Alice is Missing

Alice is Missing is designed for 3–5 players, with each player being assigned a character. The game begins with each player receiving a character card, detailing their character's name and prompts about the character's background, motivations, and relationship to Alice Briarwood. The most experienced player is assigned the role of facilitator, and is tasked with running the game. The facilitator role is comparable to a Game Master, but participates in the game as a player character as well. The initial forty-five minutes are dedicated to setup; establishing characters, relationships, and important locations in the story. Following the setup, the actual game lasts for ninety minutes and is communication is held entirely through text messages on players' cellphones or other messaging devices. The game is timed using an official "Animated Timer" available on YouTube, which consists of music curated to match the emotional tone of the game at that point in the story. The game also includes safety tools such as Lines and Veils and the X-Card. The bulk of the gameplay consists of interacting with the other players as the assigned characters, both in a main group chat and in separate private conversations, with the objective being to “figure out” what happened to Alice, though the answer is not yet established. At certain times throughout the game, new evidence and information as to Alice's whereabouts or her captor is hypothesized via evidence cards. Characters Alice is Missing has five main characters assigned to the players: • Charlie Barnes – "The One Who Moved Away" • Dakota Travis – "The Best Friend" • Julia North – "The Secret Girlfriend" • Jack Briarwood – "The Older Brother" • Evan Holwell – "The One With The Crush" The Silent Falls expansion introduced four new playable characters: • Morgan Bridges – "The One Who Moved Away" (takes place of Charlie if used) • Jordan Foster – "The Childhood Friend" • Hollis Briarwood – "The Younger Sibling" • Steven Yates – "The Ex-Boyfriend" The player who takes on the facilitator role must play as either Charlie Barnes or Morgan Bridges. ==Publication history==

Alice is Missing was designed by Spenser Starke, with illustration by Julianne Griepp. After raising over $138,000 on Kickstarter, it was published by Hunters Entertainment in partnership with Renegade Game Studios in 2020. It was released as a physical game, a PDF, and a digital game on Roll20. Starke stated that the game's setting and tone was heavily inspired by indie video games such as Life is Strange, Oxenfree, Firewatch, and Gone Home. In 2023, Alice is Missing received an expansion, Silent Falls, which introduced 38 new cards to the game. This expansion was also crowdfunded on Kickstarter. The Kickstarter included two backer exclusive versions of the game – a version with an alternative Searching Cards deck designed by Banana Chan and Starke and the "Keepsake Experience" version which includes physical handouts and other memorabilia produced by Noxweiler Ignatius Berf. Alice is Missing: Digital Edition, developed in collaboration with Pixel Table, launched in 2024. This browser-based version adjusts the original gameplay to be more streamlined by automating clue assignments, allowing for character customization, and synchronizing the game timer and soundtrack for the players. An updated version of the digital edition, Alice is Missing: Digital Edition V2, and a summer camp themed DLC, titled Whispering Pines, were released in 2025. ==Reception==

Alice is Missing won the 2021 Gold ENNIE Awards for "Best Game," "Best Rules," and "Product of the Year." It also won the 2021 IndieCade award for tabletop design. In France, the game was nominated for the 2023 award in the category and won the 2023 award at the . In 2020, Emily St. James for Vox compared the game to Twin Peaks, praised its suitability for remote play, and called it "sublime." In 2022, Anthony Mirelli of RTBF called Alice is Missing a "little masterpiece, well worth the detour". Mirelli noted the option to play online but preferred the in-person experience with the shared silent room during gameplay. On safety tools, they noted that Alice is Missing is one of the games which offers "a structured alternative for player comfort by allowing them to alter content that may make them uncomfortable" such as its rulebook "explicitly" stating "the easiest way to remove content related to violence towards Alice". == Film adaptation ==

In 2022, Paramount Pictures announced plans to adapt Alice is Missing into a film. The upcoming film is set to be written by Spencer Starke and Becca Gleason, and produced by Ivan Van Norman and Christopher De La Rosa. == References ==