Park Life: Hedgehog

Park Life: Hedgehog is a trick taking game about careful timing, profiting from opportunity, and adapting to other player's strategies.

It was a beautiful day in Hawthorn Heath. Hedgehogs 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 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. The player with the most points after everyone is cardless wins the round and flips their bonus point card to a lower value (another catch up mechanism). Win two rounds to win the game.

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.

Although very similar to Park Life: People, this design isn't different in aesthetics but also by its deck composition (5 suits numbered 1-10) by its scoring (done after every round), by the reset of the cards after each round, by its winning condition (2 round wins to win the game). It is considered more family-friendly.