Creating a universe gets fiddly

Designer: Yves Tourigny | Artist: Tim Barton

Cosmogenesis is a worker placement and drafting hybrid, where players create their own stellar systems by colliding asteroids and comets with gas giants and planets. Luckily, scientific knowledge is not a pre-requirement for the game. It attempts, by its own account, to (semi-)faithfully reflect the scientific processes of the universe, without overtaxing players with complex physics and biology – and, to some extent, it succeeds in doing so.

While it is incredibly thematic throughout and the creation of planets is absolutely Cosmogenesis’s signature mechanic, it also provides the biggest hindrance to the game. There are small rule changes depending on the type of collisions, which affect the outcome in very particular ways, making understanding them its own challenge. You can give gas giants rings, make planets bigger in size, create moons, atmosphere and even life in a single round, and all have different requirements and pre-requisites. There is a player aide that outlines the actions possible each turn but, while it shows the ‘dos’, it also ignores the ‘don’ts’, which, in reality, are more important. Add to that special ability tokens, a separate mechanic for evolving life and various point giving cards, with their own set of symbols and rules, and now you are truly lost in space.