Just a quick post about a really cool board game I spent a good chunk of yesterday playing solitaire. It’s called SpaceCorp, published by GMT Games.

SpaceCorp: 2025-2300 AD is a fast-playing board game in which one to four players explore and develop outer space over three eras. Each player controls an Earth-based enterprise seeking profit by driving the expansion of humanity into the Solar System and beyond.

I had a lot of fun with this, playing through the three eras, which felt a lot like three mini-games that inter-linked. The mechanisms of play are very simple but leverage a great deal of intriguing details and choices. It’s easy to learn but filled with complex decision points.

The box is packed with great-quality parts – 3x heavy-stock boards, high-quality cards, thick counters, and a well-written set of rules and reference sheets. It’s a good example of well-crafted design and very pleasant to use.

The game also got me thinking deeply about what space exploration is really all about and how it might be tackled by corporations. There’s lots of speculative stuff in there too, such as alien species and possible breakthroughs in technology. Overall, it was fascinating to play through and appears to have a high-degree of replay value. Top stuff!

Game on!