In Front of the Elevators (エレベータ前で) is a card game in which you compete to get more of your family members in the front of the elevator line at the department store than other players can.
Today, the whole family has come out to do some shopping at the department store, but there's a crowd in front of the elevators. Can we make it to our favorite floors? Moms cut in after dads, Grandpas butt in in front of girls, everyone is skipping in line. When three friends find each other, they head to the café instead. Can your family squeeze into the crowded elevator?
Your goal is to help your family members get onto the next elevator, which can hold only a few more people. You score points for each of your family members who get on. All family members have a "Cut In Line" ability or a "Lost Child" ability. Use those abilities well to cut your way to the front of the elevator line, and squeeze into the elevator, just before the doors close. If they get on the elevator that goes to their favorite floor, you get double points. The game is played over three rounds, and scoring takes place at the end of each round. Players total their round scores to find a winner.
- creative queueing concept
- distinct card abilities are restrained and thematic
- depth and strategic richness feel limited
- can be frustrating when decisions feel obvious or stalling
- queue simulation for elevator lines
- mechanistic
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- mutual/delayed draw — Cards you pick up come from shared or mutual pools; you don't know exact cards you are taking.
- queueing with cards — Three queues of cards with unique abilities; you aim to place cards to optimize elevator priority.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I hate trick taking. I don't like it at all.
- this is one of the only occasions where my pure disliking of the game brings it down rather than the actual quality of the design.
- I did not like this game at all, so I was quite shocked why his name was on the box because I thought it was a pretty bad design.
- It's extremely tactical. And not only that, it seems like the first half of the game, you're just kind of doing things for the sake of it because you do not know how these cues are going to work out.
References (from this video)
- Sashi's design quality tends to be solid
- queue/line-based mechanism
- sandbox/strategy
- Guillotine
- Beasty Bar
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- queuing — queue-based action economy reminiscent of Guillotine/Beasty Bar
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I really like Feld's AA line of games much more than the Queen collection
- this is a new Feld design, not a reworking or anything like that
- two-player only kind of cat and mouse bluffing game
- I'm quietly optimistic about Mindbug
- roll and write, OG roll and write
- I don't like tricktaking