Half way through my first game of Starfall I looked down and realized I had grossly overpaid for a pair of comets. What exactly was I thinking? I could’ve pressed them down the Stargazer board on my turn and scooped them up the next round, obviously! Then again, when I tried to be coy and lower the price on that planet and nebulae tile earlier, Nathan McNair had snapped it up as soon as I’d lifted my finger off the piece.  So there I was, left with a quickly dwindling pile of Stardust to spend and the urge to immediately set the game up again and play it back.  And minutes later, after the last tile was purchased, we did just that!

Starfall is a game that can be taught and set-up in seconds. This is that game that your friend will pull off the top of the game bag and have set up and ready before your first drink is poured at game night, and it has a real habit of being the only game that hits the table for the evening, because even though you can get a game done in roughly 30-minutes, you’ll just be left wanting another crack at unlocking the secrets of the stars.

“Starfall was designed from the ground to the sky to be one of the most beautiful and elegant games in your collection,” says game designer Scott Almes. “I found myself looking up at the stars and realizing two things. First, the stars were quite nice that night, and second, that I desperately needed to make a game about stars, a theme that was tragically underrepresented in our hobby.”

“Astronomy was a theme that everyone could enjoy, so I set a goal to make the game very simple in play, but far from simple to win. I took inspiration from classic European designs that brought engaging gameplay with the fewest rules possible.”

“The game is a tight auction game, where players are bidding to discover celestial objects. Players have limited resources in this game, and must outwit the other players in a game of brinkmanship as objects get cheaper and cheaper. You must choose when to spend your stardust – but not pay too much – and be aware of the multiple objects streaking across the sky. In the end, the best collections will get the most points.”

“One of the things that’s wonderful about this game is how the simple rules lend itself to so much gameplay. There are really three rules to the game, but they bring out such agonizing decisions. But, it’s not only the depth that is brought out by the simple gameplay, but the theme as well. The discs are purposely circular, so you can imagine yourself peering through a telescope and seeing a collection of celestial objects. The discs also travel along the bidding board as if they were traveling across a night sky. It evokes the feeling of a time-lapse video of a starry night or the joy of seeing a shooting star. These subtle thematic lures lend themselves to the gameplay, and really makes this game shine.”

As Scott says, the rules for Starfall are simple and tight. This is an auction game, where you’ll perform one of three actions each turn. You’ll either add a purchasable Sky tile to the Stargazer board, lower a Sky tile’s price by moving it down the board, or purchase a Sky tile from the board.

Currency in the game is limited. You receive your 32 Stardust at the beginning of the game, and you’ll need to manage those funds through multiple rounds of auctioning. This proves incredibly tense, as new Sky tiles typically enter the game costing 9 Stardust, which is a significant portion of your game budget. The problem is, when you make a Sky tile more affordable by sliding it down the board, you make it more affordable for every player who acts after you.

This is a Victory Point game, where points are scored once the game ends. You’ll earn points off your collected comets, stars, planets, and even black holes. Some score simply (5 points per each item in your collection) while others combo off of each other depending on whether you’re able to build sets of various colors or sizes. 

You’ll definitely want to practice your poker face for Starfall, as there are key moments where you’ll absolutely need to slide a comet down a few points so you can afford it on the next round, but tipping your opponents off to how badly you want that piece is a recipe for absolute disaster. It’s those moments when a successful gamble pays off that make Starfall so special. It’s a small game with huge potential, you might even say the sky’s the limit (sorry).

•••

Nate Murray is the Product Manager for IDW Games. He loves Starfall, but is terrible at it. He is a Cancer, but thinks he acts more like a Leo, and yes, he knows the difference between Astronomy and Astrology.