Designers: Adrian Abela, David Chircop (…and then we held hands., Petrichor)

Artist: Panayiotis Lyris (Lap Dance, Souvlaki Wars)

Publisher:  Artipia Games (Among the Stars, Fields of Green, Kitchen Rush, The Pursuit of Happiness)

Genre/Mechanisms: drafting, economic, income, simulation, worker placement

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, The Pursuit of Happiness – Big Box and Nostalgia Expansion is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than 13x the initial funding goal with 2 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About: “The Pursuit of Happiness gets a Big Box, Deluxe components and a brand new Expansion. The Pursuit of Happiness is a game in which you take a character from birth and you live the life you always wanted. Using a worker-placement mechanism with time as your workers, you take on projects, you get jobs, you buy items, you establish relationships, you raise families. The possibilities are endless as you live the life you have always wanted.”

How It Works: The Pursuit of Happiness is played over a series of rounds (as you character slowly ages), with each round comprised of an Upkeep, Action, and End of Round Phase.

During the Upkeep Phase, players refresh the various card markets in the game, including Projects, Items/Activities, Jobs, and Partners. Players must also pay the Upkeep fees on their current tableau of cards; if they are unable to do so, they must discard cards, taking on 1 Stress for each discarded card.

During the Action Phase, players can Study, Play, or Gain (earning them resources like Knowledge, Creativity, and Influence, do Temp Work for money, choose Projects (cards that require resources for rewards and end-game points), Get Jobs, Develop Relationships, Spend (taking cards that require money for rewards and end-game points), Rest, take Card Actions, and even go into Overtime to take additional actions but also result in the player accumulating more Stress. Once players enter old age at the beginning of the 6th round, they can no longer take Overtime, and all players will begin to accumulate additional Stress each round. “Even if someone improves his health, entering the last round of Old Age will give him so much Stress he will probably pass away. In the rare case that a player manages to enter the third Old Age and still be alive, he plays the round as normal and dies at the end of it.”

During the End of Round Phase, players retrieve their Hourglass Workers, gain additional rewards from any Group Projects, and adjust the turn order tracks.

“The Game ends when all players have died. Players then perform the following steps. Inheritance: when you die, you pass on to your loved ones your most valuable experiences and possessions. For every 5 resources of the same type or 5 money that you died with, get 1 Long Term Happiness. Life Goals: check the Life Goals that were drawn at the beginning of the game and apply the LTH bonus to the players that have achieved them. A player may achieve multiple Life Goals, but each Life Goal may only be achieved by one player – if there is a tie, no player gets the bonus. The winner of the game is the player with the most Long Term Happiness (the game’s version of victory points).”

Comparisons: The Pursuit of Happiness is essentially the old “The Game of Life,” as a worker placement Euro. It also bears a lot of similarities with CV and CV Pocket, a pair of card drafting and hand management games that share the theme of taking various characters through their life and their eventual death, almost as a simulator. Village is another worker placement game that has players sending their workers to their deaths, but in the case of Village players follow several generations of characters, not just one, and there are additional mechanics involved in how these workers can ultimately score– so it’s more Eurogame and less simulation.

What Should I Pledge?:
$40 TPoH: Big Box: The Pursuit of Happiness Big Box (which does not include the Core Game), the new Nostalgia Expansion, and all unlocked stretch goals.
$60 TPoH Big Box Deluxe: includes everything in the previous pledge level, plus the Deluxe Components Upgrade Kit.
$130 TPoH: All-In: includes everything in the TPoH: Big Box pledge level, plus the Core Game, the Community Expansion, the Experiences Expansion, and the KS1, KS2, and KS3 Promo Packs.
$150 TPoH: All-In Deluxe: includes everything in the previous pledge level, plus the Deluxe Components Upgrade Kit.

Add-Ons:
$15 Out of This World Mini-Expansion
$15 Thug Life Mini-Expansion
$8 Holiday Pack
$3 Premium Sleeves (50)
$3 Standard Sleeves (100)

KS Exclusives
The only KS Exclusive is a special Promo Pack available in the Pledge Manager. It’s advertised as a set of 20 cards including all single Promo cards ever made (and different from the cards in KS1, KS2, and KS3 Promo Packs). It’s likely the price point for this will be similar to that of the 20-card Holiday Pack (or around an additional $10).

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $150 for the TPoH: All-In Deluxe pledge, $15 for the Out of This World Mini-Expansion, $15 for the Thug Life Mini-Expansion, $8 for the Holiday Pack, $24 for Standard Sleeves (or $48 for Premium Sleeves), and $26 in shipping for a total of $238 (or $262).

The Pursuit of Happiness – Big Box and Nostalgia Expansion completes its Kickstarter on Tuesday, December 4th and tentatively ships in December 2021.