Thanks, BeautifulShy. I didn't get into modern board games until I graduated college and my life started settling down a bit (relatively—now I have a toddler, ha...). And now years after that, here I am designing my own. :3
Really, this is sort of an ode to Nintendo's influence on my game design philosophy. I took inspiration from a lot of Nintendo games, in that I want even the little things you do in the game to just be fun/satisfying in addition to the broader game as a whole being fun. These little things shouldn't just be a means to an end. Sure, Mario doing his triple jump can get you to new places, but it's also just plain fun and satisfying to pull off. Riding Epona through Hyrule field full-speed can get you places faster, but it's awesome on its own. In PoP:SoT I still remember the thrill of wall-running for the first time. I want the game to get out of your way and just let you have fun in its world. Nintendo is, in my mind, the master of that in video games (h/t Miyamoto).