CARNIVAL OF ANGELS GAME DESIGN LOG EXCERPT
OVERVIEW:
Carnival of Angels is a dark narrative-heavy adventure game about Purgatory, the circus, and time travel. The game is set in an itinerant circus in an unpleasant afterlife. It takes place over the course of only ten minutes, but gives the player the ability to re-live those ten minutes over and over while solving puzzles and growing attached to characters. Eventually, the player confronts the darkness at the heart of the Carnival and redeems their newfound friends, sending them on to whatever life is next.
Age range: 13+. Carnival of Angels deals with dark themes, including grieving and suicide, and includes moments of sadism and violence.
Platform: Windows and Mac
THEMES:
Carnival of Angels is about finding meaning in a broken world. Throughout the course of the game, the player befriends NPCs and gives them reasons to keep fighting. Ultimately, the camaraderie of the troupe overcomes the cruelty and indifference that causes their suffering.
The game relies heavily on carnival games as a metaphor. After all, in carnival games:
Everything is rigged against the player.
It may be impossible to win.
Even when the player wins, they come out behind.
It’s still worthwhile to play.
These statements also apply to life within this fictional world.
SETTING:
The afterlife is not a pleasant place. Ashen wastelands, fungal groves, and smoldering cities stretch to the horizon. Each person drawn to this broken world (and it certainly isn’t everyone) only lasts so long, and when they finally give in to despair, they fade away into shades, fragments of will that go through the routines of life without any of the spark of living. Perhaps all of this once served some purpose in the cosmic scheme of things, but it certainly doesn’t any longer.
Within this waste, The Carnival of Angels moves by train between settlements and enclaves, bringing a spark of wonder to those who have not yet faded away. The Carnival has seen better days, and many of its performers are shades themselves, but still it spreads joy. Often, it will pick up travelers from the wastes and carry them to safety.
However, the Carnival hides a dark secret: it is the personal plaything of a malicious entity (whom I will refer to as “Whim”) who reigns in secret over the performers, and perhaps over all of Purgatory as well. This creature subtly torments the carnies, selects souls to place in Purgatory, and savors every moment of their suffering.
Most of the game takes place on the train that carries the Carnival from stand to stand.
The technology of this setting isn’t modern, but it certainly isn’t medieval. The characters won’t be playing Angry Birds on their iPhones, but they can certainly use spotlights and popcorn machines and such. Aim for the tech of the golden age of the circus (late 1800s - mid 1900s).
PLAYER CHARACTER:
The player plays as Tris, a young person (they/them) new to Purgatory, who has just been rescued from the wastes by the Circus. En route to the troupe’s next stand, Tris befriends their new compatriots and, ultimately, saves the frickin’ world.
Tris is spirited and indignant. Unlike the other carnies, they are new to this world, and they see the cruelty that underlies it all. Although dead, they are not ready to stop living yet, and they eventually convince the other characters to push back against their suffering.
Read about the other carnies in the Character Descriptions.