Night Vale, the mysterious desert town that is the setting for the massively successful podcast Welcome To Night Vale, is a dangerous place. The public library is filled with monsters, the middle-school students have formed a militia, and the dog park is actually a gateway to a shadowy netherworld from which few return.
It’s not surprising, then, that in Investigative Journalism: A Welcome to Night Vale Fan Game, the vast majority of your choices lead to either frustration or death. The game is a Choose Your Own Adventure-style text game, and you play the role of a Night Vale Community Radio intern who has gone searching for the news, which has escaped from its locked metal box. You can either search the station for it, or head outside to search the town, where you check such Night Vale hotspots as the Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex, the Moonlite All-Nite Diner or—if you’re feeling exceptionally brave—the dog park.
The news turns out to be exceptionally hard to find, but it’s still a great time for anyone who has ever wished they could slip into this fictional universe and spend some time exploring Night Vale.