Velvet Circus

About Velvet Circus

Velvet Circus is twelve separate acts rather than one game with twelve levels. The fire ring run, the tightrope, the trampoline trail, rolling globes, horse vaulting, the flying trapeze, the unicycle dash, the juggling studio, the human cannonball, aerial silks, blade ballet and the high dive each want something different from you, and the career tour makes you do all of them.

Scoring is on points and applause together, which is the circus version of style marks. A clean run scores; a clean run with timing scores considerably more.

The tour

Three venues — Moonlight Fair, Royal Pavilion and Grand Palais — each harder than the last, and each asks for all twelve acts before the next one opens. Then there is the grand show: all twelve in a row with three chances shared between them, which is where the tour stops being a collection of minigames and starts being a performance you can lose at act nine.

Free play

Every act is available on its own outside the tour, so the one you keep failing can be practised without replaying the tour. That is deliberate: the acts are short, and the skill ceiling on things like aerial silks is higher than a first attempt suggests.

Controls

The arrow keys and the act key cover all twelve acts; each one tells you which it wants when it starts. Pause and a controls card are always a key away.

How to play Velvet Circus

1. Choose a mode. The career tour starts at Moonlight Fair, free play lets you choose any act and venue, and the grand show runs all twelve acts in a row.
2. Pick an act card. The intro panel shows the act's goal and a one-line hint, such as "Land on all nine mats" for the trampoline or "Make three safe landings" for the cannon. Press Enter or the start button to step into the ring.
3. Move with the arrow keys or A and D, and use Space for the act's main move: jumping, catching, firing the cannon, posing or diving. The cannon also uses up and down (or W and S) to set power, and in blade ballet you hold down or S to duck.
4. Look at the three hearts at the top. A missed landing, a fall or a hit costs one heart. Lose all three and the act ends with a short tip on what went wrong.
5. Finish the act's goal to earn one to three stars. P or Escape pauses, and R restarts straight away if a run has gone badly.
6. In the career, clear all twelve acts at a venue to open the next one: Royal Pavilion, then Grand Palais.

Velvet Circus tips and strategy

• Stars depend on mistakes, not speed. A run with no slips earns three stars, one mistake earns two, and two mistakes still earn one. Every star also adds a large bonus to the act's score, so a careful run beats a fast, messy one.
• Fire ring: jump about a lion-length early. Holding right builds speed, but let go of Space between jumps so each jump registers cleanly.
• Tightrope and unicycle: tap, don't hold. Keep the balance needle near the centre with small taps in the opposite direction to the lean. Holding a key over-corrects and tips you the other way.
• Aerial silks reward rhythm. Press left then right, over and over, to climb, because holding a key does nothing. Press Space only when you reach the glowing height marker, and do it five times to finish.
• Trapeze timing is on the upswing. Let go while the bar is still swinging right and rising, before it reaches the far end, then hold right in the air. The next bar catches you automatically.
• Read the blade warning before you move. LOW means jump with Space and HIGH means duck with down or S. Moving before the call is how most hearts are lost in blade ballet.
• Use the cannon's dotted guide. The gold dots show where you will land, so adjust aim and power until they fall inside the net. The net moves after every safe landing.

Tickets, costumes and the grand show

Career runs pay out tickets, with extra for beating a previous star rating, and you spend them in the wardrobe under the settings cog. The Crimson star outfit is free, Midnight blue costs 180 tickets and Emerald velvet 350. The costumes change how your performer looks, but they make no difference to the acts.

The grand show is a separate challenge. You get three chances shared across all twelve acts, so a slip on the trampoline leaves you with one less heart for the high dive. Your total applause adds up from act to act, and the game keeps your best grand show score on the device.

Gentle assists are switched on by default and give wider landing, catching and balance windows. Turn them off in settings for pure arcade physics once the acts feel easy. A gamepad also works: left stick or D-pad to move, A to perform and B to duck.