Day For Night Games' The Black Glove attempts to push the narrative game genre forward by tying story directly into gameplay, allowing players to alter both events and the world around them.
The game takes place in The Equinox, an eerie 1920s theatre that appears unstuck from conventional reality. A venue pervaded by weird dream logic, inexplicable holes in space, unshielded x-ray art installations, and tasteful use of crushed velvet.
The Equinox has three creators in residence: the artist Marisol, the filmmaker Avery Arnault, and musical act Many Embers. Their work is in bad shape when you arrive and it's taken a strange, metaphysical toll on the theatre. Time flows backward in areas. Weird things peek out of once-sealed doorways. Unearthly music plays.
As the latest Curator, it falls to you to get The Equinox back on its feet. It's your job to change the creators' past to improve their work in the present. How? The hosts Hazel and Cribbage explain that there are certain games of skill and chance that allow us to interact with... what you might call 'fourth-dimensional space.
One such game is The Maze of the Space Minotaur, an idiosyncratic ode to classic 80s coin-ops that combines retro visuals and sounds with modern gameplay sensibilities. The Space Minotaur is The Equinox's boogeyman, a relentless, nihilistic monster whose taunts cause a mix of existential angst and nervous laughter. Overcome him and his minions in spectacular fashion to perform game feats.
Accomplishing game feats summons The Black Glove, which allows you to alter aspects of the creators' past — specifically, their Medium, Message, and Muse.
Alter one and everything changes. A somber, portrait art display becomes a kaiju autopsy scene where giant monster parts glow like scorpions under black light. A warbling country act in The Music Club is replaced by lounge singers in smoking jackets. A poorly-conceived 70s disaster film in The Cinema turns into a silent movie sci-fi gem, once thought lost in a fire.
Critics hint at what to change next, but even a wrong turn can produce interesting results in a so-bad-it's-good way.
Based on your decisions, the creators may become influenced by 8-bit video game music, 60s era pop art, Day of the Dead folk art, 70s cosmic comics, anime, multi-media experimental art, cyberpunk fiction, sad-eyed clown paintings, low-budget b-movies, and more. The choice is up to you.
The Black Glove is designed to be fun to replay many times over for gamers who want to see and hear everything. Random surreal moments, challenging arcade feats, and dozens of unique narrative scenes and environments will make it a narrative game with surprising replayability.
