In Circus, players send their best artists into the ring to perform an act. If your artist is better than the previous one, then there is a deafening applause which earns you points.
As it should be, the grand finale follows at the end of the performance, after which the points are counted. The player with the most points is the best circus director and wins the game.
The game is played over 7 rounds. In each round, players use their upgrade cards to place upgrade cubes on their artists. Each differently coloured cube represents a different upgrade such as talent or costume. When you think your artist is ready, you send them to the ring for a performance.
The success of this performance is based on which upgrades your artist has. Each cube that matches a cube of the previous performing artist is worth 1 point, but each cube that doesn't match is worth 2 points. The spectators like variety after all! In addition, each round the poster cards will determine which kind of artist is worth some bonus points.
At the end of the game, players will send any remaining artists for one final performance and score extra points based on how good (upgraded) they are.