Deep Regrets is a game for 1-5 players that runs about 30 minutes per player.
An unfortunate fishing game about pulling progressively more horrifying things out of the ocean.
Decide what to eat, what to sell, what to mount, and how many regrets you're willing to carry, as you push yourself too far and spiral towards a thrilling conclusion in this strategic horror fishing game.
You'll roll bespoke tackle dice at the start of each turn to determine your strength for that round and then decide whether you'll stay at sea or return to port to sell fish, buy provisions, and recharge your energy.
Survey the sizes of shadows on the backs of 9 different fish shoals at three depths, determining what you think you can afford to catch and if you want to risk it for a potentially better reward. Flip fish, spend dice, add them to your collection - but beware of reveal and catch abilities that can have various effects on the game!
Each fish, item and character has been meticulously hand-inked by illustrator Judson Cowan, then colored by hand in Procreate. It's an absolutely gorgeous world with many, many dark surprises to uncover.
As your eyes spy more and more horrifying things, you'll collect Regrets cards - which drive up your madness but also give you access to more dice and increase the value of weirder fish. It's a risk/reward scenario as you balance your madness, knowing that at the end of the game the player with the highest value of Regrets will have to discard their most valuable mounted fish.
Manage you resources, make strategic decisions, leverage madness to your benefit and suppress your Regrets as you try to catch the most valuable haul of weirder and weirder fish on this thrilling week at sea.
SOLO MODE:
In the solo mode (which you can also co-op), you'll act as an ichthyologist on a mission to catch and catalog every fish in the sea. Over a campaign of dozens of games, you'll try to reel in every last fish and document their attributes on provided catalog sheet. At the end of each game, you'll have to discard an equal value of fish to the regrets you've collected and may have to let some fish go to return to another day. At the end of the campaign, you'll have a catalog of all fish names, depths, values and difficulties that can be used by players in the multiplayer game to help identify what they might fish up!
—description from the designer
- Unique theme
- Variety of role mitigation
- Potential narrative fatigue
- Might overstay welcome
- Pushing luck and managing regrets
- Ocean depths
- Card-driven storytelling
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Push Your Luck — Players pull progressively scarier things from ocean depths
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Yeah, I know that's silly but tier ranking is fun
- Never back a project and always wait for retail
- This is going to be the greatest year in existence
References (from this video)
- Great art
- Great production
- Wild and not afraid
- Now in retail
- Expansion coming
- Could have been longer
- Fishing for strange creatures
- The deep ocean
- Whimsical with horror elements
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dice Power Allocation — Four-sided dice - commit dice each round to power up actions
- fishing — Going fishing and finding creatures from the water
- Risk/Reward — Risk going deeper for more valuable creatures or stay shallow
- Sanity Management — Managing sanity as pulling up wild creatures can make you go crazy
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's hitting people's hands now
- Really captured people
- This is one of the greatest games ever made. I don't care what anybody says
- This is a big sandbox and just go play in it
- There's something so compelling about this game
- I think board games are art
- Fight me I don't care. Best party game ever probably
- It creates so much laughter. It delivers so hard, man
References (from this video)
- Gorgeous game design
- Unique monster fishing theme
- Interesting push-your-luck mechanics
- Monster fishing with push-your-luck mechanics
- Deep sea monster fishing
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dice rolling — Roll dice to fish for monsters
- Push Your Luck — Risk going deeper for bigger monsters
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- What are the hottest board games right now?
- Why are they so scorching hot?
- Are any of them worth your time?
References (from this video)
- engaging theme and storytelling
- great table presence
- fun for groups that like horror vibes
- longer playtime when learning
- complex rules
- creepiness, deck-building with madness and regret
- Horror-themed survival with a narrative engine
- story-driven with madness mechanic
- Wall of text not provided
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- cooperative/competitive tension — team dynamics with individual agendas.
- mechanic-rich deck-building — cards drive actions and lead to madness/theme effects.
- story-driven endgame narration — players craft a narrative about the winner's madness.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I love Bomb Busters. It is a great game.
- I would play again.
- Clank will test you. See how greedy you are.
- I love the theming of the game.
- This is cooperative; semi-cooperative in some reviews.
- Lightning Train was good. I liked it a lot.
- Deep Regrets is a great game. I recommend.
- Fromage is awesome. Star would like it because it has simultaneous actions.
References (from this video)
- strong art direction and production quality
- tight, high-ambition crowdfunded project delivering in hands
- atmosphere matches the video-game inspiration
- dark, atmospheric exploration inspired by Dredge
- deep-sea fishing with a slightly eerie, mysterious vibe
- creepy, strange, and art-forward
- Dredge
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice-drafting / push-your-luck — rolls and dice-based decisions drive risk-taking and progress.
- orchestrated progression — progressing deeper into the water to unlock new events and threats.
- risk management — players manage escalating danger while pursuing rewards.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This is a fun one. It's cozy. It's relaxing but there is strategy and stuff like that and it looks like super beautiful.
- I love this game so much. It's a perfect big group family game.
- Inish is back in hotness and that's because there is a big box version with a new expansion that's on crowdfunding right now.
- The art and the production value seems so top tier.
- It's a solo campaign now, and that makes me color me more intrigued.
- Fate of the Fellowship is so good. We played a four-player game and it was freaking incredible, y'all. Epic, man.
References (from this video)
- Unique theme
- Interesting mechanics
- Dark humor
- Engaging artwork
- Complex rules
- High randomness
- Potential for quick game end
- Madness and fishing
- Ocean fishing
- Dark humor
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dice rolling — Players roll action dice to determine fishing capabilities
- Resource management — Managing dice, regrets, and fish
- set collection — Collecting and mounting fish
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Hello, I'm Lori from No Rolls B.
- Players are trying to land the biggest catch of points by fishing up whoppers and Eldrich horrors from the depths of the ocean.
- The game is going to end once the sixth day is over or when the sea runs out of fish
References (from this video)
- Indie-game flavor with strong thematic tie-in
- Elegant fishing mechanics with push-your-luck flavor
- Dynamic interaction with port draws and madness tracking
- Longer playtime; may not suit larger groups
- Port actions can feel slower than fishing actions
- madness as a resource to optimize fishing and scoring
- Lovecraftian horror fishing world
- pushing your luck with a narrative-driven fishing port
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Push Your Luck — Draw and resolve fishing actions while tracking madness; more madness can reduce scoring opportunities.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- 2025 is shaping up to be the year of two-player games, and I am totally here for it.
- This is easily his best design to date.
- Stuper Mundy is the most Eurol looking Euro game you will ever see, but unbelievably interactive.
References (from this video)
- Unique, darkly humorous theme with mythical flavor
- Abstract mechanics may require strong framing for players
- Regret, fantasy depth, oceanic creatures
- A reflection on life regrets with a Kraken twist
- Darkly humorous and imaginative
- Clue
- Undaunted
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Thematic twist mechanics — Mechanics framed around regret and narrative-driven choices with an oversized Kraken motif.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The weirder, the better. I love it.
- It's going to be a real hit.
- This is all in fun as per usual.
References (from this video)
- Strong thematic design
- Evocative artwork
- Interesting push-your-luck mechanics
- Unique solo campaign mode
- Limited strategic depth
- Short game length
- Minimal alternative victory paths
- Maritime Horror and Psychological Descent
- Ocean/Sea
- Push-your-luck fishing expedition with psychological consequences
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice placement — Players use buoy-shaped dice to fish at different ocean depths
- Madness Track — Players move between sanity and madness, affecting game capabilities
- Regret Deck — Cards accumulated through catching foul fish impact player's sanity
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Flirting with madness at the fins of some particular unpleasantries that you may or may not regret.
References (from this video)
- Engaging story-driven win condition
- Good party/social game with depth
- Weaker solo or two-player variant
- Some may find the theme a bit morbid
- regret cards and narrative storytelling
- fishing/memory-themed card tableau
- shared storytelling with regret-driven goals
- Lost Ruins of Arnack
- Other narrative tableau games
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- set collection / tableau building — players collect and lay out cards to form a fishery tableau
- storytelling element — players narrate or present how they won using cards
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- "Brass Pittsburgh is a standalone take on Martin Wallace's system set in America's Gilded Age."
- "Bruce Lee returns with a new mini and two new Battlefields."
- "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."
- "Dark Quarter is heavy. It’s a noir-ish detective game with occult overlays."
- "Deep Regrets. We love this game."
- "The best part of worker placement is the satisfaction of putting out your worker and getting something in return."