For Science! is live (Balancing the cure)
Update: For Science! is live on Kickstarter, and the campaign will run for 24 days. You may back either just the base game or the game plus the Sci Hard expansion.
Our preview post below was published on April 6.
For Science! is a 1-6 player cooperative real-time dexterity game about building a cure for a virus. It has been designed by R. Eric Reuss, of Spirit Island fame, and will launch on Kickstarter on April 7.
You begin the game with a set of wooden blocks that you will use to build the cure. You place disease cards and a mutation card on your lab board, and also take a scientist board, each of which comes with a special ability. Then, you set the timer to 15 minutes and start building. If you hear a buzzer sound while you are working on your cure, you have to stop and draw an event card. Events are usually nasty, and meant to delay your progress (e.g. drop a block from 4 inches away onto your structure).
As soon as the timer starts, you draw a design card and attach it to the lab spot that you think it fits the best. If you cannot place the design card anywhere, it goes into the wasted designs pile and causes you to draw another mutation. Design cards show the types of blocks that you need, and how to put them together. In order to complete your cure, you also have to arrange a set of cardboard tiles that show parts of the virus, so that you contain it. Once you complete it, you gain insight points. In the solo mode, if you've gained 6 insight by the end of the 15 minutes, you've saved the world.
For Science! was initially called Science or Die, but due to the current situation, the creators decided to take out the morbid references. You may check the Kickstarter preview.