Bower (2019)

You have a mere 9 months to prepare! Your nest is drab and bare, sticks and leaves won't draw anyone's eye. Collect trinkets and tokens from the forest floor to increase the appeal of your nest. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be better than that other guy's.

Bower is a competitive 2 player, pick-up and deliver game with engine building upgrades and push-your-luck scoring elements. Gameplay revolves around strategic pathfinding and turn optimisation. On your turn, your opponent will first populate the forest with berries and trinkets using the seed deck. You may then alter the paths through the forest by rotating the 7 central tiles, before moving your Bowerbird along its current path, collecting the trinkets you pass over. If you can return your bowerbird to the nest, you score points depending on the number of trinkets it returned with. You also earn a powerful crest to enhance your future turns. The player with the most points from their bower and personal goal cards is the winner.

Note: Great Bowerbirds (endemic to Australia) have a fascination with anything green or white. The Males will collect as many discarded toys, plastic scraps, stones, bones and shells as they can find to decorate their nest (Bower), in the hopes of scoring a partner during the November-January mating season. Young males will even work together on a “practice” nest, to ensure their skills are properly honed.