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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — About a year ago, Maritza Maxwell made a small hex puzzle for a friend. The friend's 10-year-old daughter loved it so much she started carrying it around and challenging strangers to beat her time.
That was enough for Maxwell.
"When I heard that, I thought, 'I should create a competitive puzzle game,'" she said. "I recognized that there are few competitive puzzles on the market, and fewer that can be played by people with different skill sets."
Six months of prototyping and playtesting later, she had Trapdoors — a tabletop game in which players take turns sliding tiles to match a challenge image while trying to avoid trapdoors that can take their pieces. Think part Rubik's Cube, part Labyrinth, with a dash of those classic sliding tile puzzles thrown in.
The game is now on Kickstarter, where Maxwell is raising launch funds ahead of a planned November release — just in time for the holidays. As of Friday, the campaign had raised $2,995 from 31 backers toward a $21,000 goal, with 29 days remaining. The deadline is Aug. 15.
The $21,000 target is driven largely by manufacturing costs. Maxwell created her prototype on a 3-D printer — a process that takes more than 40 hours per game — but plans to use an injection mold for production, which costs $10,500 to make before a single game is manufactured. The full budget covers the mold and production of 1,000 games. Manufacturing will be handled by Hero Time, a China-based company with European ownership, with shipping through Prime Shipping. Maxwell is targeting late November to early December delivery.
She acknowledged one significant uncertainty: U.S.-China trade relations. "The state of the world between Virginia and China is ever-changing, and unpredictable," she wrote on the campaign page.
Maxwell, who works as an artist in Alexandria, runs Hatch Skills and recently launched a second brand, Liminal Space Games, to house Trapdoors and future projects. She holds a bachelor's degree in fine arts and art history from Amherst College and a master's in art history from Bryn Mawr College, specializing in 15th-century Flemish painting. She serves on the board of directors at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C. Some of her work, including the original hex puzzle and several acrylic pieces, is available at the Made in ALX store in Old Town.
Playtesting feedback has been strong. One tester said the game combines puzzles and strategy without ever becoming frustrating, and that players of different ages keep asking for one more round.
"I have been a game aficionado and a crafter my whole life," Maxwell said. "I am only surprised that it took this long for the two to collide."
She already has more in the pipeline — about six additional games she plans to develop through 2026 and 2027 alongside her existing craft work.
Kickstarter backers are only charged if the campaign reaches its funding goal; if it falls short, no one is charged. Supporters who back the campaign will be among the first to receive the game.
More information and pledges are available at kickstarter.com/projects/trapdoorsgame/trapdoors.
