IELLO Distant Suns - Choose & Write Game, Kids & Family, Games, Ages 10+, 2-4 Players, 25 Min

Distant Suns is a resource placement card game that uses the unique mechanic of sketching out your move on the player's game pad. It is for 2-4 people, ages 10+, and a typical game lasts from 30-45 minutes. It is distributed by IELLO Games.I liked it. I am a fan of IELLO Games. So, I went inot Distant Suns with high expectations.Alas, I was a little disappointed.The rules were not 100% clear, and we ended up watching four on-line videos on how to play before the seasoned gaming group took it on.The core mechanic is using a stencil (as chosen by the card you play) to draw a boundary around stars on your player mat. As with other popular sketch games like Silver & Gold, you get points for different accomplishments. As noted, the area shapes are selected based on the cards played. There is one column for the active player and another column for everyone else. So, everyone is drawing (if they can) every turn.There is only one set of stencils. Consequently, you spent some amount of time, unavoidably waiting for the stencil to come your way. Because you can rotate and flip the stencil, it was not possible for most of us to 100% plan placement until we actually had the stencil in hand.We played four games of Distant Suns over a two week period. I do not see this becoming a group favorite.Not a bad game, and it is completely family safe, just not a must-play game.