Flow is a polemic game inspired by California’s drought condition that is affected by the state's water rights system. This town building simulation game is about finding the right balance between water usage, financial situation, as well as keeping the townspeople happy. As the mayor of the town, you get to run your town however you like. Given a piece of land, you can build things, you can expand your town, you can earn more money so that your town becomes richer. You just have to keep in mind that anything you build has a price to pay, both with your currency and the resources that you are allotted from the shared unit.
Flow
Players :
4 players (1v3 un-balanced)
Length :
15-30 minutes
Fabrication :
board printed on large canvas, game pieces are hand-made from air-dry clay, game cards printed on cardstock and card board paper
Objective :
The ultimate goal of this game is to raise awareness of how much water we have taken from the source and consumed to maintain our day-to-day convenient lifestyle. Without realizing it, water shortage has slowly reached its high crisis stage, especially in California. Many water saving plans and regulations have been issued by the state to help but the situation continues to worsen, even with the recent rains, California is still experiencing severe drought.
Gameplay :
Each of the 3 mayors is given a piece of land, a handful of water, and a small amount of seed money to start running their town. Players take turn to build things that they think are necessary. Each element that is added to expand the town has unique requirements to build and to run (for example, one building may need a specific number of water units in order to produce something for the town). But what if you run out of that water you started with at the beginning of your game? This is when the shared water unit comes into play. You can use the water from that unit to keep your town running, but at the same time you may have to think about maintaining the level in that shared unit so it won’t run out. It’s all about balancing both your own resources, as well as keeping the public resources safe. It is your decision to keep some building running, or you can demolish even if it would cost you, for the greater good.
Key Game Features :
There are many factors that you, as a mayor, need to take into account: can you keep the happiness points on a higher level, can you manage your town so that you use the least natural resrouces, there are also many factors that can make your town very rich or very broke, you can also start thinking about how to balance your town water consumption so it becomes the most efficient, you can go as far as trying to build your town so that you contribute something to the society as a whole.
• build : you can build as many things as you like, you can expand your town as long as it’s within your border
• upgrade : there are many upgrades that you can buy for your builldings, some of them may help you save water, some of them may help you earn more money
• collect : you can collect happiness points as well as money from your buildings
• co-op : players can focus on their town individually or they can team up with each other to preserve the public resources
