‘Photo Tour’ is an Upcoming Travel Photography-Themed Board Game
An upcoming board game the turns players into travel photographers is taking off on Kickstarter.
Photo Tour: North America is a tabletop strategy board game for one to five players who collect photos landmarks in the United States and Canada. These photos also come with bonuses to help players in the game, and the cards feature hand-drawn artwork and information about the places they depict.
Creator Eugene Timashov’s Kickstarter for the game says Photo Tour, especially when played with the basic rules, works for all age levels, so even those who don’t have a ton of strategy board game experience can try it out. Additionally, players can crank the difficulty level with expansions.
Timashov says on the page that Photo Tour’s rules are easy to teach and notes the emphasis on building a journal, which can keep players engaged. There are five travel journals, all of which offer different strategy bonuses. Changing up which to use can also change things up when replaying.
As with many games, players win by getting the most points, which are collected by taking pictures. The photos players take are worth a specific number of points and go into their traveler’s journals. From there, using the right equipment can enhance a photo, boosting the possible total. There are also photo contests, which can give players an edge for completing certain objectives. The game ends when one person fills the journal. That’s when everyone tallies up their points to get their total scores and see who the winner is.
There are 65 photography equipment tokens of five types, including lens, tripod, and film. Players use “Meeples,” figures of photographers on screen-printed wood, to represent their characters and get around based on the results of the transportation dice. A premium components edition, which is a Kickstarter exclusive, upgrades these and other pieces as well.
There are three expansions as well, one of which is a mini expansion, that add new gameplay elements and strategies to win.
Timashov’s Kickstarter page lists a goal of $10,000 CAD, which the campaign has already well exceeded, reaching more than $110,000 CAD. But, the page lists additional stretch goals meant to add details and enhancements as backing increases. For those interested, the main Kickstarter edition of Photo Tour: North America costs $60 CAD (about $45 USD), the version with enhanced components is $89 CAD ($66 USD), and getting the game with premium components and the expansions will run $99 CAD ($74 USD). The campaign continues now through February 23.
Disclaimer: Make sure you do your own research into any crowdfunding project you’re considering backing. While we aim to only share legitimate and trustworthy campaigns, there’s always a real chance that you can lose your money when backing any crowdfunded project.
Image credits: Timashov Publishing
