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
In Enchanted Plumes, players strive to complete magical peacocks by assembling plumes in sparkling rows from top to bottom.
Skillfully placing feather cards of the same color from row to row is key, as the top row value will count against your score, while all lower rows count as positive values.
Once the peahen card is revealed, the player with the most valuable plumes wins the game and is bestowed with the luck of the peacock!
—description from the publisher
Northwest a 2-to-4-player tableau-building game with unique point salad scoring and shared movement mechanics. It can be taught in 3 minutes or less and has the right balance of luck and strategy to make it accessible to anyone.
Each turn, the player drafts a memento cube from the main exploration board by moving the shared exploration token onto the cube and adding it to their tableau. The previously captured memento cube sets the next player's available move:
Bees/Honey: next player must move in the L-Shape similar to the Knights from the Chess.
Mushrooms: next player must move into a space in any of the 8 surrounding spaces.
Ferns: next player must move into 1 of 4 orthogonal spaces.
Maples: next player must move into 1 of 4 diagonal spaces.
Bigfoot: next player may move into any space in the same column or row.
In Northwest, your journey is represented by a 4x4 tableau in which you will track memento cubes drafted from the exploration board. Each memento cube scores victory points (VPs) in a unique way. The game ends when a player cannot make a legal move in the exploration board or all players have their personal tableau filled. The player with the most VP wins!
Can you spot bees, mushrooms, foliage, or the ever-elusive Bigfoot? Your next adventure in the Northwest awaits.
—description from the designer.