Last year I visited my friend Oskar in Thessaloniki, Greece. Thessaloniki is the city of Aristotle, Alexander the Great, and Paul the Apostle. Located in northern Greece it has a long (and troubled) past. But it is also a large modern city with a port and a university. So when they wanted to build a metro to help solve traffic congestion, it took a while. In fact they started construction in 2006 (after a failed 1988 attempt) and only now, end of November 2024 the first line is due to open. When you start digging in such a place, you find lots of remains from the past.
I was inspired to create a game about this a while ago. A family card game where you cooperate and compete to build and connect stations but also handle all the things you find in the ground along the way.
This week I built a prototype and started playtesting. I’m making good progress! The base game works, now I’m tuning for play balance, length and fun. Kids volunteered as playtesters and came with great feedback.
The idea is that you have a 4 x 6 grid of cards, one hidden level with underground and one top level with the modern city. You collect workers, engineers and archaeologists to build tunnels and stations. Each turn you prospect one section of the city and reveal a hidden underground card. Bonus points for connecting stations. Events such as strikes, flooding, and new regulations make life complicated. You can also spend money instead of archaeologists to tunnel away and ignore treasures from the past. Action cards allow you to bribe competitor employees with better pay and perform quality inspections on their tunnels. Upgrade cards give permanent bonuses for building in certain regions or types of underground. Fun little family game with just enough complexity and good opportunities for storytelling.
UPDATE: Print-and-play edition
Print-and-play edition is online now: Mediterranean Metro.