Are you perplexed?

Michael Smith was fascinated by the Kit Williams-penned treasure hunt book, Masquerade (1979) as a kid. The influence of the book about finding a buried treasure in the British Isles, clue by clue, was the basis for Perplex City, a card game created by Smith, now CEO of Mind Candy, London.

Someone has stolen a treasure—the priceless Receda Cube—and players must search card by card in order to find it. Each card gives players clues that lead them to the Perplex City Web site and one step closer to the treasure.

And the deeper players go into this “alternate reality game,” the more they can really become a part of the Perplex City world, one with unexpected emails, clues via a telephone call, TV clips, text messages and more. Some cards are heat sensitive while others have origami challenges, pop culture trivia and 3-D mazes. When players move online they can solve more puzzles.

Smith says that he'd love for the game to catch on with more merchants in the U.S., as it has in the U.K., where more than 800,000 card packs have been sold since July 2005. “We're looking to get more mainstream retailers,” he says.

Perplex City is sold in six-card packs, each retailing for $4.99. The first “season” of the game will include 256 cards. So far, two 66-card waves have been released with two additional waves planned for the first half of 2006.