These dogs need walking in the Bark Avenue board game
Don’t make a dog’s dinner of it.
Fight to become the most successful competitive dog walker in the upcoming board game Bark Avenue.
Set in the Upper Manhattan side of New York City, Bark Avenue challenges one to five players to be named the best professional dog walker the Big Apple has ever seen. In the game, players compete against each other to take on dog jobs, balancing the needs of multiple canines at once as they stroll through the city streets. Each dog has their own unique preferences when it comes to walk-length, activities and bathroom breaks, which players will have to adhere to if they want happy customers.
Every dog job is worth a different amount of money when completed, with the more expensive jobs requiring more attention and care. Each dog also has their own preferences when it comes to interacting with other dogs, with some pups preferring to be around others of a certain size. Along the way, players will have to be prepared to deal with various everyday events that occur on the streets of New York City, challenging their ability to manage their party of pooches.
Players’ trips throughout Upper Manhattan will need to be curated around timing, route and dog combinations, the key being to carefully balance every element in order to maximise efficiency and get the best possible reviews.
Each turn of the family board game starts with players rolling a city or park die – depending on where they’re starting from – before moving their meeple based on the speed of the slowest dog they currently have in their party. When players have moved, they are then able to drop-off or pick-up dogs depending on which neighbourhood they’re currently in, as well as perform unique board actions. Players are able to drop-off their dogs once they’ve taken them out for a set amount of time, with every dog needing a certain length of walk.
When the game ends, players score points based on how many dogs they’ve successfully walked and positive reviews they’ve received, alongside any tips they’ve gotten for completing extras such as taking dogs to their favourite spots. Whichever player has the most points by the end of the game is named the winner.
Bark Avenue was co-created by Mackenzie and Jonathan Jungck and is set to be published by Terradice Games, with this being both the designers’ and the studio’s debut tabletop title.
The Kickstarter campaign for Bark Avenue is live until June 15th, with a pledge of $49 (£39) getting backers a copy of the game in September 2023.