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Since I’ve had maps on the mind, I figured I’d talk through it more from a graphics and usability standpoint! We’ve not gone through usability testing for written components (mainly the rulebook) yet, however there is heavy consideration of component usability throughout the development process of our games.

A large concern that I had as the maps had gone through different iterations was the clarity of all the information we were trying to convey. Even without the art, the voice in the back of my mind was saying, “There’s so much green inherently in a backyard. How do we make these tiles colorblind friendly?”

Talking through it with our artist, Kyle Armstrong, and our graphic designer, Jody Henning, we were met with a few options.

So, how do you win?

It’s a weirdly complicated question. A pure race where the first player to cross the finish line always wins is very true to real-life races, but in a multiplayer game, players quickly get disengaged as they slide into last place with no hope of catching up. So how do you balance a very strong reward for winning, while finding adequate and balanced ways to reward other forms of good play?

Hi everyone! I’m Andrea Francisco, lead developer on Kart. Just wanted to introduce myself and share a little history of the development and development process of Kart’s maps.

Very early on, the game started off with traditional hexes on a path that wound through the streets and backyards of a neighborhood. 

Early January 2026, Nick Brachmann told me about a game concept that had been tossed around a while ago of a Fort inspired racing game. Something with scrappy kids, card based propulsion, customizable karts, and a crowd to impress. The next day I had a very ugly prototype on the table. At the time, I joked that it would be incredibly funny if this game somehow became our 2027 Gen Con release. Who knew where things would end up!