- Pace94 · frantic
- The cups pass from hand to hand faster and faster, a round every seven seconds, a candle melting while you choose, and a carousel organ climbing from 150 to 182 beats per minute.
- Difficulty71.5 · rather merciless
- Three tokens per round: a mistake or a candle that goes out costs one, and at the third the round starts over, one or two minutes. After two lost rounds he shuffles a little slower, without saying so.
- Tone91.5 · unsettling
- A faceless barker who grins, hands too long with black nails, an eye looking out from under a cup, a dead funfair crackling behind, and an ending where it is you he puts under the cup.
- Story26 · rather silent
- He says little: one line per round, when he puts the moon under the cup, and a word when you lose; the rest plays out in his hands and his grin.
- Scale61.4 · in between
- A table and three cups under a lamp, but what you are looking for underneath is the moon, and when you give it back it rises into the sky above the funfair.
- Form65.3 · rather strange
- The shell game everyone knows, with an invented trick each round: passes that go back, a second object to avoid, the cheating you can see if you look closely.
- Look91.5 · lush
- A crowded night: the Ferris wheel and carousel switched off, strings of bulbs flickering softly, drizzle under the lamp, the green felt, gleaming copper, the trails of the cups, the moon, and the barker's hands. Toned down on old phones.
The theme
At night, in a closed-down funfair, a faceless barker runs a shell-game table under a lamp. All you see of him is his hat, a golden grin and his long hands. Under one of his three copper cups he has put a little moon. He shuffles, you look for it, and every round he cheats a little more: fake passes, an eye under a cup, a hand that palms, then five cups. When you have won, he lifts the last cup, and it is over you that he puts it.
The mechanics
Watch the moon go under a cup, the hands shuffle at full speed, then tap (or pick with the arrow keys and confirm with Space) the cup hiding it, before the candle goes out. A mistake costs a token; lose three and the round starts over. Each round adds a trick: passes that go back on themselves, a hidden eye you must not pick, the hand sliding the moon from one cup to another, and five cups.
Palette
Green table felt #0f2a22, hammered copper cups #b87333 with pink highlights, a pearly moon #f2ecd8, amber lamp #ffcf7a, pallid hands #c9cfd8 with black nails, a golden grin #e8c060, and behind, the dead lights of a funfair: carousel, Ferris wheel, magenta #ff4fa8 and turquoise #3fd8d0 bulbs crackling. Abril Fatface for the title, Libre Caslon for the rest. Velvet, copper and a con.
