Park Life: People (2024)

Park Life: People is a trick taking game with set collecting and tableau building about careful timing, profiting from opportunity, and adapting to other player's strategies.

It was a beautiful day in Hawthorn Heath. People were dancing, reading, playing. Suddenly the weather changed. No one was ready… Except for you, a clever merchant. Sell umbrellas when it rains, ice cream when it’s hot, tea and coffee when it’s cold, kites when it's windy, and lanterns when it's foggy. Park Life has 5 weather-based suits.

But customers are savvy, so only the merchant with the last lowest price will make the sale. The lowest value card on suit wins the trick, but it is also is worth fewer points in the end. Additionally, every sale drains your supplies, so you discard extra cards face down when you win a trick.

You can quickly make many small sales, but you’ll go home before others, giving them the opportunity to make dramatic comebacks! But wait too long and others will make some solid sales, ensuring their lead. Park Life: People includes set collecting and wild cards to add new strategies that benefit from going deep into one suit or wide into many small valued cards. The merchant who has made the most money at the end of three rounds wins!

For solo and co-op, there are set point goals needed to win, or play against the automa with rules in the deluxe rule book (you can download the deluxe rules for free below).

As a may-follow trick taking game, you have agency to choose what strategy you want based on the cards dealt to you and the choices of others. This well-balanced hand management and action economy game avoids perfect information and fills Park Life with rich choices.

—description from the publisher

Although very similar to Park Life: Hedgehog, this design isn't just different in aesthetics but also by its deck composition (5 suits numbered 1-7 and the inclusion of wild cards and set collecting cards), by its scoring (done only after 3 rounds), by the lack of card reset after a round and by its winning condition (most points after the third round wins). It is considered a bit less family-friendly and more oriented towards "gamers".