Welcome, devotees! The celestial gaze of the Great Inky One falls upon you; do you have what it takes to be the most dedicated follower?
Cosmoctopus is an engine-building, tentacle-gathering board game for 1 to 4 devotees. Guide Cosmoctopus through the Inky Realm, a flexible configuration of tiles, to gather resources and obtain powerful cards that represent relics, scripture, hallucinations and constellations. Harness the power of these bizarre objects and experiences, craft potent card combinations and be the first to gain 8 tentacles to win!
Your turns are simple; the game’s excitement and depth lie in working out how best to use an ever-powerful hand of cards. Unlike some other engine-builders, you’ll be straight into the fun, upgrading your engine from turn one. With variable setup, easy ways to alter difficulty and optional solo and co-operative modes, Cosmoctopus offers a versatile tabletop experience, whatever your gaming tastes.
—description from the publisher
- cute and easy to teach
- simple core rules
- family-friendly potential
- transparent victory condition (8 tentacles) and straightforward endgame
- engaging combination of card drafting and engine-building
- engine balance can lead to a head start being hard to overcome, potentially causing anticlimactic play
- core gameplay loop may feel average after multiple plays
- pacing and engagement may wane for some players over time
- cosmic horror whimsy; tentacled extraction and tentacle-based victory mechanics
- A cosmic, tentacled deity theme with a board of tiles and a central Cosmoctopus figure
- abstract, engine-building with card drafting and tile placement
- Century Golem
- It's a Wonderful World
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card drafting — Draft face-up cards (relics, scriptures, hallucinations, constellations) to gain ongoing powers or discounts.
- constellations and resource placement — Constellation cards hold multiple resource bonuses; placing matching resources progresses bonuses on the card.
- endgame tentacle collection — Accumulate tentacles through card effects; the first to eight tentacles triggers the win condition.
- engine-building — Combine card types to create ongoing discounts, resources, events, and victory point generation.
- hallucination and event cards — Hallucination cards are typically one-off events; some allow immediate extra plays or effects.
- Resource management and spending — Spend colored resources to pay card costs; gray costs are wild and can be paid with any resource.
- rotation gaze end-of-turn — At the end of a player's turn, rotate the Cosmoctopus to face the next player, impacting subsequent actions.
- special tiles with unique powers — Each game includes four special tiles, each granting a unique power to influence the engine or scoring.
- tile movement and placement — Move the Cosmoctopus to adjacent tiles (no diagonals) and gain space benefits; a resource may grant an extra move.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- cosmoctopus is a cute and easy to teach game with very simple core rules and a gameplay Loop that should be very easy to pick up
- the best thing about this game is at the end of your turn you must rotate cosmoctopus so its gaze falls on the next player
- you move the cosmoctopus around, pick up cards and resources and play them to get ongoing discounts, events or victory points
- it's a pretty straightforward game and despite the moderately spooky theme I think this would be fine for a family game night as well
- if someone gets a good start and gets your engine going there isn't really much you can do about catching them