Scythe publisher announces Wingspan, its eggs-cellent-looking new game for ‘fans of Terraforming Mars and Gizmos’

Stonemaier Games, the publisher behind Scythe, Viticulture and Charterstone, has begun peeling the shell off its next big release.

Wingspan is the second game from designer Elizabeth Hargrave, who jointly won the GenCan’t Design Contest for her card-drafting debut Tussie-Mussie earlier this year.

Details are currently sparse about how the game – previously dubbed Codename Peregrine – will play, but Stonemaier said in its announcement, “If you enjoy Terraforming Mars and Gizmos, we think this game will take flight at your table” – potentially hinting at some sort of a combination of the engine-building of Jacob Fryxelius’ strategic Red Planet sim and the combo-building of Phil Walker-Harding’s marble-drafting inventathon.

Stonemaier expanded a little on the comparison in the Facebook group for the game, responding to one commenter’s observation that the pictures posted of Wingspan featured dice, unlike Terraforming Mars.

“I didn't say it was the same game as Terraforming Mars – there are lots of differences,” the studio wrote. “But of course we used modern board game mechanisms in this game, including in how the dice offer input randomness.”

Elsewhere in the group, it confirmed that “there's no take-that in Wingspan”.

The first images of the final production version of the game show an array of multicoloured eggs, dice and tokens with symbols of animals and plants (fish, slugs, berries, mice, wheat), and the backs of cards.

Contributing to Wingspan’s striking look are artists Natalia Rojas, Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo and Beth Sobel.

Wingspan is due for a full unveiling on January 2nd 2019. Pre-orders for the game will go live the same day. A release date is yet to be announced.