John Clowdus, designer of Mezo, The North, and Omen: A Reign of War among others, has a line of Small Box Games on his website which people can order directly. All these small games are for 2 players except one: Pocket Galapagos.
Pocket Galapagos is a solitaire card game in which you are trying to keep the ecosystem of an island in the Galapagos in balance. It consists of 72 double-sided and multi-use cards. On each turn, you draw a hand of 5 cards and decide how to best play them in order to manage animal populations, use the animals' abilities and prevent the spread of invasive species.
You lose the game if 2 of the indigenous populations go down to zero, or if 3 of the same species are the invasive species before the end of the 10th round. The designer's shop doesn't take pre-orders at this time but -according to a thread on BGG- it soon will, so keep an eye out for it if you're interested.
That's interesting! I really like the theme of managing ecosystems and I don't know any solo with that theme (except the BIOS by Eklund perhaps?).
However, I tend not to like Clowdus' designs, with a lot of effect-specific cards "discard X cards to draw Y cards and put Z cards in play doing W; or engage to perform XX on card N". By the time I have figured out how the card could be used in a smart way, I already have lost any interest for the game.
Still I'll check it. Tempting theme. Thanks for the news!
You will not like it then. This is classic Clowdus. The mechanics and such are fun, and it is a bit on the easier side. It is very much for the people who like 12 different kinds of cards and have the cogs work together
Ah, I've never played any of his games. I suspect you won't like this one either, it seems to be as you describe. 😄