Rapid Resources

In 2025, Lyra gave a talk on rapid prototyping at RECON, the Reality Escape Room Conference. She assembled the following resources as an appendix to the talk, but they are generally useful to anyone learning how to make new stuff at human scale. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Appendix

I’ve assembled the following to give you a biased-by-my-experience, one-stop-shop of resources to help kick off or continue your journey of making cool stuff. Use what’s useful, invent what’s new.

A few high-level tips to keep in mind:

Start small — Fail quickly and cheaply so you can afford to succeed
Document everything — Take photos of your process for future reference and so that when someone asks you to give a talk, you have them ready!
Test early with real players — Cardboard prototypes can reveal major design unknowns
Plan for longevity — Make things repairable, not just durable
Know your limits — Some things are worth commissioning from professionals
Safety first — Your players' wellbeing is worth more than any cost savings
Iterate quickly — The faster you can test ideas, the better your final product will be

And remember: the best tools are the ones you use. Start with the basics, build your skills, and gradually expand your toolkit as you discover what kinds of projects excite you most!

How to Learn More About Making Stuff

What do you mean I'm not a mechanical engineer after a 30 minute talk?

I know, it distresses me too. Luckily there's tons of great, free education including my friend Charles Guan's perennial Instructable, How to Build Your Everything, Really Really Fast.

Want to go deeper? Check out Professor Alex Slocum's FUNdaMENTALS of Design to learn from the syllabus of one of my favorite MIT classes [videos available on MIT OpenCourseWare].

Check out your local makerspaces, community colleges, and trade schools to learn specialty skills and gain expertise. Nothing beats hands-on learning with real tools and experienced mentors!

Professional services like Engineering Lab will work with you to go through the phases of rapid prototyping, which costs more than autodidaction but can be a helpful way to learn while getting real results.

Formlabs' Guide to the Rapid Prototyping Cycle is 3D printing-focused, but an excellent overview.

Tutorials & Learning Resources

Instructables.com — Community-sourced DIY projects on everything you can imagine. Seriously, everything. Want to build a pneumatic cannon? There's a tutorial. Need to make fake aging on props? Many someones have documented their processes.

Hackster.io — Electronics projects and Arduino/Raspberry Pi tutorials. Perfect for adding interactive elements to your escape rooms.

Specialty Communities

Cosplay & Prop Making:

The RPF (Replica Prop Forum) — The definitive community for prop making

Kamui Cosplay — Excellent tutorials, especially for EVA foam work

Punished Props Academy — Premium prop making courses

YouTube Channels to Follow:

Adam Savage's Tested — Prop making and maker culture
Punished Props — Cosplay and prop finishing techniques
The King of Random — Creative making experiments
Make: — Official channel of Make: magazine

Makerspaces

Maker Media — Magazine and resources for maker culture

Find a Makerspace — Directory of makerspaces worldwide

Design Software

2D Design Tools

Free:

Canva — My go-to for quick graphics (free, browser-based)
GIMP — Free alternative to Photoshop for raster graphics
Inkscape — Free alternative to Illustrator for vector graphics

Paid:

Adobe Photoshop — Industry standard for raster graphics
Adobe Illustrator — Industry standard for vector graphics

Downloadable 3D Models

Thingiverse — Free 3D printable models and designs
Yeggi — Search engine for 3D printable models across multiple sites
GrabCAD — Professional-grade CAD models and engineering community

3D Design Tools

Free:

Onshape — Browser-based parametric CAD (free for personal use)
Blender — Powerful mesh modeling software
Fusion 360 — Free for personal use with some hoops to jump through

Paid:

Solidworks — Professional parametric CAD
Fusion 360 Commercial — Full-featured CAD/CAM

Phone Apps for 3D Scanning

Polycam — Easy 3D scanning with your phone
3D Scanner App — Another solid option for mobile scanning

Materials & Consumables

Custom Objects

Redbubble — Custom printing on everything from stickers to phone cases

Zazzle — Custom products and promotional items

Vinyl Lettering — Professional vinyl cutting services

Emergency Fixes & Repair

Sugru — Moldable glue for emergency repairs

JB Weld — Industrial-strength adhesive for metal repairs

Gorilla Glue — Various specialty adhesives for different materials

Flex Seal — Liquid rubber sealant for weatherproofing

Adhesives

This to That — The ultimate adhesive selection guide. Seriously, bookmark this one!

General Supplies

McMaster-Carr — The everything store for mechanical parts, fasteners, and materials. They have CAD models for most parts too!

Modular — Specialty hardware and components

Hand Modeling Materials:

Instamorph — Moldable plastic that becomes workable in hot water
Apoxie Sculpt — Two-part sculpting compound
Sugru — Moldable glue that cures to flexible rubber

Paint & Finishing

Rust-Oleum Universal Metallic — Great for metal effects

Bare Metal Foil — Ultra-realistic metal finishes

Glow Inc — Glow-in-the-dark and UV-reactive materials

Materials for Laser Cutting

Plastics.com — Safe, verified materials for laser cutting (no toxic surprises!)

Inventables — High-quality materials designed for CNC and laser cutting

Safe Laser Cutting Materials:

Acrylic (PMMA)
Natural wood (not engineered/treated)
Real leather (not synthetic)
EVA foam (the magic material!)
Cardboard and paper
Natural rubber

NEVER laser cut: PVC, vinyl, polycarbonate, ABS, fiberglass, or anything you can't verify is safe

Tools & Hardware

Essential Hand Tools

Dremel Rotary Tool

Dremel Flex Shaft — My favorite attachment for precision work and saving your arm on long projects

Digital Calipers — Measure stuff precisely. Get the cheap ones first, upgrade later if needed

Safety Equipment (Don't Skip This!)

3M Safety Glasses — You never need them until you needed them

Respirator Masks — Especially important for laser cutting and resin printing

Nitrile Gloves — Protect your hands from chemicals and sharp edges

Hearing Protection — For power tools and machinery

Laser & Vinyl Cutters

Glowforge — User-friendly desktop laser cutter with excellent software and community support

Rapid Resources

Welcome to the Appendix

I’ve assembled the following to give you a biased-by-my-experience, one-stop-shop of resources to help kick off or continue your journey of making cool stuff. Use what’s useful, invent what’s new.

A few high-level tips to keep in mind:

Start small — Fail quickly and cheaply so you can afford to succeed

Document everything — Take photos of your process for future reference and so that when someone asks you to give a talk, you have them ready!

Test early with real players — Cardboard prototypes can reveal major design unknowns

Plan for longevity — Make things repairable, not just durable

Know your limits — Some things are worth commissioning from professionals

Safety first — Your players' wellbeing is worth more than any cost savings

Iterate quickly — The faster you can test ideas, the better your final product will be

And remember: the best tools are the ones you use. Start with the basics, build your skills, and gradually expand your toolkit as you discover what kinds of projects excite you most!

How to Learn More About Making Stuff

What do you mean I'm not a mechanical engineer after a 30 minute talk?

I know, it distresses me too. Luckily there's tons of great, free education including my friend Charles Guan's perennial Instructable, How to Build Your Everything, Really Really Fast.

Want to go deeper? Check out Professor Alex Slocum's FUNdaMENTALS of Design to learn from the syllabus of one of my favorite MIT classes [videos available on MIT OpenCourseWare].

Check out your local makerspaces, community colleges, and trade schools to learn specialty skills and gain expertise. Nothing beats hands-on learning with real tools and experienced mentors!

Professional services like Engineering Lab will work with you to go through the phases of rapid prototyping, which costs more than autodidaction but can be a helpful way to learn while getting real results.

Formlabs' Guide to the Rapid Prototyping Cycle is 3D printing-focused, but an excellent overview.

Tutorials & Learning Resources

Instructables.com — Community-sourced DIY projects on everything you can imagine. Seriously, everything. Want to build a pneumatic cannon? There's a tutorial. Need to make fake aging on props? Many someones have documented their processes.

Hackster.io — Electronics projects and Arduino/Raspberry Pi tutorials. Perfect for adding interactive elements to your escape rooms.

Specialty Communities

Cosplay & Prop Making:

The RPF (Replica Prop Forum) — The definitive community for prop making

Kamui Cosplay — Excellent tutorials, especially for EVA foam work

Punished Props Academy — Premium prop making courses

YouTube Channels to Follow:

Adam Savage's Tested — Prop making and maker culture

Punished Props — Cosplay and prop finishing techniques

The King of Random — Creative making experiments

Make: — Official channel of Make: magazine

Makerspaces

Maker Media — Magazine and resources for maker culture

Find a Makerspace — Directory of makerspaces worldwide

Design Software

2D Design Tools

Free:

Canva — My go-to for quick graphics (free, browser-based)

GIMP — Free alternative to Photoshop for raster graphics

Inkscape — Free alternative to Illustrator for vector graphics

Paid:

Adobe Photoshop — Industry standard for raster graphics

Adobe Illustrator — Industry standard for vector graphics

Downloadable 3D Models

Thingiverse — Free 3D printable models and designs

Yeggi — Search engine for 3D printable models across multiple sites

GrabCAD — Professional-grade CAD models and engineering community

3D Design Tools

Free:

Onshape — Browser-based parametric CAD (free for personal use)

Blender — Powerful mesh modeling software

Fusion 360 — Free for personal use with some hoops to jump through

Paid:

Solidworks — Professional parametric CAD

Fusion 360 Commercial — Full-featured CAD/CAM

Phone Apps for 3D Scanning

Polycam — Easy 3D scanning with your phone

3D Scanner App — Another solid option for mobile scanning

Materials & Consumables

Custom Objects

Redbubble — Custom printing on everything from stickers to phone cases

Zazzle — Custom products and promotional items

Vinyl Lettering — Professional vinyl cutting services

Emergency Fixes & Repair

Sugru — Moldable glue for emergency repairs

JB Weld — Industrial-strength adhesive for metal repairs

Gorilla Glue — Various specialty adhesives for different materials

Flex Seal — Liquid rubber sealant for weatherproofing

Adhesives

This to That — The ultimate adhesive selection guide. Seriously, bookmark this one!

General Supplies

McMaster-Carr — The everything store for mechanical parts, fasteners, and materials. They have CAD models for most parts too!

Modular — Specialty hardware and components

Hand Modeling Materials:

Instamorph — Moldable plastic that becomes workable in hot water

Apoxie Sculpt — Two-part sculpting compound

Sugru — Moldable glue that cures to flexible rubber

Paint & Finishing

Rust-Oleum Universal Metallic — Great for metal effects