Get ready to build Your Theme Park in this graphic novel adventure! Part game, part book filled with strategy and fun!
How Do You Play Your Theme Park?
Your Theme Park (YTP) is a Graphic Novel Adventures (GNA) book published by Van Ryder Games. Similar to the Choose Your Own Adventure stories, GNAs are beautifully illustrated graphic novels where you’re choices determine the outcome of the story.
You take on the role of a character in the story and decide what to do next to advance the story along. As you advance you will search for hidden numbers in the images and solve various puzzles. There are multiple paths you can take to reach your own ending.
Your Theme Park differs from your traditional Graphic Novel Adventure because it is more of a simulation game. Rather than one large story, YTP has multiple smaller stories. In YTP, you play as kids who received some land and starting funds to build the theme park of their dreams. Over the next 365 days, you will build attractions, hire employees, and visit other theme parks to increase your parks stats, satisfaction, fun, thrill, beauty, variety, and visitors.
Along the way, you will have to manage time, money, and the physical space of your park. The story elements come into play as you visit the different theme parks to learn about new rides you can add to your own park. Each action takes a certain number of days/money to complete. For example: a carousel will set you back $100 and 6 days to build compared to a log ride which requires $1000 and 15 days. At the end of the month or when you run out of money, you will collect income based on your park’s stats. After 12 months, you will score your theme park to see how you scored.
Your Theme Park is designed as a solo player experience. It also offers a multiplayer mode if you and another player each have a copy of the book. Players will play at the same time and the winner is the player with the most points at the end of a year. Multiplayer mode unlocks new optional actions like spying, sabotage, and businesses which can slow down your opponent.
The Story and Art
I love the Illustrations by Gorobei. They are perfectly suited for all ages. His characters are very expressive, and the unique theme park settings are fun to explore. Gorobei is also the artist on the Hocus & Pocus Comic Quest books which we highly recommend.
The story is by Shuky. Since the story isn’t the focus of the book, there is not a large overarching narrative to follow. The author does a great job making fun side stories in each of the different theme parks you can visit with some humorous twists and turns.
Overall, I really enjoyed the art and the bits of story in books and it made visiting other parks my favorite thing to do in the games.
Components
It is a nice hardcover book and the spine and pages have held up to a lot of flipping of the pages as you will do this a lot in the game. The map and stats trackers are printed in the book, but Van Ryder Games also offers free downloads on their website.
We printed out these resources since they were easier to write on, correct any mistakes, and allowed the game to be repayable for everyone in the family. I don’t think it would be an issue to use the sheets provided in the book, but you’ll want to be careful about which pen you use on the glossy pages so your marks don’t smudge.
Our Thoughts
Your Theme Park is a really interesting novel and a great blending of game with story. I love the sense of discovery it delivers while you’re playing through the novel. Compared to other books like this, including GNAs or Choose Your Own Adventures, YTP feels more like a game than a novel, mostly due to the lack of a larger story.
Many of the puzzles and tasks in YTP are tricky. While this makes for a fun challenge, they can be a bit too difficult for a younger player. for players younger than 10, especially those who are new to the GNA experience and want to play independently, we recommend first checking out the Hocus & Pocus Comic Quests or a different GNA aimed at younger audiences such as
In many ways, YTP feels like the analog version of Roller Coaster Tycoon or even the book version of one of our favorite games Meeple Land. If you are in any way a fan of the theme park theme, I think you’ll really enjoy your experience playing YTP.
It can take a while to complete our park. You probably won’t want to sit for 4+ hours and play it in one sitting. It’s something that you’ll spend a few days completing. (It’s also a fun car trip option as well!) YTP is a novel you might want to play more than once. There are lots of areas to find and explore further on subsequent readings.
All in all, Your Theme Park is a fun experience!
Alice’s 9 Year Old Thoughts
“I liked the art. It was really fun and unique from other books in my library. I really enjoy how the artist draws the people in the story. The games in the book were a fun challenge for me. There were lots of different types of puzzles like math problems and riddles that challenged my critical thinking.”
“It was harder to follow than other books and took me a little longer than usual to figure out how the game worked. I at first couldn’t figure out how to get things done like earning money and building attractions. Eventually I figured it out but it was a little frustrating at first.”
“I would recommend Your Theme Park if you want a more challenging Graphic Novel Adventure.”
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A special thank you to our friends at Van Ryder Games for sending us a copy of Your Theme Park for review. As always our thoughts and opinions are our own.
