When I first played Christopher Chung's Lanterns: The Harvest Festival, it was still an unsigned prototype. I'd agreed to join a playtest after receiving an unexpected invitation from Randy Hoyt of Foxtrot Games. The game’s appearance was unassuming: simple stock colors on square tiles and several colors of cubes. A tile placement game. I continued to help playtest off and on, and almost exactly six months after that first play through of Lanterns, I began work on the graphic design — another unexpected opportunity. Beth Sobel, recognized for her beautiful work on Viticulture, had already completed the life-giving illustrations, and I jumped at the chance to continue to be involved.

Maybe, given my history with Lanterns, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that, a year later, the concept for an expansion blossomed in my mind. It was an unusual situation, since I hadn't designed the base game, but Randy and Chris agreed to consider a submission. And that began the process of what would become Lanterns: The Emperor's Gifts.

The main goal was straight forward, but challenging: the expansion needed to honor the simplicity of the base game while also providing a fresh experience. Plus, the theme had to build on the story of the harvest festival. Lanterns has an elegance to it — what could add to the experience without taking away from what people love about it?

In the base game, players lay tiles on the board and are rewarded with lantern cards based on the orientation of the tile. The board grows slowly as the game progresses. For the expansion, I wanted to explore options that could change how people assessed their tile placements. Instead of feeling that there was one optimal choice each turn, I wanted to give players more compelling options.

Favor tokens in the base game allow players to exchange lantern cards for a different color. This helps players collect the right sets even if the tiles don’t allow for the correct combinations. They weren’t originally in the game, but proved to be the perfect balance to the clever everyone-gets-a-card mechanic that drives Lanterns. However, favor tokens can be scarce or in abundance. We wanted to offer players an outlet for extra tokens without punishing them when they were scant. Adding additional currency that’s easier for players to control was the solution. Thus 'gift tokens' were born.

Gift tokens represent gifts from the emperor, himself. Two gifts can be turned in to activate a powerful, unique ability. We developed new abilities that provided unique ways to dedicate, gain lantern cards, and earn victory points. The abilities proved to be fun and engaging; they created a new layer and pacing to the game. But, as extensive testing revealed, implementing these abilities wasn’t a walk in the park.

We tried multiple different ways to integrate the acquisition of gifts into the tile placement step before deciding on ‘Pavilions’. These small buildings are added to tiles during placement. Whenever a player places a tile next to a Pavilion, they gain a gift. Each new ability is incorporated into the existing steps, resulting in a natural flow of play.

Finally, after several intense months of development, Lanterns: The Emperor's Gifts was nearing completion. The fresh choices I had hoped to add as the board grew in size became a reality through the Pavilions. And the new abilities were implemented through the use of gift tokens, bringing variety to the base game. Many abilities were designed, tested, and refined, and in the end landed on five abilities that we loved. Each ability allows players to do something we had seen fans yearn to do while playing of the base game. Providing outlets for extra favor tokens, rotating tiles, and dedicating at the end of the turn are all popular elements during gameplay. The new abilities give players access to these actions and more, but at the cost of gift tokens. Each game, players choose only two of the five special abilities, keeping the experience fresh for experienced and newer players.

Lanterns: The Emperor's Gifts is available in participating hobby game retailers and will release nationwide in January 2017. So many people helped make this expansion possible, and great care was taken to respect the atmosphere and simplicity of the base game. I speak for everyone involved when I say that I hope it deepens your experience and enjoyment of Lanterns. And may it help, in a small way, to bring you closer to those you enjoy it with.

Jason D. Kingsley is a freelance graphic designer and game designer who has worked on countless game projects, including Lanterns: The Harvest Festival and World's Fair 1893 from Foxtrot Games and Renegade Game Studios. He lives in northwest Arkansas with his wife and five children.