I’ve started a new design based on the feedback and ideas from the first playtest.
Making the tiles smaller was the biggest change. Smaller tiles means it will be a lot harder to place other things on top so it made the most sense to get rid of the window and door cards and instead arrange those on the tiles in different permutations.
Other ideas that came out of the playest session were:
- Scaffolding Cards: If you can’t or don’t want to take an action on your turn you must place a scaffolding card on an available spot on your tableau. You can build above a piece of scaffolding and you can replace a scaffolding piece with a different valid piece. Any unfinished scaffolding at the end of the game count against you.
- Corner Pieces: You can use these to expand outwards and upwards at the same time.
You might also notice that there’s another unique piece that isn’t a building at all: a hot air balloon piece. These special pieces can be used to help fill out your tableu and grants extra points:
At the same time as the hot air balloon idea I also realized that players should receive bonus points if they fully complete their tableau (a 5×5 grid). That means I will need a minimum of 25 pieces per player and at least 100 pieces for 4 players! There can be some duplicate pieces but that is still going to be a lot of parts! Time to get back to work…