Dinosaur Island Game

Why would you go visit extinct dinosaurs in a museum when you can visit a theme park with real dinosaurs? That is exactly what investors thought when they decided to become involved in a new concept that became possible once scientists perfected a way to create living dinosaurs from preserved DNA. In Dinosaur Island, players take the role of park manager for one of these new theme parks with the goal of trying to create the best possible park and win the game. Players will build attractions that help draw the largest crowds, populate the park with the most ferocious dinosaurs and at the same time, manage their security levels so that the dinosaurs remain under control and not become a hazard to the visitors. Balancing all of these variables will lead players to victory! The length of the game (short, medium or long) is determined by the three goal cards that vary each game with the goals for the short game having the easiest challenges. For example, they may challenge park managers to create a specific number of dinosaurs or attractions in the park or have a specific number of DNA in storage. These goals will also be worth victory points at the end of the game. Dinosaur Island is played in rounds consisting of five phases each until two out of three of the game goals have been completed which triggers game end. In the research phase, players take turns doing three actions consisting of adding DNA to their lab, increasing their storage levels for DNA, obtaining a DNA recipe to create a dinosaur or adding an additional worker for that round. There are three dinosaur types that can be created: herbivores, small carnivores and large carnivores. The large carnivores are worth the most victory points at the end of the game and also create the most interest by visitors, but they also require the most DNA to breed and the most security because they are the most feared of the three dinosaur types. In the market phase, players have the opportunity to take two actions and can choose to hire a specialist to help them, build an attraction, buy a lab upgrade or purchase DNA. Next is the worker phase in which players will place available workers in several different areas of their player board in order to accomplish tasks that will help them create dinosaurs and expand their capacity to house them while also having opportunities to increase security. In the park phase, visitors show up to the parks and earn players money and victory points by visiting dinosaurs and attractions. If security is not at a high enough level to balance the threat the dinosaurs pose, visitors are eaten and victory points are lost. Finally, the cleanup phase begins and preparations are made for the next round. Once two of the three goals for the game have been accomplished, the current round is completed and final scoring is done to determine the winner.