Dive deep to build your own ecological network in Ecosystem: Coral Reef, a card-drafting game of marine competition. Players choose, pass, and arrange cards representing a diversity of organisms found in the Great Barrier Reef, including coral, clownfish, sea turtles, and sharks. Earn points by aligning animals with the habitats and food sources where they most flourish. Diversify your food web to maximize your bonuses. Each time you play, you build a one-of-a-kind ecosystem as you strive to balance the delicate connections between all living things.
Ecosystem: Coral Reef is a standalone sequel game to Ecosystem (2019), featuring a new lineup of organisms, new scoring conditions, and an increased focus on a balanced food web.
Players take turns drafting organism cards and arranging them into a 4x5 "ecosystem" in front of them. Once all players have completed their personal grid of 20 cards, players score their ecosystems using the rules for each card type. A food web bonus is given to each player for their lowest score among producers, predators, and prey, then the player with the most points wins.
- Simple setup
- Interesting scoring mechanisms
- Multiple strategic options
- Solo play mode
- Complex scoring rules
- Can be challenging to optimize placement
- Marine life and ecological interactions
- Marine ecosystem
- Strategic card placement
- Ecosystem (original game)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card drafting — Players select and place cards in strategic positions
- Grid building — Players place cards in a 5x4 grid with adjacency rules
- Point scoring — Different marine creatures score points based on their placement and proximity to other cards
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I definitely lost this game
- There's a third one with a Savannah theme