Designers:  Ryan Lambert (Swordcrafters, Truck Off: The Food Truck Frenzy, Truck Off: The Food Truck Frenzy Roll and Write), Adam Rehberg (Brewin’ USA, Swordcrafters, Truck Off: The Food Truck Frenzy Roll and Write)

Artist:  Yoma (Complexcity, Gearworks, Rurik: Dawn of Kiev)

Publisher:  Adam’s Apple Games, LLC (Brewin’ USA, Swordcrafters, Truck Off: The Food Truck Frenzy)

Genre/Mechanisms:  card drafting, city building, network and route building, pattern building, simultaneous action selection, space exploration, territory building, tile placement, variable player powers

Funding Status:  At the time of this posting, Planet Unknown is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than 8x the initial funding goal with 3 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count:  1-6

Solo Mode:  yes

Complexity:  medium-light

Risk:  HIGH

What It’s About:  A polyomino tile placement game where players “build and develop planets, testing their environments in the hope of colonization.”

How It Works:  “Earth has run out of resources.  One to six engineers have been selected to develop an unknown planet to preserve the future of humanity.”

At the beginning of the game, each player takes one of the six double-sided planet boards. Goal cards are placed between each player, so that every player has access to 2 goal cards; during a 2-player game, 3 goal cards are used.

Each round, the first player rotates the central “space station” until their desired Depot is facing them. Then all players choose 1 of the 2 tiles from the Depot in front of them.

“The first tile to be placed on a player’s planet must be touching the perimeter of the planet grid. Subsequent tiles must be orthogonally adjacent (either horizontally or vertically but not diagonally) to at least one other tile already placed. Colors do not need to match. Tiles cannot be placed on top of each other. Tiles may not be placed overlapping or outside the grid on the planet.”

“Each tile placement advances a planet’s tracks based on its two resources. Each track is a unique engine and will unlock victory points, one-time benefits, milestones, and cumulative technologies. Tile placements will continue to trigger objects like meteors that prevent the scoring of end-game victory points. A full row/column is required to score points, and meteors simultaneously block both rows and columns. Clean them up with Rovers before the game ends.”

“The game ends when a player can not legally place any tile from their depot, or when one depot is completely emptied from the space station.” During end game scoring, players score medals (1, 2, or 3 VP, depending on the medal) for every complete row and column, the largest medal covered/passed on each Resource Track, a medal for each Lifepod collected, a medal for every 3 meteors collected, medals for Civ cards, and a 5 VP medal for each goal card “won.” The player with the most VPs wins the game, with ties broken by the player with the least amount of empty spaces on their planet, and then by the player with the least number of meteors.”

Comparisons:  Not including the space/sci-fi theme, this is a polyomino game. The best one out there right now, in my opinion, is The Isle of Cats. Some others include Barenpark, Cottage Garden, A Feast For Odin, Indian Summer, Patchwork, and Spring Meadow.

What Should I Pledge?:
$49 Planet Unknown Retail Edition: a copy of the retail edition of the game with all applicable stretch goals and free shipping.
$69 Planet Unknown Limited Deluxe Edition: a copy of the Limited Deluxe edition of the game with all applicable stretch goals and free shipping. The Limited Deluxe edition includes a custom injected molded lazy Susan (upgraded from the retail edition’s cardboard wheel), triple layer player boards (upgraded from the retail edition’s single layer player boards), premium molded custom plastic bits (upgraded from the retail edition’s wooden components), and a wooden first player token (upgraded from the retail edition’s chipboard first player token). The Limited Deluxe Edition also has an earlier projected delivery date of October 2020.

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives
None listed, although it’s likely the Limited Deluxe Edition and all of its upgraded components will end up being Kickstarter Exclusives.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $69 for the Planet Unknown Limited Deluxe Edition, free shipping included.

Planet Unknown completes its Kickstarter on Friday, May 1st and tentatively ships in January 2021.