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Stars, Inc.: Projects
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STARS, INC.

A game of astronomical consequences!

Players: 2-4, ages 14+
Length: 40-60 minutes

Rules PDF: Click Here (v 4.2)

Stars, Inc. has been featured at the following conventions: Boston Festival of Indie Games 2014, UnPub 5, and BOSKONE 52.

Short Description

Play as an alien race that has the technology to create stars by collapsing gas clouds. Harvest hydrogen, helium, and carbon from these stars. Form massive stars and evolve them until they become supernovae to collect heavier elements. Create rocky or gaseous planets to gain resources or points. Let your sun-like stars evolve to become white dwarfs that you can rent out as “space heaters” to earn points each turn, or sell giant space diamonds on the black market for quick one-time-only points. Once you have finished traveling the galaxy by going through the environment deck, the most successful player wins!

Indiegogo Campaign Backers: YOU ROCK!

Our successful Indiegogo campaign can be found at igg.me/at/starsinc. Below are the amazing, incredible, wonderful backers who helped to make it happen, followed by the project description for that campaign.

agoodman4, angelkurisu, Barry and Karen Woolsey, brian.mckillop, CHHIEMSTRA, Erin Braswell, ganguly2001, gtomod, jferrer426, john.lewis, Justin Tart, karenmeyer35, Kyle McKillop, lauranne.lanz, Logan Anbinder, Marianna Burgett, planet4589, randomguy123, redgypsophila, Sara Gettel, schonfsj, srcranmer, wnewton101, xulxanrov, zbertathompson

A Game of Astronomical Consequences!

Stars, Inc. is a 2-4 player game where each player controls an alien race that has developed the technology to collapse giant gas clouds out in space to form stars. This has proven easier than making cold fusion efficient, and so this is the best way to harvest elements and resources needed to create planets. The game ends when players have toured the galaxy by passing through different environments, and points are scored throughout the game by having gas giant planets, white dwarfs, and space diamonds!

The game board is based on a graph in astrophysics called the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, and players have to plan their strategy of what types of stars to form: red dwarfs, sun-like stars, or blue giants: blue giants are more expensive, but they end their lives as supernovae and provide iron; sun-like stars evolve into white dwarfs; and red dwarfs are cheap to make and live nice, long lives as excellent planet hosts (check out this article on planet occurrence rates).

Stars, Inc. is based on the real science of different types of stars, because I have a PhD in Astrophysics and a bit of an obsession with stellar evolution. Don’t worry, though — you don’t need any background knowledge of science to play, and maybe by the end you’ll have picked up some Astronomy 101 about stellar evolution and different types of fusion!

Stars, Inc. is © CGS Unit LLC. All rights reserved.

Stars, Inc.: Image
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