STUDIO H Vivarium | Card Game for Teens and Adults | Family Friendly Board Games | Ages 10+ | 2 to 4 Players | 30 Minutes

This was a fun game to play! I will definitely be playing this game again.You're an explorer and you collect different cards as you go. The other players are also collecting cards along the way. The unpredictability comes in from the little dominos that you play and exchange. The dominos dictate what card on the grid you will claim. Clever!The illustrations are adorable! The quality was really nice. The text on my game box was not in English, but the game manual was in English. I would recommend this game for teens and adults.

I got this to have a new board/card game to play with friends. This isn't incredibly deep, but it was fun. The domino and coordinate mechanic is interesting and I haven't seen that before. The rest is collecting cards and scoring points, which I've done in other games. Overall am happy with adding it to my collection.

This is an interesting game. First I'll day my 10 and 7 year old boys enjoy this game alot. Little tougher for my 7 year old for the planning out 7 rounds. But the mechanics and game play are easy enough for him. The overall length for 4 players is 30-45 min give or take, it all depends on time it takes for people to make decisions, which at times your plan is interrupted and you need to lift and shift and replan and think through.This is a fun game. Lots of repayability. We have played it a couple times. It took about an hour to get into the game and learn how to play and do half game 4 rds. The look of the cards are fun and engaging for kids and adults.The overall game is to select cards each round to fulfill personal goals and round goals. The game ends in 7 rounds with 4 players and the person with most victory points win.The overall purchase mechanism for this game is unique, I have played many deck builders and dominos is a first. In this you have 2 dominos each and have to use the combined numbers to select any card that is on board. The board is numbered 1-4 columns and rows. You start your turn with swapping you domino, then you take a number from each to select a card you want from the board. In doing so if there is say nothing available to select then you can add gems to + or - your numbers to select another spot. The gems are worth 1 vp at end, but come in handy when purchasing to help fulfill goals. You have 2 rows of monsters, 1 of tools, 1 of goals. The goals on this are things like collecting color combos for extra vp, often these cards allow compounded vp as you get more of said cards. Say you get one that is grewn+blue. This means you collect green monsters and blue monsters and once you have a pair you get x vp and then up to 4 green and 4 blue to max out at 14 vp at end of game. This is one example, others are like cogs, each tool with cog gives you 3 vp, so on. This is something to keep in mind when you go through the rounds. There are also points on each monster. And tools alow you to do things like draw a blind monster from deck, or pay a gem to draw 2 look and discard one, or pay a gem to do an action, like draw any card to top bottom left right, or various things like that.It is a game that keeps moving well. Every round consists of 2 purchasing per round, once a card is bought it is left empty until the end of the round meaning 2 times around the table. This is where you often have to lift and shift strategies. One tool will clear a column and if something you were going for was in that column then you now need to update and move.This is a fun game no reading involved which makes it playable for my 7 year old. We do play a lot of games in my house, we have easily over 100 board games so he has been conditioned for a bit more complexity. It is fun and easy to play, my wife who hates the complexity of a lot of my games enjoys this as it is straightforward enough that she does not have to remember rules for days to just barely hang on. Everything is clearly marked on cards once you have played a couple times it is simple to recognize and jump in.Looking for a new game, that is fun, family friendly and has a solid repayability this is worth a look.

This game has a cute theme where you are discovering a hidden continent on behalf of your benefactors. Overall, the production quality is wonderful as all of the cardboard punch out pieces are thick and could be easily punched out with minimal effort. The dominos are hefty solid plastic and is an interesting dynamic. Important to note is that the 2-player variant of the rules, which is in the rulebook, is a little more complicated with regard to removing access to a column of cards each round of the game. Since I only have two players, my review is based on this variant. Overall, the game was quick and easy to understand. The part that takes some getting used to is all the iconography. It’s confusing that the equipment cards have a symbol in the upper right-hand corner of the card that is completely separate from the action you can take with the card. The back page of the rulebook explains all the cards, but there is only one copy so you will be trading this back and forth for the first few games. I wish there was more of a player aid for each player, but you can always photocopy the back page of the rulebook. The gameplay is pretty quick (especially with 2 players), but there can be some analysis paralysis in determining what type of card (creature, equipment, or contract) that you want and finding a way to make sure you have the dominos to make it possible to get that number. I wish both numbers on the domino faced the same direction for ease of reading it. I also wish the rulebook was more consistent (e.g., on page 5 it will name all four types of creature cards and habitats, but does not name the symbols for the equipment cards). For the two-player variant, I really appreciate that you just have to remove 3 dominos and clear a column per round, but that you do not need to remove anything else from the game so you don’t have to hunt through a deck of cards to remove any. Again, it’s the production quality (especially at this price-point) mixed with the quick gameplay that makes this game attractive and, while I think juggling all the contracts and potential scoring could get complicated for 10-13 year old, the age range isn’t off the mark. If you’re looking for a game that even young teens may enjoy and isn’t a huge time commitment, this might fit the spot.

Everything in and on this box is absolutely beautiful. The artwork is wonderful, and the game mechanics are new and different, and very fun and educational. All the pieces are solid, and so much better made than the flimsy paper I'm used to coming out of game boxes in recent years. I'm very excited to add this to my game night roster.