Awaken the Ancients - Solitaire Mancala Game | Designer Demo #2 (two new mini expansions)

In this video I talk about a few minor changes since the last demo and two new mini expansions, The Raven and Blight.
The Raven: The Raven flies around the Ancients waiting for an opportunity to eat its favorite seed.
Blight: Some Ancients have been afflicted by Blight!
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Awaken the Ancients is a solitaire game that incorporates many mechanisms from Mancala into its gameplay.
As the Warden of Whimwood, it is your duty to help awaken the slumbering Ancients every millennia during the Celestial Bloom. To accomplish this task, you must meticulously spread Sacred Seeds throughout the wood to complete the ritual. These seeds are an extremely rare and limited resource. Be cautious, as the awakened Ancients find them particularly delicious. If too many seeds are consumed by the Ancients, you won't have enough to awaken them all.
This game is being designed for the upcoming 2024 Solitaire Design Contest on Boardgamegeek.com. You can visit my WIP thread here: boardgamegeek.com/thread/3305...
You can access the PnP files here: drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fo...

[@ConstantChaosGames]

Changes make sense, and the expansions are really good and tie into the theme perfectly. I really appreciate these videos - super helpful, thanks!

[@rafiweiss3915]

The tree with 7 empty spaces is fairly intuitive; that was my first guess at what it meant. The icons on the two cards on the side are somewhat less intuitive, in the sense that you are using seed shapes whereas all other instances of seeds are circles. Maybe for the one that swaps, show 2 cards with circles in them with an arrow between them. And then for the one that reverses the direction, maybe an image of an 8 card tableau instead of the 3 seeds, with the clockwise arrow around it.

[@jewellgr]

Good suggestions! I will update them AND I am working with an illustrator to create more cohesive iconography across all cards.

[@rafiweiss3915]

Overall, both expansions seem intuitive and interesting. Both also happen to increase the difficulty. Did you find the base game too easy?

[@jewellgr]

Not necessarily, but I already had these ideas scoped out, so wanted to get them into players hands. One aspect I am considering changing is the full agency of picking which Keeper you place seeds on after an awakening. I still want to give the player some agency but may alter it something like "If the number of seeds is even, place them on the left Keeper. If the number is odd, place them on the right Keeper. This still gives the player agency, but requires more work on their part to achieve the desired outcome. Still a work in progress!

[@ConstantChaosGames]

@@jewellgr I do like the odd, even idea.. at least in concept :)