I often start thinking about the terminal stations of public transportation. I start somewhere in the middle of the map, the twisted ball of colored lines which I may have come to know for a couple of days or years. Familiar names which evoke locations, activities, and, usually, lots of people.
But then the eyes inevitably start following some line, moving outward, eventually passing through zones and settling on the end of the line. What does it feel like to reach the outmost station of the London underground? What would my mindset be if I left Manhattan from Fulton street and emerged into daylight again at Far Rockaway? What is life like in Shenfield? Uxbridge?
(And where to the British find all their exotic place names?)
Turns out, the transportation does not even have to be real to get my mind going. I have been playing Mini metro for a few short sessions, and I can find myself thinking the exact same way when a new outlier station pops up on the map and I connect it to my little network. What is it like there? Is it a desolate overground station? A couple of well-worn platforms served by creaking escalators and a couple of tight-wound staircases? Are there fun coffee places and busy little shops, or are people surprised to find the lone vending machine actually vending?
Then, the next Monday of game time rolls around, and my mind is pulled back to the exciting decisions of how to spend the new allotment of trains, cars, tunnels or lines. Mini metro is a wonderful little puzzler. I look forward to letting my mind wander and wonder a lot more as I unlock all the cities.