Hi Stephen!
First of all, I’d like to apologize. I haven’t had the time I expected to have to leave a meaningful comment on your entry.
Please know, however, that I have read, enjoyed and rated your work and as soon as I have a little more time I will put my thoughts down better and write another comment in place of this one (delete and re-post). It may be a “Very good! I liked it!” and that’s it, but I need to spend a little more time on it.
I’ll be back.

Thanks for your work!
(and also sorry for this placeholder comment :D)

Cosmic spore is a competitive sci-fi-themed boardgame about harvesting resources on a spore-infected planet and, by doing so, winning the game.

How well the game fits with the theme and goal of the jam

We can clearly say that the game fist 100% the theme and goals of the jam.

How strongly maps are integrated into the game’s design

The planet’s hemispheres, which represent the two rounds of the game and are made by 27 cards each, are the basic and

How elegant the game’s design is

We greatly appreciated the short but clear and essential rulebook.

How captivating the tone, feel and style of the game are

The color of Cosmic Spores is quite captivating. Obviously it’s not fundamental for a boardgame experience but it makes for a great visual presentation if the author is up to refine it.

How easy to understand and use the game’s rules are

The game is streamlined, easy to understand with all the handouts at hand.

Conclusions

We would love to see this game developed to a further stage. As occasional boardgames we cannot quite grasp the quality and the potential of Cosmic Spores but we found it quite enjoyable and that’s enough for us. We can’t wait to try it out in the near future!

Good luck with the jam!

Kobold In a Box

Hi!

As a boardgamer, I really liked to see one in the jam.

Firstly, i want to say that the precision and clarity in the rules is something you really done well, although I must say that probably boardgame designers are more used to be clear, because boardgamers like me are really picky on the rules while going for the win.

You integrated well the theme and the map in your design, even if it  feels to me to be an abstract or "german" boardgame. They are not usually my cup of tea, but I can see when the gears are well made.

The design is quite elegant, as I would expect, the only flaw I can see (i mean, for my taste) is to calculate all at the end with the multipliers.

It seems to me quite mechanical and invisibile until the end of the game ( usually in this kind of game without direct interation the score is public, i think), i would have preferred something like scythe where these multipliers are well shown.

Apart from that, I really like how the mechanics fits together! Thank you for your game and good work!

Hi!

I've started reading your game (thank you for answering me about the map, I didn't reply cause I was really late with my project and I had to concentrate on it) and I think it's an amazing way to use the jam design goal. I'm wondering if you created a tabletopsimulator prototype and if you are planning any playtest soon. I'll gladly try the game before rating it but I'm not sure I can print all the materials, is there a digital prototype available?

Anyway, first look the design looks good and coherent with the theme, I hope to explore it better asap because I think it's very difficult rating a boardgame without trying it :D.

Hi Let-off-studios,

I've seen your gameplay youtube video. Great idea both! The game and the gameplay video :)

Your game seems really interesting and the theme of the Mapemunde 2021 fits well in your design.
Usually I'm not a tabletop player, I prefer rpg games but I've appreciate the sci-fi background, the simple rules and the mechanics.

I liked a lot the world representation with cards.

Like I wrote before I'm not a tabletop player and for me isn't easy imagine how the game could work without playing it, but probably in a couple of play I think learn all the rules should be easy.

Thank you to share your game with us.

Interesting prototype! Things I would be interested to see in further revisions/versions:

- differences in the element tracks (frequency of upgrades, ways in which they give you points, etc). Mainly increasing the frequency of upgrades for the culture track, given the fact that it doesn't multiply at the end.
- double sided cards with elements on both sides (that could be done by either rotating the cards 90° when harvested or having them collapse in a predetermined way when other cards are harvested and removed).
- variable player powers and/or skill trees (eg. more ways to manipulate cards like swapping or destroying, ways to manipulate the position of the other players, ways to slow down their ship or harvesting, etc...). Also you could explore the use of cosmic spores to upgrade the motherships (in a very Metroid-inspired fashion).

Again, very nice effort ;D