Friday, October 24, 2014

You Might Also Like... Steam Park!

I love playing Dice Masters. I love talking about Dice Masters. But I also love lots of other games. This feature is dedicated to sharing other games that I enjoy and - ones that you might, too. All have some element that fans of Dice Masters can buy in to - whether within theme, mechanisms, or other intangibles. 

If you don’t have the game in question and would like to support the site, please consider buying the game through the affiliate link at the end of the article - no tricks, no gimmicks, just an easy way of support for something that you were maybe going to do anyway. They seem to be the same prices as non-affiliate Amazon! If not, that's ok - we still like you!


The Designers: Aureliano Buonfino, Lorenzo Silva, &
Lorenzo Tucci Sorrentino

Published: 2014 by IELLO (at least in the USA)

Players: 2-4

Key Points: Dice rolling, action selection, modular board, city building




So What Is It?

Steam Park is a game in which players compete to build the best theme park that they can for their robotic guests. They do this by building new rides, expanding existing rides, getting kiosks, and buying up more land to build more park! You’re also trying to get robot meeples on to rides that they would enjoy so that they can earn you more money. All the while, you can get monetary rewards for providing variety, for specializing, for having a certain amount of guests, and a host of other categories.

All the while, park owners are trying to manage the dirt around their park. Building new features and attracting guests kicks up a lot of mess - after all, guests create trash and building things creates waste. The more dirt you have at the end of the game, the more points you lose. Luckily, there are many ways of managing the dirt that you have in the park.



One important strategy for the game is to determine what results you're hoping for as you roll the dice like crazy. There are rewards for being first done, and penalties for being the last, so you really need to have an idea of what you're shooting for. 


Why Would I Like It?

Steam Park features some mad dice rolling combined with action selection based on the side of the die that is showing. Chances are, if you’re playing Dice Masters, you are pretty cool with rolling a bunch of dice many times. Steam Park offers that to you. There are plenty of ways to mitigate the randomness - the fact that you get to roll the dice almost as many times as you like, for one, or some of the buildings that you can put up for another - so it's easy to make sure that you get to do something like what you want.

There’s a very strong theme to this game. It looks fantastic sitting on the table with the little 3D rides that you’ve put up on your plot of land. Plus, the artwork is fantastic. It's by Marie Cardouat, who also did the fantastically whimsical card art from Dixit (another great game that I definitely recommend).

I have also heard that an expansion is in the works. Give this one a look, it's one of my favorites.


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