pattern building

Travel the spectacular 800 mile long Arizona Trail as you take in the sights and sounds of the mountains, canyons, plateaus and deserts seeking out the amazing variety of wildlife such as the Roadrunner and Javelina, while avoiding the Gila Monster. From Saguaro National Park, the Sonoran desert, through the largest Ponderosa pine forest on Earth and into the Grand Canyon, you will interact with the incredible diversity of Terrain, Flora and Fauna found in State 48... aka Arizona.

Players will call upon the legendary Jackalope and Lost Dutchman to aid in their travel. Turn order is determined for each round of travel and actions through a unique movement and observation mechanism. Players will need to acquire an interesting blend of key Natural and Personal resources to obtain advantages and create their own mural of Arizona wonders through efficient placement of polyomino depictions.

After 8 weeks/rounds of travel, the player who builds a reserve of the most Arizona Grit and Superstition Gold is declared ... TRAILBLAZER

-description from publisher

In Spectacular, you are creating and developing your own animal park for vulnerable species. In order to preserve the species, you must ensure breeding within each habitat. Spectacular provides simultaneous play and ensures interaction between the players, as your opponents’ decisions will affect which tiles and dice are available for you. The game also comes with asymmetric player boards (on their backs).

During the game, you select animal tiles and dice, where the dice represent food for the animals. The color of the dice must match the habitat color of the animal tiles. Each turn provides crucial decision-making where you need to consider whether to draft a die of a certain value or ensure an animal tile which may not be available again.

At game end, for each area of connected tiles of the same habitat, you score points for the sum of your dice of that color. However, points are only awarded if dice values of 1 or 2 are placed on certain “family” tiles within the habitat! Over the course of the game, you will also build watchtowers, which will score you points for all three dice adjacent to them. To make your park even more spectacular, you also aim to collect as many different species as possible, with increasing points awarded for greater variety. Finally, the player with the most points wins the game.

After a few plays, you may challenge yourself by playing with three (of 18) mission tiles. While they offer the potential for a higher score, they also raise the difficulty level of the puzzle.

—description from the publisher

Square One is an engine-building strategy game, similar to its predecessor Project L. Its easy-to-learn yet hard-to-master mechanics offer high replayability for the whole family.

In Square One is players match tiles with patterns to pattern cards on the board. Build more patterns and make more combos to earn points. The person who completes all their patterns first, wins the game.

—description from the publisher

Diatoms is a puzzly tile-placement and pattern-making game where players create their own microscopic mosaic, based on an obscure Victorian art form.

Hidden in the water all around us are tiny lifeforms known as “diatoms.” These microscopic algae cells come in a variety of exquisite geometric shapes and patterns. Their outer layer is made with silica, giving them a glass-like quality. Here at the Society for the Microscopic Arts, we collect these diatoms and delicately arrange them on slides into beautiful, tiny mosaics. As part of your induction into the Society, you will each create your own entry for today’s Exhibition of Microscopic Mosaics.

In Diatoms, you compete with your fellow players to collect and place diatom shapes into a mosaic form. You take turns placing tiles representing algae colonies. From that placement you earn diatoms of different colors and shapes. You then strategically place these diatoms on your personal board, taking care to consider how your arrangement will be scored at the end of the game. In the base scoring, you'll want to achieve matching colors, shape variety, and symmetry along your mosaic's central lines. Each time you play, you may also have a "guest" judge card that brings a unique scoring criteria to the game.

Diatoms also includes a solo variant where you collect diatom tiles as in the main game while trying to create a mosaic that fulfills specific requirements from mosaic commission prompts.

—description from publisher

After millennia of sterility, life has sprung again on Rauha. As a venerable Shaman, one of its five worlds has been entrusted to you. Your powers are divine and allow you to shape the environment in order to turn this world into a cradle of life energy, keeper of serenity and harmony for the centuries to come.

Obtain the most victory points, represented as Life Energy, to win the game. You have 2 Ages to turn your world into an energetic core of Rauha. In Age 1, vegetation, terrain, and wildlife will appear. In Age 2, civilizations will thrive.

The game takes place over 4 rounds, each divided into 3 turns followed by a scoring phase. Each turn, you will follow 5 steps:
1. Simultaneously take all Biome cards from the satellite whose symbol matches the one beneath your Avatar on your Player board (moon or star).
2. Choose one card to place on any square of your Player board or discard to the Black Hole.
3. Receive a Divine Entity if you create a row or column of matching symbols on your Player board.
4. Activate your Avatar, plus any Divine Entities in the same row or column as your Avatar.
5. Finally move your Avatar one notch clockwise along the edge of your Player board, changing the row or column that will be activated on the next turn.

During the Scoring Phase, you will activate all your Biomes with Spore tokens and any Divine Entities you may have, gaining crystals and points as shown on the components.

-description from publisher