I'm with Tom, but I'd take it a step further. The whole board seems superfluous. I'd make a draft using only the bones and cards, and award fixed points for Height/Ferocity/Etc. That would be a leaner game, while still unique. EDIT: "away" into "award".
Picked it up at Gen Con ! Slightly heavy for my 6 year old - agreed on the rules clarifications. but I like it alot. We can wait till my son and I grow into it.
It seems to me the aesthetics of this game could have been and should have been a lot better. The wooden multi-color "bone" pieces could have been plastic pieces shaped like bones and colored more earth-tones, shades of brown and grey such that it really looks like you're finding bones and assembling them. If it had that, it'd be pretty awesome. I guess you could bling out your game by making something better, but as it is, it's pretty meh as far as I am concerned. It needs someone with a 3D printer to bling it out, or maybe find something you could pick up at Toys-R-Us that would do it.
What exactly does "shaped like bones" mean? Every bone in an animal's body is shaped differently. Are you thinking like the typical 'dog bone' shape with bulbous ends? That would just look weird... I thin they reached a happy medium by just dealing with simple Catan-style colored sticks. And while having earth-tones would be a bit more thematic, I like what they did here - having a bunch of shades of brown/yellow/grey (that's pretty much the only colours fossils are found in) wouldn't really be the most visually attractive game, not to mention the difficulty for colourblind individuals.
***** Well, the game does have some variation in the pieces, some might look like dog bones, but others like jawbones or spinal columns or whatever works in the context of the piece. Though actually, "dog bones" don't look like that, only cartoon dog bones do. But whatever, still better than colored sticks.
But having variations in the pieces would make refilling the board & the dynamite action (drawing 3 bones out of bag) a lot easier due to difference in texture. The idea of cartoon dog bones sounds good on paper, but I imagine they'd be weird when used to form the head & blue 'accessory pieces'. I can see your point of colored sticks being boring, but I too think that they make the most sense in terms of both aesthetics & functionality.
So, if you include this with the archaeology-themed games, what's the best game where you go out and collect stuff and bring it back to your "museum" for points?
Thanks for the review Tom - I'm really excited to get this one in the mail after backing it on KS! Nice to see positive reviews on it from the likes of you and the folks at SUSD.
I'm with Tom, but I'd take it a step further. The whole board seems superfluous.
I'd make a draft using only the bones and cards, and award fixed points for Height/Ferocity/Etc. That would be a leaner game, while still unique.
EDIT: "away" into "award".
Ah yes the ole scientific process: to keep searching for "facts" until your hypothesis is proven
Picked it up at Gen Con ! Slightly heavy for my 6 year old - agreed on the rules clarifications. but I like it alot. We can wait till my son and I grow into it.
The art really is great. I believe it is by the same wife/husband duel that did Steampunk Rally: Lina Cossette and David Forest.
Yay! I backed a good Kickstarter!
wish it got the seal of excellence, really like this game. I agree with pretty much all the points Tom made.
It seems to me the aesthetics of this game could have been and should have been a lot better. The wooden multi-color "bone" pieces could have been plastic pieces shaped like bones and colored more earth-tones, shades of brown and grey such that it really looks like you're finding bones and assembling them. If it had that, it'd be pretty awesome. I guess you could bling out your game by making something better, but as it is, it's pretty meh as far as I am concerned. It needs someone with a 3D printer to bling it out, or maybe find something you could pick up at Toys-R-Us that would do it.
What exactly does "shaped like bones" mean? Every bone in an animal's body is shaped differently. Are you thinking like the typical 'dog bone' shape with bulbous ends? That would just look weird... I thin they reached a happy medium by just dealing with simple Catan-style colored sticks.
And while having earth-tones would be a bit more thematic, I like what they did here - having a bunch of shades of brown/yellow/grey (that's pretty much the only colours fossils are found in) wouldn't really be the most visually attractive game, not to mention the difficulty for colourblind individuals.
***** Well, the game does have some variation in the pieces, some might look like dog bones, but others like jawbones or spinal columns or whatever works in the context of the piece. Though actually, "dog bones" don't look like that, only cartoon dog bones do. But whatever, still better than colored sticks.
But having variations in the pieces would make refilling the board & the dynamite action (drawing 3 bones out of bag) a lot easier due to difference in texture. The idea of cartoon dog bones sounds good on paper, but I imagine they'd be weird when used to form the head & blue 'accessory pieces'.
I can see your point of colored sticks being boring, but I too think that they make the most sense in terms of both aesthetics & functionality.
Board reminded me of Gold West a bit.
That's what I thought. And that's another game I want to have!
So, if you include this with the archaeology-themed games, what's the best game where you go out and collect stuff and bring it back to your "museum" for points?
Hi Tom, what is wrong with the sound in your videos. The last couple of weeks of your vids have been squew-if.
Thanks for the review Tom - I'm really excited to get this one in the mail after backing it on KS! Nice to see positive reviews on it from the likes of you and the folks at SUSD.
Sounds like fun! Thanks for another great review Tom!
Thanks so much for the review!
Wiggle woom
Wiggle womb