I briefly talked about my little bit simultaneous reveal, little bit deckbuilding game Macrocosm: Conquer the Universe, but now that Unpub is sneaking up (15 days!?) I want to talk about it a little more. 

Macrocosm is a 2 player game, where each player uses their small fleet against their opponent to obtain better starships and to conquer territories in the vast L-Con Galaxy. Players also use a variety of aliens to change things up drastically from round to round.

I originally created this as a ruleset for thePixel Lincoln Bicycle cards, but for the last few months I've been trying to find a better fit for the game. I settled on space theme because it was a perfect fit for both

of the standard card types. Players battle each other for better tools (to battle with) and endgame points. It was tricky because we are fighting with each other, using "tools" or weapon

s, and the winner may get better tools or weapons. So with that in mind, the tools needed to be non-player specific. Spaceships hit the spot, although I have like 10 other awesome themes that could do it.

Today's post is to get you a better idea of the theme of the game. The ships and planets are the bulk of the game, but I would call the aliens the sass of the game. It's simple enough to simultaneously reveal ships to get better ones, but when you throw the aliens into the mix, the game takes shape. Each alien has a Phase Power (which can be used for a round of play) and an Endgame Power (which can be a multiplier / bonus when scoring). Each round players will choose one alien and decide whether they will play it as Phase or Endgame. Then the round starts and fun stuff happens. 

Each alien provides a unique Phase Power. Some will make ships better, others will allow you to mulligan your ships or help ships come back to your hand instead of discarding.

Endgame Powers are also very neat. Some reward a player for collecting a certain set. Others reward the player for not getting a certain card or combination of cards. 

In my Unpub excitement I decided to buy some art for the cards. This was such a motivator and I would suggest it to anyone who has the opportunity to do so. If anything it made me move things along and prioritize the game, but it also inspired a lot of the unfinished alien powers.

The art was done by the wickedly talented Luke Milton. He's my better half behind the scenes at Fruitless Pursuits and an all around creative genius. So happy to work with him on a project again. For reference, he designed many of the initial Pixel Lincoln enemies, shaping the game for all time. The puking turtle was all him.

Here they are!

(L-R Gari Obul, Strezelsior, Captain Crag, Inzill Mey, Yanfred Jima, Saaze, Smiff)

The game uses 14 characters, and these are the ones that hail from the Inner Ring of the galaxy. Here, the aliens think they are a step above the rest. They have more money and more power. Does that mean they are better? Not necessarily.

Next time we'll look at the aliens from the Outer Crust. They're a little rough around the edges. :)