Got it Backwards

For this year's Creative 12x12 Challenge we have to celebrate a holiday each month by playing a game. Turns out today is Backwards Day, which sounds like something I can get into. It's a celebration of my life, basically.

Years ago I played the print & play version of Mini Rogue backwards. That was very silly and not something I felt like doing ever again, but enough time has passed. And perhaps it was a problem with the type of game. I decided to have a go at New York Zoo this time, filling the board during set up, then playing as the Animal Liberation Front and taking all actions backwards during the game. I would have two rounds, just like in the normal solo game, but this time to empty all cages.

During the first round I did everything backwards, including removing empty enclosures and attractions, but that got way too confusing. So I restored the buildings halfway my play and decided to go for a more thematic experience. Just freeing the animals would be an noble goal in itself, no need to wreck destruction.

But now I had a new problem: the backwards game became way too easy. According to the solo rules you can always just go to the next spot to gain new animals - which in my case meant release old animals. So I decided I had to use the normal tiles for movement (0 - 4+) as well each round. And I could not use spots for removing one animal of choice instead of the depicted ones.

So the emptier my zoo got, the more restricted the action fields became that I could pick. In the second round I really needed to use those movement tiles in the exact right order to free all animals. I managed though, so this first session showed that a lot of development is needed to turn this into a viable variant.

Thematically, playing New York Zoo backwards is a very satisfying experience. But gameplay is too easy, just like I discovered with Mini Rogue, so I can't recommend it. After playing two wildly different games now I think it's obvious not enough playtesting effort goes into doing things backwards. Perhaps it's time for the industry to take note.