Darwinauts, designed by Chris Bryan (co-creator of the Board With Life web series, and designer of Favelas and Dragon Ball Z: Perfect Cell), is a light-to-medium weight Euro-style game of tile-laying, worker placement, set collection, and action selection.
During the course of the game, a player takes 2 actions on their turn, selecting from 5 possible actions; place an explorer, place a tile, replenish tiles and remove explorers, discover a species, and record a species. Whenever recording a species, a player immediately takes one of 5 possible bonus actions that allow the player to set themselves up for future turns or alter the landscape. Players continue to take turns until The Rift Tile is revealed, making the portal to the new world unstable. Once The Rift begins, players add an additional phase to their turns, taking part in dismantling the landscape they have opened up for exploration. The game comes to a close as they race to complete their tasks and return home. When the game ends, players receive prestige points for their recorded species and bonuses are earned for specializing in specific sets of species. The Darwinaut with the most points will win the game and go down in history as a pioneer in this new age of discovery.
Darwinauts is a game for 2-4 players, ages 13 and up and plays in 45 minutes.The visual world of Darwinauts was brought to life by legendary artist, Vincent Dutrait (Elysium, Lewis and Clark, New York: 1901, Rise of Augustus) who painstakingly crafted the various species by hand using the medium of oil pastels. Graphic design assistance is provided by Darryl T. Jones (Into the Black Forest, Dobbers: Quest for the Key).
The game is set for a Kickstarter campaign launching in Spring of 2019, aiming for a Fall 2019 release.
Darwinauts is being published by Green Couch Games. Green Couch Games was founded by Jason Kotarski to release great little games that make great big connections. Darwinauts will be Green Couch Games’ 13th release and second project in their larger format box.