now playing: "The Night Circus"

The Night Circus
Genre(s): Weird/unknown
Credits: Failbetter Games (in conjunction with Erin Morgenstern), 2011

From the creators of August's Transcended Awards winner Echo Bazaar! comes a little project intended to coincide with Morgenstern's debut novel titled, coincidentally enough, The Night Circus. Its premise: an enigmatic traveling band of performers, who appear only at night and in black and white—holds a postmodern Victorian atmosphere similar in gothic wit to the Bazaar, so if you're looking for a thematic discussion I had best refer you to the first review. Wisely, it's not specifically tied to the book's primary plot—rather it focuses on the allure and mystery of the literary setting, making it not only a spoiler-free stand-alone entertainment for unacquainted readers, but also a nice "expansion pack" for devoted fans.

Once you get inside the Circus, many opportunities are possible. "A maze within a maze, this. A small tent at the heart of the circus that holds a hundred paths, a hundred rooms and a thousand ways to get lost."

In a diceless RPG fashion, you follow the traveling Night Circus across the world via "Opportunity Cards" that set you off exploring the diverse attractions to gain small treasures and secrets. Opportunity Cards bordered in red indicate a "storylet" or quest that unfolds across several cards. Unlike its Bazaar predecessor, however, stats and experience levels are noticeably missing in the Circus. Furthermore, there is no limit to the number of "actions" or moves you can take in a single playing session. And while the monotone graphics are beautiful, they are simply decorations to the true pictures contained within the imaginative, wistful descriptions and dialogue.

It's not exactly a proper-minded "game" compared to the ones we've been playing before.

Upon observing a mysterious raven's behavior, I have earned 1 x Degree of Wariness and 1 x Night-sky Feather—valuable items that may unlock more opportunities later.

But rest assured, Night Circus has plenty of merit to shine alone as its own interactive exhibition: a unique jewel in Failbetter Games's catalog. Its slow, leisurely pace guides the player through a scrapbook sort of journey, collecting "mementos." While it's obviously a neat promotional campaign for Morgenstern, it doesn't come across as product placement. Its sharply pronounced literary focus makes it its own novella, but its non-linear interactivity undoubtedly qualifies it as a game—specifically, an adventure, and quite curious and nostalgic at that. Like the dash of fire red thrown into the glossy black-and-silver monotones, there's a spark of childish excitement and wonder conveyed in the player's wanderings from card to card. Although it's considered a social media app, but there's very little social goings-on within the content. The player's own sense of identity is rather obscured in the story itself—a player's profile/journal is intended less as a character description and more as an attendance check. When you are in the Night Circus, you are only one of the anonymous audience, putting your face against the window, unaware of the backstage mechanics and only letting yourself be delighted with the illusion itself.

Monday preview: Turning amnesia from an overused opening plot trope to a meaningful story in and of itself.