Welcome to the fourth and final post in my designer diary series for Dog Park: New Tricks. Over the past month we've covered our design intentions for the expansion, the Multi-breed dogs, and trick training. For this final instalment - posted the day before we go live with New Tricks on Kickstarter! - I'll be taking a closer look at the brand new Super Locations and how they evolve and power up the park.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It's a Super Location!
In Dog Park: New Tricks, players swap out the standard Location Bonus cards from the base game for a deck of Super Location Bonus cards. This deck includes - in addition to resources and block tokens that players of Dog Park will be familiar with - two Super Locations per card. These locations are powerful sites in which all walkers can gain significant bonuses.
These locations are powerful sites in which all walkers can gain significant bonuses.
As New Tricks increases the demand on resource management, ups the strategic decision making, and has the potential to increase player count, the incorporation of more lucrative Park locations was a must. Plus, their appeal and modular nature makes them an especially exciting feature of the walking phase. During testing, all eyes on what Super Locations were being placed out per round with murmurs on how that would impact players' strategies.
A Destination for All Walkers
For those that regularly walk a dog, you might be familiar with certain sweet spots on your route - the ones that all walkers detour to visit. Maybe it's a little bit of lakeside with a particular lovely beach that's perfect for a quick chat with fellow walkers while dogs dive in for a swim. Or perhaps there's a beauty spot with a few benches that is perfect for taking a breather while your pup snootles around. These communal, sought-after spots inspired the thematic inclusion of the Super Locations.
Communal, sought-after spots inspired the thematic inclusion of the Super Locations.
Simply: they are worth detouring for, and you'll likely see other walkers there. Unlike the other locations in the Park, landing on a Super Location with another walker does not incur a Reputation penalty. This means you can more flexibly plan your walking strategy around these spots.
Adorable and efficient storage
While Jack and I can't take any design responsibility for the New Tricks resource GameTrayz - all credit for that goes to the brilliant Noah Adelman - I did want to shout out the satisfying storage tray that Noah designed for the game. This delightful little octopus - modelled, of course, on the squishy toy resource in Dog Park - ensures that the Super Locations are placed near the board and not tucked away in the box, making roundly setup super easy.
The GameTrayz ensures that the Super Locations are placed near the board and not tucked away in the box, making roundly setup super easy.
And that's all for my New Tricks designer diaries, folks! We’d love to have you with us for the Kickstarter campaign launching on the 20th June - in which we’ll be offering backers the chance to secure the Collector’s Edition, plus lots more exclusive goodies to be revealed - and you can sign up to be notified of the launch here.
All images in this article are stills from the newly released 'What's New in New Tricks' video, which you can watch in full here. This video features a pre-production copy that is subject to change.
