Cinderella at Midnight
A poetic race against time.
I was nine years old, wrapped up in my quilt at midnight, when I first read Cinderella. I was immersed in a tale that showed me magic comes with limits, and sometimes, you have to make your own escape. And as fate would have it, I find myself revisiting Cinderella once more.
And this time, through a game!
When Amanda Kastner reached out at the launch of her Micro May campaign on Kickstarter, we were already tempted. Most of us had grown up with the story, and we were curious to see how the game would bring the theme to life. So we dove into an eventful week of playing Cinderella at Midnight.
And now, I’m excited to share our collective impressions with you!
The game in a nutshell
Cinderella at Midnight is a solo maze-building game where every card you draw shapes the story. You’ll start in the Garden, laying down cards to guide Cinderella as she gathers mice, lizards, and a pumpkin – all while dodging disruptive bells. Once she returns to the Fairy Godmother, the very maze she traveled flips to reveal a transformed world: a coach, a palace, and a whole new set of challenges.
The goal? Find the key, meet the prince, leave the slipper, and make it home before the twelfth chime.
Before the game
What immediately caught my eye was the absolutely stunning artwork, all beautifully crafted by the game’s designer herself: Amanda. The artwork on the cards for both the Garden and Palace phases, plus the beautiful Cinderella standee, really made a great first impression on me.
That and its campaign, which, by the way, is on fire! Hitting over 1000% funded by day 17 feels like a fairy tale in itself.
Questions that lingered in my fairy-tale mind before playing Cinderella at Midnight:
+ Given it’s an 18-card game, how different will my first playthrough feel compared to the tenth?
+ Is it a fast-paced game?
+ Artwork aside, how well does the game weave its Cinderella theme into the gameplay?
How I built it
I received a print-and-play review copy of the game and printed the six pages (including the 18 cards and the standee) on cardstock. While I’d recommend using card sleeves, I went with my usual method of gluing the two sides of each card together. I laser printed the components, and they definitely did justice to the artwork.
I especially liked the standee, and as a game designer myself, it’s something I’ve tucked away as inspiration for my next project. Thanks, Amanda!
If assembling game components isn’t your thing, you’ll be happy to know the campaign offers both the print-and-play files and a ready-to-go physical version of the game.
My findings
A non-timed time game
I really liked how the game tracks time. Not with a timer, but through the ringing of bells on the first phase, and the chiming of the clock on the second. It creates just the right sense of urgency that the narrative deserves; Cinderella rushing to prepare for the ball in secret, then slipping away from the palace at the perfect moment before the spell fades.
The game has a time and task-tracking card that needs to be used together to track your progress for both phases of the game. And how well you play the first phase determines which chime you begin the second phase from. Which takes me to my next point.
Interwoven Variability
The two phases, the paths you take, and the way you move from one task to the next are all beautifully tied into one cohesive tale; and it’s something I truly appreciated. And the best part? While the major beats stay the same, the little details shift every time.
The plot remains fixed, but your journey to completing each task changes with the cards you draw in each phase. That brings replayability into the equation.
At each phase, you have 16 maze cards at your disposal, but chances are you won’t need to go through all the cards in a phase. For most of the time I played the game, I concluded each phase with at least 3 to 4 unused maze cards. Meaning, you get to have diversified experiences with each gameplay. Big green flag!
The 18-card game utilized its 36 sides really well.
Group is fun for a start
It’s a solo game, but we also tried it out in a group. More brains means more analysis on every round of the game, which was fun! I enjoyed playing the game with a group in the initial stages; we helped each other see strategic opportunities we might have otherwise overlooked.
But after getting a decent hang of the game, I preferred playing Cinderella at Midnight alone, at midnight (no pun intended). That may originate from me being an introvert, though! And a night owl.
Verdict
1st vs 10th gameplay?
To be frank, when I first tried Cinderella at Midnight, I was unknowingly rushing through it. I made moves that I later realized could have been done better. But after playing the game multiple times, especially with friends in a group, I started to get better at it. And aside from the group, something else really helped.
The game has a lovely theme, one you really need to immerse yourself in to get the most out of the experience. Think of it like a book or movie, where you’re the writer or director, and every move you make creates an alternate reality for Cinderella. It might sound a bit over-the-top, but it genuinely made me think more about every move I made. And I got better at it!
By my 10th playthrough, I felt more confident in my moves and enjoyed the game even more. It’s still very replayable, though I feel an expansion could be on the way to add even more depth to a game that already has plenty!
Fast-paced?
The average game session lasts around 20 minutes, so it’s definitely a game you can set up and play in no time. But I preferred to stretch it to 30, sometimes even 40 minutes, just to carefully assess all the options available to me.
So this part is really up to you. It can be a part of your loud game nights or a calm companion for quiet evenings. It can be fast-paced or unfold over nearly an hour. It all depends on how you choose to experience the game!
Integrated the theme?
Saving the most important aspect for the last…
I’ve been designing games for over seven years, and I’ve seen many rethemes or projects based on popular themes that are unable to truly integrate the theme with the gameplay experience.
But Cinderella at Midnight, credit to its designer, has been an exception!
Every task, maze, and obstacle took me back to the story of Cinderella. Whether it was the Fairy Godmother transforming her look, the stepmother and stepsisters on the maze cards trying to sabotage her plans, or the rotating and swapping of maze cards adding to the chaos as time ran out, it all built up the exact experience I first read about 24 years ago. And to me, that was extraordinary!
Time is running out!
Don’t wait till the 12th chime. We’re only 12 days away from the end of the Kickstarter campaign!
For me, Cinderella at Midnight is a love letter to everyone who read the books in their childhood. It’s a must-have for holding onto that experience for life.
A big thanks to Amanda Kastner for allowing us the opportunity to experience Cinderella not through a book or movie, but through a print-and-play!
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Game Overview
Publisher: StorySeamstress Games
Designer: Amanda Kastner
Artist: Amanda Kastner
Number of players: 1
Difficulty level: Medium
Rounds of gameplay needed to learn: 1 to 2 rounds
Game duration: 20-40 minutes
Available on: Kickstarter
Theme: Solo Maze-building | Cinderella
Number of pages and color: 6 (color, on cardstock)
Assembling difficulty level: Easy! Cut and sleeve the cards
Lamination: Not recommendedÂ
Additional elements required: A cutter to cut the cards, and glue if you want to assemble the cards like I did
Time to learn: Within 20 minutes
Travel-friendly: 8.5/10
Shelving friendly: 8.5/10
Rating from PnP Time: 9/10
Tasliman is a board game developer based in Bangladesh, with the dream of exploring the world of games and introducing it to anyone new to it. He is the founder of Kraftz, a brand that develops board games commercially, as well as with reputed entities like BRAC and The Gates Foundation.
