Moonshell (2021)

Overview

In the strategy puzzle game Moonshell, you play as a mermaid who is shifting tides in your direction to collect valuable seashells and create a stunning collection.

In more detail, the game board features a 5x5 array of colorful seashells of different types. Five public objectives are revealed, showing players the seashells they want to collect — whether by type, color, or overall pattern — on their 3x4 treasure chest board. You receive two secret objectives, keeping one and discarding the other. If you wish, you can play with each player taking a mermaid character (each of which has a unique power) and a moonshell, which serves as a wild seashell.

On a turn, you take three actions, repeating actions if you like. The actions are:

Rotate: Turn the game board 90º in the direction of the tide. Pull 2: If the two rock spaces on the side of the game board next to you don't have any seashells on them, choose a column, place the first two seashells in this column on these rocks, slide the remaining seashells toward you, then draw from the supply bag to fill the empty spaces. Collect: Take a seashell from a rock in front of you, and add it to your treasure chest, sliding the seashell to the bottom of the column in which you place it.

If the bag runs out of seashell tiles, add the sea urchin tiles to the bag and continue playing. When someone has filled their treasure chest with twelve tiles, finish the round, then score. The "trove" objective scores only for the player who has the most seashells of that type or color, whereas the other four types of objectives — collector, array, pairs, composition — can be scored by each player, sometimes multiple times. You also score 1 point for each sea urchin and if you achieved your secret objective, you score for that, too. Whoever scores the most points wins.