to see where we need to further invest in the short and mid term. Our goal is to provide the best value to our customers, and we will continue to work towards this.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2025/04/24/waiting-for-the-dust-to-settle", "title": "Waiting for the Dust to Settle", "summary": "Back in February I wrote a blog post explaining why we weren't going to make it to Transworld. You can read that here.", "date_modified": "2025-04-24T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Lisa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "IgorBox", "Tradeshows" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/not-making-transworld", "content_html": "I first want to say that the entire team is absolutely gutted we aren't going to make it to the show this year. It was one of the toughest decisions I had to make.
\nIt's been amazing year for us here at Rising Orchards and IgorBox. Last year we made our debut with a preview of what we had in development at the Transworld Halloween and Attraction Show in St. Louis and it was a huge hit. We got some people on our early access program and were very hopeful we would be able to bring our products for general availability to the show this year. That's not what happened...
\nSo what happened? The short answer is \"a lot\" with some being good and some not so good.
\nWe shipped real products to real haunts for testing in our early access program! We saw real usage and fixed a ton of bugs along the way. A huge shout out goes to the development team for the absolute stellar job they did to support these early access users. During this time we shipped two major firmware changes based on feedback and tweaked the web application countless times. The Halloween season was blur for us here.
\nBeyond all of this, we made a huge effort to get organized and ready for a major launch at Transworld this year. We got our online store ready, our backend payments systems, our support systems, and even our accounting. It was all coming together for Februrary 27th... But something wasn't right.
\nDuring the Halloween season, we identified some hardware flaws that needed to be addressed. We also realized that our firmware strategy wasn't going to be scalable to the product line we had in development. Something needed to be done.
\nWe had a company meeting and discussed our options and after quite a lot of debate, it was clear the right thing to do was to redesign the hardware and make huge changes to the firmware to support what we had planned.
\nThe tech team spent all of November and December blasting 12-14 hour days to design all new PCBs. They worked through huge firmware changes and refactored large amounts of the codebase. They even made some pretty deep changes in the web application. All with the goal of having the new version testable by the end of the year. Afterall, we needed to test and stress these new designs before we made them available to everyone at Transworld.
\nWell, the amount of stress and working through nights and weekends caught up to us. Mike and I both got pretty sick at the end of December. So much so, we couldn't meet our hard deadline of having prototypes ready. We were devastated. Mike even tried to make hail mary it the first week of January but his \"sick\" was different than mine and he was just not able to really function (It took him a full month to recover). Therefore, I called it. Our health is more important. We tried and we just didn't make it. There is no point in continuing to run ourselves into the ground because we simply don't have enough time to properly stress test the new systems and hunt out all the significant bugs. I'm still upset about having to make the hard decision to call Rich and pull the plug on our booth this year.
\nWe had considered this, but we had nothing to really sell last year, and to come back in the same position a year later didn't seem like we would be making our position in the industry any better. Besides, just going to the tradeshow is stressful. The booth setup, the costs for all the venue things like power, air, internet, etc. It just distracts us from continuing to improve our new devices. We are committed to your success with our system. Our time is better spent laser focused on our products right now.
\nI can tell you what we have on the stress-test bench right now is an absolute dream product and I have been so incredibly excited to show everyone and get them in your hands, but rushing it to make the tradeshow would do everyone, from our technology team to our customers, a disservice.
\nSo the plan is simple, deliver the best products that enable our users to make absolute magic.
\nBut most importantly, I want to make it clear that we are not stopping and we're doubling down to build the best system on the market. It's just taking more time than we all realized here.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/not-making-transworld", "title": "We Won't Make it to Transworld This Year", "summary": "I first want to say that the entire team is absolutely gutted we aren't going to make it to the show this year. It was one of the toughest decisions I had to make.", "date_modified": "2025-02-15T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Lisa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "IgorBox", "Tradeshows" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/new-feedback-form", "content_html": "Today we're happy to announce a new feedback form that will allow you to send us feedback directly from the IgorBox web interface. This is a great way to let us know about any issues you're having, suggest new features, or just tell us how much you love IgorBox!
\nStarting today, you'll see a new \"Feedback\" button in the bottom right corner of the IgorBox web interface. If you click on this button, a form will pop up that you can use to send us your feedback.
\n
The form is pretty simple. You just choose if you're suggesting a feature or reporting a bug and enter your message. That's it! When you click \"submit\", the data is sent into our staff chat on Discord and a notification is sent to our team.
\n![\"Feedback](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/suggestion-320c8d1943d048f6a8281527f7916e5c.png\")
We will capture the page that you are submitting feedback from and include that in the message so we can better understand the context of your feedback. So feel free to send us feedback from anywhere in the IgorBox web interface with your suggestions on how we can make that page you're on better!
\nOnce we have had a chance to evaluate your feedback, we'll add it to our feedback tracker at feedback.igorbox.com and you'll be able to see the status of your feedback there as we work on it.
\nWe hope you enjoy this new feature and we can't wait to hear from you! If you have any questions or feedback about the feedback form, feel free to reach out to us at feedback.igorbox.com or directly on Discord at discord.igorbox.com. We're always happy to help and we love hearing from you!
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/new-feedback-form", "title": "New Feedback Form", "summary": "Today we're happy to announce a new feedback form that will allow you to send us feedback directly from the IgorBox web interface. This is a great way to let us know about any issues you're having, suggest new features, or just tell us how much you love IgorBox!", "date_modified": "2024-09-27T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Lisa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Product Updates", "IgorBox", "Beta", "Features" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/hints-and-ambient", "content_html": "We have a couple cool new features we want to talk about today including a new hints system and ambient composition support for IgorBoxes. We also have a new Firmware release (version 1.0.5) that includes a bunch of bug fixes and improvements. Let's dive in!
\nStarting today, you'll be able to toggle hints on and off in the IgorBox web interface. This is a great way to get a little extra help when you're first starting out or if you're trying to figure out how to do something new. If you click on your name in the top right corner of the screen, you'll see a \"Show Hints\" toggle that you can use to turn hints on and off.
\n![\"Hints](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/hint-button-d64ac59ab77c79338d185e1ef03fd52b.png\")
If you're on a smaller screen like a mobile device, you tap on the top left \"hamburger\" menu and you'll find the \"Show Hints\" toggle there.
\n![\"Hints](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/hint-button-mobile-25125ca8f73d7b6d61f45adfdc735091.png\")
The hints system relies on mouse hover actions, so it is not available on touch devices. We are still trying to figure out a good way to implement hints on touch devices, so stay tuned for updates on that.
When the hints system is active, hovering over elements on a page will give a detailed explaination and even some pro-tips on how to use that element. This is a great way to learn how to use the IgorBox web interface and to get the most out of it.
\n![\"Hints](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/hints-header-ac1c83c2a18f0466da826aec02f3c990.png\")
We have added a bunch of hints already, but there will be more to come in the future. We have a lot of plans for the hints system and we're excited to see how it evolves.
\nWith the new Firmware release (version 1.0.5 -- more on that later) we have added support for ambient compositions! An ambient composition is played in a loop when no other compositions are active on the box. This is a great way to add some background sound effects or small movements to your environment while waiting for something to be triggered.
\nTo make a composition an \"ambient composition\", you just activate the \"Ambient\" toggle on the composition settings page or when you create a new composition. This will make the composition play in a loop when no other compositions are active.
\n![\"Ambient](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/ambient-toggle-0f840e656f8d41b0daf3ae76a13ab14c.png\")
Ambient compositions deactivate any input triggers assigned to the composition.
You can only have one Ambient composition per IgorBox.
The last thing I want to talk about is all the changees that are in the new Firmware release (version 1.0.5). This release includes a bunch of bug fixes and improvements in addition to the ambient support. Here are some of the highlights (you can read the full change log here):
\nWe hope you enjoy these new features and improvements and we can't wait to see what you create with them!
\nAs always, if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to us at feedback.igorbox.com or directly on Discord at discord.igorbox.com. We're always happy to help and we love hearing from you!
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/hints-and-ambient", "title": "Hints and Ambient Support", "summary": "We have a couple cool new features we want to talk about today including a new hints system and ambient composition support for IgorBoxes. We also have a new Firmware release (version 1.0.5) that includes a bunch of bug fixes and improvements. Let's dive in!", "date_modified": "2024-09-18T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Lisa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Product Updates", "IgorBox", "Beta", "Features" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/telemetry-and-metrics-2", "content_html": "We have been hard at work on the Transworld feedback items.
\nThe first of those items we rolled out today is a huge revamp of our telemetry system and graphing tools.
\nWe talked a little about this on the June State of the Lab live stream (you can watch the replay here 17:43 for the mention of telemetry), but we wanted to give you a more in-depth look at what has changed and what you can expect going forward.
\nBefore we can talk about what changed, we need to talk about what we had before. Our telemetry system was a bit of a mess and it was hard to get reliable data out of it. We had a lot of issues with data not being sent, data being sent multiple times, and data being sent out of order. This made it hard to trust the data and hard to make decisions based on it.
\nI want to stress that I don't believe telemetry is a \"nice to have\" feature/toy. I believe it is a \"must have\" feature. You can't improve what you can't measure and you can't measure what you can't see. We needed to fix this and we needed to fix it fast.
\nWhen an IgorBox is online, it would capture all the metrics onboard and every 60 seconds it would send a message to the server with all the metrics. This meant that the data wouldn't be real-time and the box needed to use its onboard (and limited) resources to save telemetry data and handle shipping that data on a schedule. Beyond that, if the IgorBox lost connection to the cloud servers, it caused all kinds of strange problems with the box and firmware.
\nWe have completely re-architected the telemetry system to be more reliable, more real-time, and to completely remove the requirement on the IgorBox and its limited resources. The last thing is a huge win because the IgorBox can now focus on doing what it does best, controlling things!
\nWhen an IgorBox changes its state (ie: a relay turns on or off, a sensor value changes, etc), it sends a message to the server with that data. This notification is used to keep the cloud server up to date with the state of the IgorBox. This system was already in place, working well, and is just part of the firmware that runs the IgorBox peripherals. Basically, it is sending this notification data anyway so why not use it for telemetry? This means that the telemetry data is now real-time and we have some really cool plans for this aspect of the data in the future so stay tuned!
\nAnyway, the server receives this notification and a telemetry watcher receives the data and stores it in a time-series database in its raw form. So we are getting up to the millisecond data stored in a reliable way. We can then use this data to generate graphs, reports, and rollups. As an example you can see that we have rolled up a full day into a single graph with a sum for each hour or you can zoom in to see the data for a single minute!
\n![\"Graphs\"](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/graphs1-d49ffe179f58f9dfad9f2333e84fa722.png\")
We will continue to improve on this system and we have some really cool ideas for the future. We are also working on a way to allow you to export the data so you can use it in your own systems or just download the graph images for your own reports.
\nWe know that many people are waiting for physical IgorBoxes to be available and are using the website in full simulator mode. We have accounted for that and have made it so that the simulator/virtual boxes on your account can create random data to simulate telemetry data. This means you can generate data and see how the telemetry data and graphs look without having to wait for a physical box to arrive.
\nSimulator boxes have this feature enabled by default and you can toggle it on or off in the box settings. If you toggle it off, it will get the real data generated by the simulator and show you that instead which is great for testing your graphs and reports.
\nThe next thing we're working on is Organizations support. So watch for that in the coming weeks!
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/telemetry-and-metrics-2", "title": "Telemetry and Metrics V2", "summary": "We have been hard at work on the Transworld feedback items.", "date_modified": "2024-06-11T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Mike Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Product Updates", "IgorBox", "Beta", "Features" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/transworld-2024-feedback", "content_html": "We had a great time at Transworld 2024 and we wanted to thank everyone who stopped by our booth to check out the IgorBox controllers and give us feedback. We heard you loud and clear and we are working on making the changes that many of you suggested. We are also working on a few other surprises that we will be announcing soon.
\nHere are some of the items that we heard from you that we have been busy working on:
\nWe are also working on a few other surprises that we will be announcing soon.
\nOur goal is to get boxes out for early access as soon as possible and we are working hard to make that happen. We will keep you updated as we make progress and we will let you know as soon as we have a release dates.
\nIf you are on our Discord server, you will be the first to know everything and have the earliest access to all the new features. Plus you can also chat with us there and join in on the livestreams. If you are not on our Discord server, you can join by going to discord.igorbox.com.
\nI want to stress that 2024 is going to be \"early access\" for the system. I think it goes without saying that a cloud-connected, wirelessly integrated, and synchronized system is very complicated and totally new for this industry in many ways. This means that we have quite a few \"hard problems\" we've had to engineer our way around. The system will have bugs and rough edges that we will need to work through together. If you're comfortable with that, then we would love to have you join us in the beta. We are absolutely committed to making the IgorBox system the best it can be and we will be working hard to fix everything that comes up as quickly as we can. We've put quite a bit of effort into making the system remotely updatable so that we can fix things without you having to send your devices back to us or even having to do any complicated updates yourself. We will be able to push updates to your system and you will be able to update your devices with a single click.
\nWe thank you for your support so far and we can't wait to get the IgorBox system into your hands. Stay tuned for more updates!
\nPS: Just a reminder that our LabRats are available and shipping now! To get yours click here.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/transworld-2024-feedback", "title": "We Heard You at Transworld", "summary": "We had a great time at Transworld 2024 and we wanted to thank everyone who stopped by our booth to check out the IgorBox controllers and give us feedback. We heard you loud and clear and we are working on making the changes that many of you suggested. We are also working on a few other surprises that we will be announcing soon.", "date_modified": "2024-05-17T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Mike Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Product Updates", "IgorBox", "Beta" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/project-update-beta", "content_html": "It's the 16th of October and we would love to be so much further along than we are today. We have had an incredible amount of setbacks and delays, but we are still working on the beta and we are still working on getting it out to you as soon as possible. At the same time, I want to be transparent about what's been going on and why we are where we are.
\nFirst let's start with the good. We have been making steady progress and have locked down our circuit designs and worked out the bugs we were having on the hardware side. It took 3 full revisions, but the the burn in tests have resulted in no errors in the firmware and the hardware has been rock solid. We are even running a few of the beta boards in our own yard haunt this year to further battle test it.
\nOn the programming side, we have made huge progress and have a number of cool new features and surprises that we are excited to show you. I'm sure you've noticed that the website (www.igorbox.com) has been changing and you can now pre-order to get in line for the first run of IgorBox controllers! Along side these changes, we have also been working on the documentation and have a number of new articles and videos that we will be releasing with the beta when it's ready.
\nNow let's talk about our setbacks and what is holding us up. The first is that components are still in short supply. We have been able to get enough to build a run of 5 test boards to validate the revision fixed some of our hardware problems. However, when we tried to order a run of 50 boards, not even a week later, two key components were not available. To make it worse, the alternatives that would work are also not in stock in most places. This throws a huge wrench in the works as we need to find a new solution that will work with the existing design and that we can get in a reasonable time frame and be able to test and validate it. The other option is to stock our own parts with the manufacturer, but that takes time too. Our current lead time on boards has gone from about a week to 4-6 weeks if we don't change our design (that we now know works perfectly). This is all so frustrating.
\nBeyond the component shortage, Lisa and I have both been pretty sick for the past month. We are both feeling better now, but it's been a rough month, and we are only just now starting to feel human again. Lisa got the big \"C\" in September and then I got a terrible infection that took me out for awhile. I'm still not 100%, but I'm getting there. Since I'm the only hardware engineer on the team, this has slowed down the hardware development quite a bit. It's incredibly hard to focus when you feel like you've been hit by a truck for weeks on end.
\nThis is the part that has been the \"all-stop\" on everything. We have been working through a number of patents and intellectual property law things for the past year and, until we have resolved our IP paperwork, we won't be able to release anything. We are so close to getting through the legal jungle and we had hoped to be done with this part months ago, but alas, nothing happens quickly in the legal world. We are working with a great team of lawyers and we are confident that we will be able to get through this. As soon as the legal team tells us we are clear, we will be able to release the beta and start releasing videos about the new features and how to use them.
\nWe will continue to work through our IP issues and get the beta out to you as soon as we can. We are also going to continue to work on the documentation and videos so that we can release them as soon as we are able to release the beta. As for our launch at Transworld 2024, we are very much on-track for that. We will be there with a booth and we will be showing off the IgorBox controllers and all of the new features. We are also working on a few other surprises that we will be announcing at Transworld. We are very excited about what we have in store for you and we can't wait to show you what we've been working on. So stay tuned and we will keep you updated as we make progress.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/project-update-beta", "title": "Project Update - October '23", "summary": "It's the 16th of October and we would love to be so much further along than we are today. We have had an incredible amount of setbacks and delays, but we are still working on the beta and we are still working on getting it out to you as soon as possible. At the same time, I want to be transparent about what's been going on and why we are where we are.", "date_modified": "2023-10-26T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Mike Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Product Updates", "IgorBox", "Beta" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/hhn32-behind-the-screams", "content_html": "We went on a company outing - who doesn't love a field trip, right? But this wasn't just any field trip, we went to...drum roll...Halloween Horror Nights' Behind the Screams! So awesome!
\nI am excited to share with you my first \"Behind the Screams\" experience. We got to walk through six out of ten of the haunted houses, in a small group, with the lights on and with a tour guide. It was great to be able to take time to appreciate all of the nuances and details that I would have otherwise missed. It was fascinating learning more about the industry and even some HHN trivia. Another plus was being able to take pictures, the shutterbug in me thoroughly enjoyed that!
\nThe facade of the 'Universal's Monsters: Unmasked' house was exquisitely eerie. Set in the streets of Paris with street lamps, a full moon and even some foreshadowing with sheet music cast about, a nod to the Phantom of the Opera, it beckons you to enter the catacombs. In the Phantom of the Opera part of this house, a two way mirror was used very effectively. I also enjoyed seeing the mossing and rusting techniques used here (I am looking forward to trying this at some point).
\nSomething I found interesting in the 'Chucky' house was that while the hero puppet was prominently displayed in the opening scene it was half covered.
\nThe 'Blood Moon: Dark Offerings' house was visually stunning. The way the Parish Village was constructed was so well done. The artistry and attention to details was so fun to admire. For example, the subtle but effective cult symbols throughout, hand dipped candles and if you pay close attention, you will notice in the tavern there are 3 cups missing from the bar, which is because there are 3 cups on the tables. I found this house chillingly haunting, even with the lights on, and without audio or actors!
\nI have never seen the Netflix series, Stranger Things (I know, I live under a rock, lol!) but our tour guide was a fan of the show and did a great job of giving the backstory for the 'Stranger Things 4' house. In the first scene, a bedroom off to the left is thoughtfully staged, even though it may not be seen by many people, once again adding depth. Another little detail is that all of the clocks are set to 11:15 throughout the house. It was also interesting to learn that all of the audio and visual were provided by Netflix and ripped directly from the series, creating excellent continuity. One stand out scene in my opinion, was the hole between the upside-down universe and our universe with the sheet between them. Eleven's shirt is also in a basket in the corner of this scene. This house captured my imagination and I am excited to start watching 'Stranger Things.'
\nDid you know that 'Dueling Dragons: Choose Thy Fate' is based on the concept of a previous Universal ride, where patrons could choose the end of the ride? Similarly, this haunted house has alternate endings and lets you 'Choose Thy Fate.' Myrlin's realm of this house has an enchanted forest vibe that I really enjoyed. The ice dragon's scene was also really nice, and even displayed a part from the original ride.
\nYETI: Campground Kills takes place at Shadow Creek State Park in the 1950's. Every detail of this house was well staged, from the trailer to the rotary phone to the handwritten retirement note and even the list written on a post-it, sitting on the bait shop counter next to the dead body. Water seems notoriously difficult to make convincing but here they did it by using mirrors, constructing a dock over the water and cutting the body in half to give the appearance it's floating. One thing I really love about the YETI house is it's comic relief, from the snake in the outhouse toilet, to the YETI holding the \"Bait\" sign, to the map with \"murder lake\" on it, so great!
\nMy first HHN 'Behind the Screams' tour was a fun and fascinating experience. I learned about lighting and gel coating LEDs. I learned more about implementing scent and corpsing. I also learned interesting facts such as, HHN has a massive warehouse to store all of the props and a morgue with toe-tagged manikins. I would highly recommend this tour, especially if you are interested in slowing down and taking it all in.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/hhn32-behind-the-screams", "title": "A Non Haunters First Time Behind The Screams HHN32", "summary": "We went on a company outing - who doesn't love a field trip, right? But this wasn't just any field trip, we went to...drum roll...Halloween Horror Nights' Behind the Screams! So awesome!", "date_modified": "2023-10-03T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Brittany Hickman" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "Halloween Horror Nights" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/hhn-survival-guide", "content_html": "I am so excited to go to HHN again this year and elated to go to every house available for the Behind the Screams tours too! I can't fully enjoy myself to the max without a little prep though.
\nBiggest bit of advice first, download the the universal Orlando app and set it up if you don’t already have it.
\nDo not spend a full day in the park and then try and do HHN the same day!
\nYoutube is great for helping you plan your trip. There is even advice for wait time tactics. Try not to watch a walkthrough of the haunts though if you don't want to ruin the surprise.
\nIf you don't have an express pass, paying and taking advantage of stay and scream is worth it!
\nIf you can afford the express option, get it. All ten houses can only be seen in one eve sainly with the help of an express pass and the app with its wait times during the event helps. Bonus if you have express you likely will have time after to wait on second go throughs on some of the houses you want to give a second shot. You may be lucky with out express if you set up alerts for wait times on the app. But it will take some luck and probably coming in early season.
\nThere do not seem to be slow nights anymore so if you only have one chance go and its within your travel budget go RIP.
\nLocal and an enthusiast? The frequent fear passes are a great option. Go multiple times and see the event change and evolve. This is also a great option as sometimes the timing when going through is just off, which can ruin the experience. There is nothing you can do to control it besides going with the RIP tour.\n“Update, false! I found out this last trip the actors only respond to every third person. So to see a good run, you have a one in three shot. Nothing can guarantee you get a good run” It can be made less sour when you can go through multiple times though.
\nLocate bathrooms and use them between each house! Lines get crazy long and people do not take kindly to jumping back in line.
\nThe food can be disappointing if you are a foodie. Waiting until the vloggers give their food reviews can really help to narrow your list. The food and drink is not cheap by any means. I recommend sticking to one food and one drink item per person if you must, and go with people that you would like to share with. I would rather get a good meal at Finnegans. The money to value is much better there and is a nice place to sit if you need a break. Many say it\"s a great bar too if you want a place out of the streetmosfear.
\nAs an update, we found a food item we actually really like! The peanut blooder burger! It’s behind Mel’s die N and we got it the very beginning first round made of the night. If you can, definitely get your food early and fresh!
\nNow call these your quest items:
\nBring ear protection! If you have hearing sensitivities or just protecting yourself in general bring comfortable hearing protection. Theme parks are loud and HHN even more so. If needed there is a quiet room in the front of the park by first aid and guest services. They do not have ear plugs sadly.
\nBring wet wipes! These can refresh you a bit and get rid of the sticky, messy, and staining food, should you choose to indulge.
\nBe careful with how hot the weather in Florida can be! Bring fans and cooling towel if you are heat sensitive. It is already hot in FL but all those people in line can really raise the temp.
\nWear tested closed toe super comfortable shoes. Some even go in steal toed shoes as tight spaces and scared people can lead to stomped toes.
\nBring a collapsible cup or bottle. This will save you a fortune on bottle water.
\nIf you are doing stay and scream or coming early bring sun glasses. The bright to dark tradition can be blinding and make you miss the beginning of a house!
\nSame as above but wear a hat, be it baseball or folding style. This will act to help keep sun out of your eyes better than glasses alone.
\nPack some Ibuprofen or other pain relief of you choice. It is a-lot of standing and walking.
\nWicking long sleeve sun shirt, this is part of your sunscreen and light buffer against evening breezes
\nShorts or lightweight wicking pants for the win on comfort.
\nFan of wearing black? Unless you are a local, I cannot recommend doing this if you want to enjoy the beginning of the event. Again, that Florida sun is no joke. Red is a lovely color that can still help you pull off your killer style.
\nIt rains frequently. Rain is pretty much a guarantee on opening weekend. Bring a poncho
\nUpdate! Bring an umbrella! Ponchos are not allowed to be worn in the haunt. The umbrella works as both shade and easier to fold away when going through a haunt. Now you can leave that hat at home too. It’s unlikely you’ll be doing many rides and putting things in the locker. Isn’t the worst it just eats a bit of time but if you have/buy too much it will cost you in bigger locker fees.
\nNow gear up and fit all that into a tiny backpack or fanny pack. Want to go on some rides? The free lockers are small. Only the fanny pack option can go on rides.
\nIf you are not a local blessed with a frequent fear pass, get a universal hotel with ferry access. You will be the walking dead and this is the kindest and calmest way to leave the park. It works as a zenful ride back to your resting place, aka bed. Heck I live 1 hour away and do this!
\nUpdate: Just for those who want to know, the earlier in the evening you go the less crowded it will be. It gets packed as the night wears on. Of course the temp is cooler but if you don’t like being crowded or dealing with those who are heavily intoxicated go early.
\nI hope this knowledge serves you well on your journey and remember never go alone and have fun!
\nupdated: 10/3/2023
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/hhn-survival-guide", "title": "Lisa's HHN Survival Guide", "summary": "I am so excited to go to HHN again this year and elated to go to every house available for the Behind the Screams tours too! I can't fully enjoy myself to the max without a little prep though.", "date_modified": "2023-09-13T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Lisa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "Halloween Horror Nights" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/we-are-behind", "content_html": "My how time flies! In today's blog post, I thought I'd cover where we are with the IgorBox Beta program and our launch in early next year.
\nI'm just going to come out and say it, we are way behind! We had planned on shipping out beta boxes to our beta program users in June, but supply chains, firmware development, and bugs have been slowing us down quite a bit. Let's break this down and lift the lid to expose what's been going on a little more.
\nThe Supply chain issues for components has been a nightmare (and not the good kind). We designed our boards multiple times because parts that should have been easy to get, weren't available in the quantities we needed. We are on Revision 3 of the IgorBox Beta boards at this point and waiting on our test suite and burn-in to pass. From a hardware standpoint, we are a few weeks away from working boards for the beta boxes. Woohoo!
\nThe firmware development has proven to be quite a time suck. In June, we discovered that a core library we were using had an incompatible license. After trying to work something out, we couldn't come to an agreement and decided to remove the library. The problem with this turned out to be a big one that resulted in a full rewrite of the firmware from the ground up. The newest version is amazing though and much more extensible then what we had before.. I just checked for this blog post and in the last month we've written over 10K lines of C code for the new firmware version! Incredible! This, of course, was an unplanned month of rewrite which lost us valuable time in our beta and launch schedule.
\nAnd lastly, bugs.. Oh my.. so many bugs. There were bugs in the firmware, bugs in the hardware, and even bugs in the bugs! Anyway, we have had an internal bug bash to find and eradicate as many as we could find. Most of these bugs were minor and tolerable, but when you're building the next generation of animatronics control systems, they are unacceptable. Some of these bug fixes resulted in hardware improvements and others resulted in usability and programming improvements. As a result of our first internal bug bash, we created a very comprehensive test and burn-in system for our hardware that allows us to really work the boxes hard and simulate multiple seasons of 24/7 use. We've been abusing our test boards at a level that some would consider \"extreme\", but we want the best products on the market. period.
\nSo, overall, we've lost a few months in our plans, but we all feel it was worth it. We're sure you'll agree that the additional wait was well worth it too. We are so excited to show you what we've been creating in the lab and we'll be getting beta boards out to our lucky beta program users as soon as possible Just in time for the Haunt season to Pop-off!
\nIf you're a beta program user, watch for a more detailed email in the next few weeks too. Whether you're a beta user or not, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates and awesome tutorials!
\nSincerely,
\nMike -- chief nerd.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/we-are-behind", "title": "We are behind Schedule, Here's Why", "summary": "My how time flies! In today's blog post, I thought I'd cover where we are with the IgorBox Beta program and our launch in early next year.", "date_modified": "2023-08-02T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Mike Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Product Updates", "IgorBox", "Beta" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/midwest-haunters-2023", "content_html": "Things are getting busy over here in the orchard. We can't start to build the booth yet for the Transworld Halloween Show as we just got our walls from NCV as of June 1st and are waiting on a few other goodies to get going. Plenty else is keeping us busy though.
\nWe're getting ready to go to Midwest Haunters Convention! We are due to pick up our centerpiece prop armature for the booth from Hallucinations Creations at the show! Sadly the spook and Schmooze was canceled, but come say hi to me, the curly red head with the led backpack. Our main goals to talk to the show runners about sponsorship for Transworld 2024 with some cool ideas for our big unveiling of the IgorBox system next March, and of course check out some of the awesome talks! Our other goal is getting NDAs in the hands of possible beta testers in the Chicago area. What we hope are the 1st round of boards we think will be ready for testers have been ordered are are on their way. Some time for more testing in the lab and custom boxes still need to be printed before shipping out, but very soon! We cant wait to start getting that feedback so we can make the best possible product when debuting next year. What's most excited though is catching up with old and new like minded spooky friends.
\nSo, if you see the LED backpack with Carl the zombie, come say hi!
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/midwest-haunters-2023", "title": "Come Say Hi at Midwest Haunters Convention!", "summary": "Things are getting busy over here in the orchard. We can't start to build the booth yet for the Transworld Halloween Show as we just got our walls from NCV as of June 1st and are waiting on a few other goodies to get going. Plenty else is keeping us busy though.", "date_modified": "2023-06-05T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Lisa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "Tradeshows" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/why-rising-orchards", "content_html": "The name that started our story came from our roots. We began in a dreamy oasis of Silicon Valley over 10 years ago now. The land was an apricot orchard in its last life. When looking for our haunt name, even as super amateurs, I knew there was great power in a name. Especially when you're broke. Not to mention we had huge dreams of becoming local legend.
\nI could not show Mike the magic of Halloween without making it. I wanted to show my childhood spark and build a dream together. Come to find out he also had been touched by the love for a haunt. Why can't we be the legend a child tells their friends about when comparing childhoods? Why can't we inspire future haunters?
\nIt was the end of the second September in our rental home and we were broke.\nI gathered every pallet, door and scrap of wood I could find as Mike was off making our first electric prop. The neighborhood of tech commuters and O.G. 1950's house wives were abuzz. Every day people passed to see what was growing and I would get caught up in conversation. The firey 89 year old angel across the street was so excited to see action happening across the way and the yard filled with lights. She was legally blind and didn't get out much anymore so I loved to go hear her stories.
\nMy angel, Adeline, was the source of information on the land's history and better yet she and her daughter were cleaning out a bit and giving away old rusty farm equipment. Mike asked what our theme should be and I said, farm. Why, almost anything can happen on a farm, it's classic, and farm was a much cheaper (sometimes free) aesthetic than the Victorian mansion theme currently in vogue at the time. Next, Mike asked about a name. Being in Silicon Valley branding was very important and I am no naming wizard. I wanted to honor the past and make it creepy, hence Rotting Orchards was born.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/why-rising-orchards", "title": "How it Started: Rotting Orchards", "summary": "The name that started our story came from our roots. We began in a dreamy oasis of Silicon Valley over 10 years ago now. The land was an apricot orchard in its last life. When looking for our haunt name, even as super amateurs, I knew there was great power in a name. Especially when you're broke. Not to mention we had huge dreams of becoming local legend.", "date_modified": "2023-05-22T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Lisa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "History" ] } ] }