Successes: 

• Experience of the New York life accuracy. There is a well-thought process of defining the most common situations happening in the NYC area (rats, pizza, disruption, delays, etc).
•  It is fun and entertaining. It has a nuanced comic sense by including the rats as the center of attention.
• Visual identity. The game is reminiscent of the MTA’s visual language, and it is easily understandable and recognizable. 
• Tiles mechanics. The idea of creating lines on top of each other with clear tiles seems to be a well-received idea from the players. 

Failures: 

• Complexity of the game. At times, too many elements make the game confusing or slow. 
• Balancing the ways of expenditures vs. earnings. It took various different approaches to come up with a solution that was easy to understand and fun to play with. 
• Too slow at the beginning. Too many elements or rules came into play at the beginning of the game. This also includes the distance between the starting point and the events across the city. 

Lessons learned: 

• More rounds of playtesting. Listening to external players experiencing the game for the first time is valuable. 
• Use more time to balance the mechanics of the game, instead of using such valuable time to think of production of assets. 
• Move forward with what works, and leave aside what doesn’t. Keeping to hard previous ideas, although very good, might limit the potential outcomes and innovative solutions to resolve one particular problem. 

Next steps: 

• Reconsider other elements as a player mat instead of a board, to make it more transportable and fun to carry around. 
• Continue refining the visual elements of the game. There is always room for improvement.  
• Market exploration. Start a marketing research to understand where this game may be positioned. Consideration of production costs and margins.