Helsinki Life

Raitiovaunulla halki elämän · A tram ride through a life

A pass-and-play board game for 2 to 4 players, played on a toy model of Helsinki. You land at Helsinki-Vantaa with 10 000 euros and a tram of your own colour. Spin the wheel, ride south through Pasila, Töölö, the centre and the south shore, and make a life on the way: a job or a degree, a flat in Töölö, a wedding on the steps of the Cathedral, children at the Market Square, and the ferry out to Suomenlinna at the end of it.

The Konduktööri reads every card aloud as you go, and every line is on screen as well.

How to play

One device, passed around. Each player takes a turn in colour order, and a full game runs about ten minutes.

1. Spin. The wheel gives you 1 to 10. Your tram runs that many stops down the line.
2. Ride. You are paid every time you pass or land on a payday tile, so a long spin can be worth more than a short one.
3. Stop. Some tiles halt you whatever you spun: a career, a home, the wedding, the family, the last stop. Others hand you a card: a Vappu picnic, black ice on Kaisaniemenkatu, a gull at the Kauppatori, karaoke in Kallio.
4. Choose. At Pasila station the line forks: take a job now, or study in Kumpula and pay tuition for the better careers later. In Töölö you can buy a home, which sells back to you at the end.
5. Finish. When the last tram reaches Suomenlinna, everyone is ranked on money plus onni (happiness), and onni is worth 10 000 euros a point. The richest player does not always win.

Controls

Mouse and keyboard, touch and a controller all work, and you can switch between them in the middle of a game.

Mouse and keyboard. Click any button, row or card. Space or Enter to spin, confirm and dismiss. Arrow keys move the highlight. Esc or P pauses, Backspace or X goes back, Tab or M opens the whole-city map, WASD pans it and the mouse wheel zooms.

Touch. Tap any button, row or card. The big green button spins, confirms and dismisses; the pips in the top corner are pause and the map; drag to pan.

Controller. A spins and confirms, B goes back, Y opens the map, Start pauses. The left stick moves the highlight, the right stick pans the map and the triggers zoom it.

The route

Pasila · Linnanmäki · Kallio · Töölönlahti · Olympiastadion · Sibelius · Temppeliaukio · Finlandia · Oodi · Rautatieasema · Kamppi · Esplanadi · Senaatintori · Kauppatori · Uspenski · Kaivopuisto · Eira · Suomenlinna

With a branch north-east through Kumpula for anyone who studies.

What to look at

The board is the peninsula itself, built as a miniature: cream stucco and copper-green roofs, HKL green trams, the sea on three sides and Töölönlahti in the middle, under a long late-afternoon sun. The camera rides with whoever is moving, so the landmarks come past at tram height: the Olympic Stadium tower, Temppeliaukio, the Cathedral's green domes above Senate Square with Uspenski beside it, and finally the crossing to the bastions of Suomenlinna.

Press Tab at any point to pull back to the whole city and see where everyone's tram has got to.