Designer Diary: Tivoli | BoardGameGeek Information

Ever since I used to be a toddler visiting the magical Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, the place has at all times held a particular aura of thriller, fascination, and enchantment for me. It was a spot the place the extraordinary world appeared to fade away, changed by the glow of numerous lights, the joys of rides, and the scent of candy treats.

So, naturally, after we have been granted the license to create a board recreation impressed by Tivoli, we have been excited to seize that magic and translate it into one thing that households might get pleasure from collectively.

Our aim with Tivoli was to design a recreation that each youngsters and adults would discover participating. My soon-to-be seven-year-old daughter can play it with ease and has a good time — though the nuances of long-term technique would possibly nonetheless elude her. We aimed for a stage of strategic depth just like Ticket to Journey, however with a barely softer edge, making it extra accessible to youthful gamers whereas nonetheless providing a rewarding expertise for everybody on the desk.

On the coronary heart of the sport is a mechanism with which just about everyone seems to be acquainted: rolling cube. In your flip, you roll three customized cube, and in a fashion paying homage to Yahtzee, you possibly can roll as much as 3 times, making an attempt to get the very best end result.

The rides, in fact, are the principle attraction — particularly for youthful gamers — however Tivoli Gardens has at all times been about extra than simply the rides. There’s the appeal of the fantastically lit paths, twinkling with a thousand colours, and the irresistible attract of the sweet, notably these iconic, outsized lollipops each Danish youngster associates with Tivoli.

Capturing the Feeling

When designing Tivoli, our method was to start out with the sensation we wished gamers to expertise. There are numerous methods to design a recreation, however for us, it at all times begins with the specified emotional journey. From there, we search for mechanisms that naturally evoke that feeling.

Designing a recreation like this is not about making a simulation; it is about capturing the essence of what makes Tivoli Gardens particular. We wished to evoke the magical ambiance and the sense of freedom that comes with a summer time night spent within the park, the place the solar units and tons of of hundreds of lights begin to twinkle. We aimed to convey the joys of the rides, the gradual lighting up of the night because the gardens turn out to be illuminated, and the pleasant competitors to expertise as a lot as doable earlier than the evening ends.

The premise of the sport is easy: How a lot enjoyable can you’ve earlier than the gardens shut? The problem lies in deciding what to see, which rides to attempt, what treats to style, and what number of balloons to take residence — all earlier than the clock strikes midnight.

Paintings and Environment

When it comes to art work, it was essential for us to seize the heat, gentle, and ambiance of a Scandinavian summer time night.

As gamers discover the gardens and go on rides, they place lanterns of their participant shade on the board. This mechanism mirrors the real-life expertise of Tivoli, the place the park steadily lights up as evening falls. The board itself turns into increasingly more illuminated as time passes, echoing the transformation of the park from day to nighttime.

When the Clock Strikes Midnight

A central feeling we wished to encapsulate is the sense of time operating out — a sense acquainted to each youngster who’s been to a theme park. “How a lot can I do earlier than it is time to go residence?” is a query that drives each the expertise of visiting Tivoli and the gameplay in Tivoli. The passing of time within the recreation is tied to the variety of rides that gamers expertise. When a experience has been tried by all members, time advances, and when the clock strikes 12, the sport involves an finish.

In Essence

In creating Tivoli, we have tried to bottle up the magic of a summer time night at Tivoli Gardens, siphon our fascination with the magical place right into a gaming expertise, and convey it to your tabletop. We hope it exhibits and that the sport will convey you pleasure and good instances along with individuals you care about.

Hugs and completely happy gaming from the Plotmaker Video games group!

Asger, Snorre, Emilie, and Niels