“Noise creates illusion. Silence brings truth”. This is the ethos behind Hunters Entertainment’s new bold and innovative Kickstarter, a silent RPG played entirely over text message.
Alice is Missing centres around the disappearance of a teenager in the small town of Silent Falls. Players take on the role of inhabitants from the town who must discover clues to unravel the mystery of the girls disappearance.
The game is played live and without verbal communication. Instead of speaking, you must send text messages back and forth to the other characters in a group chat, as well as individually, as though you aren’t in the same place together.
Haunting beautiful, deeply personal, and highly innovative Alice is Missing puts a strong focus on the emotional engagement between players, immersing them in a tense, dramatic mystery that unfolds organically through the text messages they send to one another. Right at home with games like Life Is Strange, Gone Home, Oxenfree, and Firewatch, it’s designed to feel as much like an event-style experience as it does a role-playing game.
Hunters Entertainment
Alice is Missing runs over a single session lasting 2-3 hours, with 3-5 players. In the first 45 minutes, players create their characters, their relationships with Alice and their ties with each other. The next 90 minutes are spent uncovering secrets and unearthing clues in an attempt to discover where Alice is and who is behind the disappearance.
Texting unlocks a brand new way to play RPGs, creating a truly personal and immersive game, which is perfect for remote place.
How does it work?
Powered by simple but unique card mechanics that give everyone equal footing in telling the story, the game runs without a GM, or gamemaster, and instead empowers the players to create the story together.
While in-game time is fluid and the text messages could take place over the course of a day or more, the actual gameplay lasts a total of 90 minutes and is accompanied by a beautifully cinematic, licensed music playlist (featuring artists such as Message To Bears, This Patch of Sky, Justin LaPointe, and Be Still The Earth) which acts as both a timer and a soundtrack for the game.
You’ll start by choosing characters, drawing a motive for how that character acts, and assigning relationships to one another. Then, using the appropriate prompts on your character card, each player will record a secret voicemail to be played at the end of the game.
You’ll then establish some important information about your town of Silent Falls by choosing suspects and locations you think could have played a part in Alice’s disappearance. Lastly, you’ll receive Clue Cards that will be used during the game to generate information about the mystery you’re unraveling.
Once the timer starts and the game begins, you’ll flip your Clue Card when the number on the timer hits the number on the Clue Card’s back. This will often result in you drawing a card from the Suspect or Location deck and combining it with the prompt on the Clue Card to create the information your character uncovers.
These clues will continue to be revealed throughout the game, building tension and heightening the stakes until the 10-minute card flips, and the game comes to its climactic end.
Once the timer goes off at 90 minutes, players will have the opportunity to send one last text message before the secret voicemails play over the closing music track. Once the voicemails are finished and the current song ends, the game comes to a close.
By putting its lens on the relationships, tensions, and story arcs between the characters looking for Alice just as much as the search for Alice itself, the game challenges players to explore aspects of emotional intimacy and personal connection in a unique and accessible way.
Alice Is Missing is live on Kickstarter and has already reached its target goal, however there are still plenty of stretch goals still to unlock. For more information and to make your pledge click here.