Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Anytown - Game Overview and a Look Ahead

Anytown: At the Corner of No and Where is a worker placement, card drafting, resource management game for 2-6 players ages 12+.  The game length is 40-70 minutes.

In Anytown, it is the height of the Gold Rush.  The players have gathered at an area of available land in the vicinity of a gold mine with the idea of constructing a town, and attracting as many citizens as possible.  Over the course of 3 years, an empty patch of land will be developed into a bustling town, and the player that attracts the most citizens will win the game.

As stated above, Anytown is played over 3 years (rounds).  In each round, players draft building cards, then proceed to construct those buildings (as building space allows), while helping to construct common buildings that require more than 1 person to complete.  After buildings are constructed, they can then be used for various abilities such as resource trading or gaining Citizen Points (CP).  At the end of the year, players discard unused building cards, and then the available land for the town is expanded for the next year.

Since the town is new, there is no reason for duplicate buildings.  Also, each building has multiple copies in the deck, so players are racing to be the first to construct each building.  Then, in later years, buildings already in play may be upgraded, allowing for co-ownership of those buildings.  Having an ownership stake in many buildings is highly recommended, since every non-owner using a building ability provides the owners with a bonus (either resources or CP).

To date, Anytown has been playtested around a dozen times between all listed player counts, and will continue to be playtested whenever possible.  At this time, I am seeking blind playtesters to help prepare Anytown to the next step (searching for a publisher). 

I have briefly considered doing a Kickstarter on my own, but with my family and work, I do not believe I would have enough time to devote to setting up and running a campaign.  Perhaps that will change over the next year, but I have my doubts.

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