Ticket to Ride studio teams up with Deep Blue creators for racing board game
Pedal to the Metal!
The publisher behind Ticket to Ride, Days of Wonder, has revealed that it’s releasing a new racing board game.
Entitled Heat: Pedal to the Metal, the upcoming board game will support one to six players as they compete in a series of high-speed car races. In a multiplayer game, Heat has players directly competing with each other as they attempt to steer their vehicles around the tracks and maintain speed, aiming to be the first to pass the finish line. However, players will also have to be careful not to overheat their car engines or swerve off the track if they want to finish the race in one piece.
The game itself is played through hand management, with players using their respective hands of cards to make decisions on how they choose to handle their car on each turn. Pushing their vehicle will enable them to potentially pull ahead of the competition but may have an adverse effect on their car or how well they’ll be able to handle the next turn. Players can upgrade their cars to improve in ways such as better coping with overheating or with taking corners.
A group of players can tackle a single race or can take on an entire championship of races, with each race presenting fresh challenges like varying weather or road conditions, as well as potential events that might occur throughout the race. Whichever player manages to obtain top billing in the most races with hold up the winner’s trophy by the end of the championship.
Besides the multiplayer mode, Heat also features a solo game mode wherein players apply the Legends Module – which adds a roster of AI, artificial intelligence, opponents for them to race against. Groups can use the Legends Module in their games if they want to have more vehicles on the track and a greater challenge.
Heat: Pedal to the Metal was co-designed by Asger Harding Garnerud – the creator of bike racing game Flamme Rouge - and Daniel Skjold Pedersen, who have both worked together on Deep Blue, an underwater exploration game, and the family board game Copenhagen.
Apart from Heat: Pedal to the Metal and Ticket to Ride, Days of Wonder is also the studio behind the Small World series of tabletop games.
Heat: Pedal to the Metal is set to be released during the Essen Spiel convention - the largest tabletop gaming convention in the world – in October at a retail price of $75 (£61).