For a long time now, Earth hasn't been a perfect place to live. You are one of the architects sent to Mars. Your objective is to set up an infrastructure for the first colonists who would arrive on the red planet and start a new chapter for mankind.
Pocket Mars is a fast paced and wildly dynamic card game but don't let the short playthrough time fool you. It's a heavy weight filler! A compressed and easy to understand set of rules, combined with cards that you can play in more than one way is what makes this game great! Fifteen minutes is all it takes for you and your friends to set out on an exciting adventure in space!
In the world of big games about Mars everybody should have one that fits in their pocket.
Your goal is to place as many colonists as you can in the buildings of your Mars settlement. To do so, you will need to choose carefully how and when to play your cards.
The way you trigger actions on your cards is the heart of the game. Everything depends on where you play them from, which is the game's main strategic element. You could play a project card straight from your hand and trigger its effect instantly or turn it into a module and play it from your preparation zone. This will let you add it to one of the five buildings in your settlement, trigger an action sequence and transport your colonists to Mars – a sure way to put a spanner in the works of your competition.
Each card's set of various actions combined with the buildings' unique properties leaves you with a number of small but substantial decisions:
− Where to put your card.
− Where to play your card from.
− What action sequence will give you the most possibilities within a given turn.
What's more, anyone can activate an action from a module placed in one of the buildings by another player and share its effects.
Pocket Mars may be a small game but Michał Jagodziński sure stuffed it with a lot of options that will have an impact on the survival of our civilization! :)
- tiny footprint, easy to store
- not compelling enough to keep
- pocket-sized sci-fi
- space/minimalistic exploration
- compact micro-game
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- tile/area control style — Light mechanical footprint with quick play and portable components.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a full-time successful job for me
- the newest macbook pro line is significantly faster
- i'm in a much better headspace about the numbers
- i'm not sitting there thinking that a three video per week plan is sustainable
- there's a lot of evidence to show that putting out more videos is not necessarily better for me
References (from this video)
- Travel-friendly substitute for larger game
- Portable alternative to Terraforming Mars
- Enjoyed by female host
- Male host dislikes Terraforming Mars
- Space Colonization
- Mars
- Terraforming Mars
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- building — Build structures on Mars
- worker placement — Deploy astronauts to surface
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The games are not just for travel they're just small and compact and there's something you can play in any time
- When you do get a chance to travel these are the games that we recommend you take with you
- It packs a big punch
- It's an evil is a uvula game
- Very treacherous
- The trucks are so cute
- So much fun is unreal
- The creative minds that come up with these games just are amazing
- We would have never met them without these games
- One of the cool things that you know Jordan said on that podcast we would have never met them without these games