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Your Town
Ever wondered what it was like to be the mayor of a small town in the wild west? Well here's your chance to find out. You'll build buildings on a map to earn income, create jobs, attract new citizens, and gain a whole host of other benefits (and sometimes consequences) to help you manage the critical aspects of town!
144 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 11, 2018
Many of us can recall the series of “Choose Your Own Adventure” books of yesteryear and being engrossed as the story unfolded and we kept jumping from page to page based on the decisions we made. And while these books were quite enjoyable, there was just “something” lacking in them. With Graphic Novel Adventures, Van Ryder Games presents a “Choose Your Own Adventure” that brings interesting elements to the genre - including graphics and dexterity/resource management mechanisms. Our adventure continues as follows…
Although there are several books within the “Graphic Novel Adventures” series, we will be taking a look at “Your Town”, which apparently was originally printed in French by Makaka Editions.
The hardcover book measures 6” x 8 1/2” with the first and last pages of the book featuring a heavier paper stock. The paper is glossy and of an above average stock and does a good job of preventing the pages from bleeding through. It’s hard to determine how many pages there are, as the pages are numbered by the panels on the page and not the pages themselves. So, unlike other “Choose Your Own Adventure” books that have readers turn to specific page numbers and continue their reading, in this book we are referenced to specific panels to go to and the numbering on the bottom of the page facilitates that. Example: page “090-091-092” is a page that contains three panels: 090, 091 and 092. Though 70+ pages would seem to be right.
The graphic novel uses a limited palette of a few shades of yellowish-brown, blue and white; and this works nicely with the marker renderings of artist “2D”. The art reminded me somewhat of a much looser and cartoony version of Moebius’s “Blueberry” Western series.
The writing by “Shuky” is fitting for the genre, but since this is a graphic novel, the writing takes a bit of a backseat to the graphic elements. Though the dialogue and incidental text-boxes clearly fit the theme of the story.
Unlike other “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, “Your Town” is very much a game driven story. The book uses several mechanisms: dexterity, resource management, inventory management, grid layout and puzzles. These mechanisms are used throughout the adventure and it could be said that the story is secondary to the actual game itself.
In “Your Town” you are the mayor looking to expand your town. You start off with a few buildings and some locals and you will manage your resources and build more structures, while trying to populate your town with more residents and explore the surrounding areas.
Like other “Choose Your Own Adventures” you have a starting point and from there you branch out to other avenues to pursue. Due to the graphical nature of the book, some of the paths to pursue are slightly “camouflaged” and you have to pay attention to each panel, as there could be objects to pickup, such as horseshoes and gold coins.
What makes “Your Town” interesting is the assortment of mechanisms that make for an interesting game, as compared to the adventures offered in other books. Let’s take a look at some of the mechanisms:
The main mechanism is Resource Management. You will be looking to build a financial engine that will help you expand your town. Each building you construct contributes jobs, monthly income, and possibly some other perks. However, there are some buildings that take away from your monthly income, so there is a balancing act in terms of how and when you build certain structures. While many buildings have no requirements to build, there are some that require a specific building or town member, in order to be built.
The spatial/town mechanism is based on the fact that when you build a building it has to be connected to previously constructed buildings and has to have one side facing the street. This will prove to be challenging as you will eventually find yourself running out of room, so you need to plan out how you want to expand in your starting area, as well as how to build in other areas.
The combat system is based on a dexterity mechanism. You are faced with a challenge in which an adversary is present and if you decide to “shoot” them, you will take your pencil and raise it 6 inches and then drop it on the page. If you hit the adversary you are told to go to another panel and if you miss you are told to go to a different panel. While this was an interesting mechanism, it was one that I disliked, as I’m not much of a fan of dexterity games and it didn’t seem to fit with the other mechanisms of the game. Though I could certainly understand others liking it, as it does a decent job of resolving combat.
One of the secondary levels of interest in the game is that of the puzzles. Scattered throughout the book are several puzzles that can be solved for rewards and such. My experience was that they were interesting, but not essential for playing the game. You’ll certainly want to solve them, but if you don’t you aren’t necessarily penalized. On my first run through I didn't solve any of them, but I will certainly be paying more attention to them on my other attempts.
The end of the game is reached when either 12 months have gone by or if you are killed. If the game ends after 12 months you are told to go to a specific page and you then tally your final score based on the criteria presented. After you have your total you will compare it to the list and go to the panel that corresponds to your score.
Overall this was a very enjoyable game/book. Not surprisingly I was a bit clueless as to how to maximum my gameplay, since I didn't know what the scoring was going to be based on, so I just built things to a specific strategy and saw where it took me. I'm happy to say that I lost my first game, as I was a bit concerned that it would be just an easy "walk in the park" and if I stayed alive I would have a decent chance of "winning", whatever that meant. I'm hard-pressed at the moment as to whether I should attempt it again with the same path, or try a new starting point and see if that yields better results. Either way, I'm better prepared for the final scoring and would adjust my strategies accordingly.
My only complaint with the book is that the art style sometimes got in the way of the game play. What I mean by that is that the artist tends to render foliage in spots that look like the number "3" and there were a couple of times where I thought that turning to panel "33" was a "thing", but it wasn't. It could be distracting at times, but not to the point of it being detrimental to the game play.
Van Ryder games makes all of the pages that require writing on them available for download from their site. I highly recommend that you do so, especially the bookmark, as it contains all of the stats needed to track during the game. You will definitely want to play the game multiple times, so writing in the book is not something that you want to be doing.
Well I thought I did a decent job, but the townsfolk didn't agree and I was run out of town… Time to try and stake a claim somewhere else and see if I can do a better job next time...
Although there are several books within the “Graphic Novel Adventures” series, we will be taking a look at “Your Town”, which apparently was originally printed in French by Makaka Editions.
The hardcover book measures 6” x 8 1/2” with the first and last pages of the book featuring a heavier paper stock. The paper is glossy and of an above average stock and does a good job of preventing the pages from bleeding through. It’s hard to determine how many pages there are, as the pages are numbered by the panels on the page and not the pages themselves. So, unlike other “Choose Your Own Adventure” books that have readers turn to specific page numbers and continue their reading, in this book we are referenced to specific panels to go to and the numbering on the bottom of the page facilitates that. Example: page “090-091-092” is a page that contains three panels: 090, 091 and 092. Though 70+ pages would seem to be right.
The graphic novel uses a limited palette of a few shades of yellowish-brown, blue and white; and this works nicely with the marker renderings of artist “2D”. The art reminded me somewhat of a much looser and cartoony version of Moebius’s “Blueberry” Western series.
The writing by “Shuky” is fitting for the genre, but since this is a graphic novel, the writing takes a bit of a backseat to the graphic elements. Though the dialogue and incidental text-boxes clearly fit the theme of the story.
Unlike other “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, “Your Town” is very much a game driven story. The book uses several mechanisms: dexterity, resource management, inventory management, grid layout and puzzles. These mechanisms are used throughout the adventure and it could be said that the story is secondary to the actual game itself.
In “Your Town” you are the mayor looking to expand your town. You start off with a few buildings and some locals and you will manage your resources and build more structures, while trying to populate your town with more residents and explore the surrounding areas.
Like other “Choose Your Own Adventures” you have a starting point and from there you branch out to other avenues to pursue. Due to the graphical nature of the book, some of the paths to pursue are slightly “camouflaged” and you have to pay attention to each panel, as there could be objects to pickup, such as horseshoes and gold coins.
What makes “Your Town” interesting is the assortment of mechanisms that make for an interesting game, as compared to the adventures offered in other books. Let’s take a look at some of the mechanisms:
The main mechanism is Resource Management. You will be looking to build a financial engine that will help you expand your town. Each building you construct contributes jobs, monthly income, and possibly some other perks. However, there are some buildings that take away from your monthly income, so there is a balancing act in terms of how and when you build certain structures. While many buildings have no requirements to build, there are some that require a specific building or town member, in order to be built.
The spatial/town mechanism is based on the fact that when you build a building it has to be connected to previously constructed buildings and has to have one side facing the street. This will prove to be challenging as you will eventually find yourself running out of room, so you need to plan out how you want to expand in your starting area, as well as how to build in other areas.
The combat system is based on a dexterity mechanism. You are faced with a challenge in which an adversary is present and if you decide to “shoot” them, you will take your pencil and raise it 6 inches and then drop it on the page. If you hit the adversary you are told to go to another panel and if you miss you are told to go to a different panel. While this was an interesting mechanism, it was one that I disliked, as I’m not much of a fan of dexterity games and it didn’t seem to fit with the other mechanisms of the game. Though I could certainly understand others liking it, as it does a decent job of resolving combat.
One of the secondary levels of interest in the game is that of the puzzles. Scattered throughout the book are several puzzles that can be solved for rewards and such. My experience was that they were interesting, but not essential for playing the game. You’ll certainly want to solve them, but if you don’t you aren’t necessarily penalized. On my first run through I didn't solve any of them, but I will certainly be paying more attention to them on my other attempts.
The end of the game is reached when either 12 months have gone by or if you are killed. If the game ends after 12 months you are told to go to a specific page and you then tally your final score based on the criteria presented. After you have your total you will compare it to the list and go to the panel that corresponds to your score.
Overall this was a very enjoyable game/book. Not surprisingly I was a bit clueless as to how to maximum my gameplay, since I didn't know what the scoring was going to be based on, so I just built things to a specific strategy and saw where it took me. I'm happy to say that I lost my first game, as I was a bit concerned that it would be just an easy "walk in the park" and if I stayed alive I would have a decent chance of "winning", whatever that meant. I'm hard-pressed at the moment as to whether I should attempt it again with the same path, or try a new starting point and see if that yields better results. Either way, I'm better prepared for the final scoring and would adjust my strategies accordingly.
My only complaint with the book is that the art style sometimes got in the way of the game play. What I mean by that is that the artist tends to render foliage in spots that look like the number "3" and there were a couple of times where I thought that turning to panel "33" was a "thing", but it wasn't. It could be distracting at times, but not to the point of it being detrimental to the game play.
Van Ryder games makes all of the pages that require writing on them available for download from their site. I highly recommend that you do so, especially the bookmark, as it contains all of the stats needed to track during the game. You will definitely want to play the game multiple times, so writing in the book is not something that you want to be doing.
Well I thought I did a decent job, but the townsfolk didn't agree and I was run out of town… Time to try and stake a claim somewhere else and see if I can do a better job next time...
July 3, 2023
MPA ratings: R for violence
July 12, 2025
A rough adventure game book with problematic mechanics. As someone with bifocals, many of the clues and puzzles are fine detailed hidden numbers set in pictures where’s Waldo style. Not a good match.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews