Darwin's Journey is live (Tracing Darwin's steps)
Update: Darwin's Journey is live on Kickstarter and the campaign will run for 23 days. You may pledge for either the standard or the Deluxe edition.
Unfortunately, there is no information on the solo mode (yet).
Our preview post below was published on January 3.
Darwin's Journey is a 1-4 player worker placement game in which you recreate the travels of Charles Darwin in the Galapagos islands that led to his development of the theory of evolution. It will launch on Kickstarter on January 5.
The game takes place over five rounds, and each round has four phases: the Action phase, the Turn Order, the Reward, and the Cleanup. In the Action phase, players send their workers to various spots on the board in order to perform the actions shown. Each worker is assigned a certain number of wax seals, and they can only be placed on locations of the same colour as the seals they have. Some of these action spots allow players to: Purchase seals, Navigate their ship along the ocean track, and Explore along an island track. If a worker or a ship lands on a specimen spot, the player marks that specimen on their personal board.
Players may also gather stamps which will eventually unlock 'correspondence' actions, and also deliver the specimens they found to the museum. The museum delivery will get them coins and advancement in the evolution theory track. When the Action phase is completed, the Turn Order is arranged depending on the position of the workers. Then, a player gains Rewards if they have the majority in correspondence stamps, and also from the Beagle ship position on the ocean track. During Cleanup, players take back their workers and reset spots where necessary. At the end of the fifth round, everyone proceeds to scoring their VPs. Solo rules have not been revealed yet.
Speakin' of Darwin, On the Origin of the Species has an unofficial Solo Variant.
Good point, JW, about game-play being added late (in our case, the ever-important Solo Variant), and therefore not getting play-tested as much as the core game. I hadn't thought about that. Drat, another additive to complicate my "Should I buy it?" decision-making process. :^) Thanks for sifting through a bunch of Comments to find that info.
P.S. Over 800% funded now.
Took me long enough, but I finally found this in the comments section: "Solo mode hasn't been finished yet, but they said on Twitch stream tonight that as soon as they have it they will show it." Personally, I'm not that fond of adding gameplay late in the development process. Of course, we just don't know anything, but it always makes me fear it won't be playtested as much as the rest of the game.
Ah, crap, it's only January 5th and I now have two (this and Underwater Cities) new games on my Wish List. It's already well over 600% funded, as of this writing. Looks as if many others are interested, as well.