The tricky part was figuring out exactly what the reward was for. I knew that making players finish where they started would be rather harsh, but I couldn't see any harm in rewarding it. If that sounds like gobbledygook to you, imagine how my colleagues feel when I start talking about board games. When work colleagues asked about the game I was traveling to Paris for, I told them it was like " The Traveling Salesman Problem", but you didn't have to finish where you started. It took only a week to pick the source map – search for "1909 India railway map" and, if you're feeling lucky, you may find the one I used – and by then I knew what my rules tweak would be. The winner was going to be based on a real map and it'd better be steam trains, which means pre-WWI.
#Ticket to ride india license#
In particular, David pointed me to a post on BrettSpiel in which Brett Gilbert had set out the thematic core of the license in a beautifully simple way and left me with no doubt. A chat with my regular design group ( David Brain, Sebastian Bleasdale and Paul Mansfield) edged me away from setting the map on The (Alan) Moon and towards India. The problem with shelving decisions is that they rarely get any easier down the line – but thankfully that wasn't to be a concern this time. If I could come up with a good idea quickly, I'd put my all into developing it if not, I'd walk away and let my ideas rot on the design shelf. There was some serious catching up to do! The deadline was a matter of weeks away and, unlike some, I'd be starting from scratch. I couldn't imagine many contestants with that kind of edge.
I've been designing games for years, and competing in the Ticket to Ride world championships, from the regional qualifiers to the Paris final, gave me a great insight into the license and its community. Angus Abranson was sharing news of a contest – $10,000 for designing a new Ticket to Ride map – and that sounded right up my street.
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