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.
Images
- Ecosystem
- Coral Reef
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The Morrigan Game Factory though, what a great escape room game. It might it's it's definitely in my top escape room games.
- Noobs in Space is one of my favorite little games that's so unique and interesting. You have a deck of cards, you deal them out to everybody. Everybody has cards in their hand, and then you just solve those cards by saying things out loud, working together to play cards, and hopefully you solve it. It communication is the key. You can say anything you want, uh but you just can't show cards. And it's hilarious and fun. Very, very enjoyable.
- If you really like what we're doing here at the Dice Tower, then there are different ways to support Dice Tower.
- Tell your friends about the Dice Tower.
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- "It's a stand-alone sequel. They're not combinable. It is a separate game."
- "The game itself is very simple and the game itself plays the same way as the original Ecosystem. It's a draft."
- "This one has an easier entry point... it has these categorizations that make it easier to organize your thoughts"
- "I like the Coral Reef newer version better while Tarrant like the older version better."
- "It's an easy one to get to the table with really simple rules."
- "Quite um quite a good getaway game."
References (from this video)
- 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