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F
2018 · 2-7 players · 40min · weight 2.00 · 1,596 ratings
port: no port
BGGv4 widev4v4 deep5Sources5Rules cardCandidateDeep dive
Bayes
6.07
Users rated
1,596
Owned
2,619
Wishing
700
At a glance — v4 wide
Controlled-vocabulary primitives + 8-axis MDA aesthetic vector. Vocab v1.
Core loop (micro)
As an alien, draw and place picture symbols to communicate what item you want; as a human, deduce the alien's meaning.
MDA aesthetic vector (0–3)
Sensation
0
Fantasy
2
Narrative
0
Challenge
2
Fellowship
3
Discovery
2
Expression
2
Submission
1
Mechanic-interaction primitives (3)
- [3]semantic_overloading— “Aliens would draw weird symbols, trying to explain which earthly items they'd like to collect”
- [3]communication_constraint— “exceptional party game where imaginary ancient Egyptians are trying to overcome the language barrier with Aliens”
- [2]info_asymmetry_stable— “Puzzled Egyptians are to figure out what this could mean”
discovery_score: 0.762
Archetype fits — v4 deep
How well this game shape maps to mobile archetype templates. Composite is a weighted sum of the 10 fit dimensions.
| Archetype | Composite | LTF | Session | Combo | Arc | Share | 5in | Onboard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wordle 5-min session_length_tolerance_min already lands near Wordle's window when single-puzzle reframed; semantic_overloading is the right shape for daily-decode prompts (procgen alien-symbol puzzles). | 5.50 | 7.0 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Coop communication_constraint at strength 3 is the load-bearing coop signal — Hanabi-shape language-barrier puzzle maps cleanly to coop info-asymmetry; bluff_info_asymmetry hits 8 because the entire loop is constrained-channel signaling. Base game is competitive though, so requires reframe. | 5.50 | 7.0 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| Snap info_asymmetry_stable (drawer knows the target, guessers don't) lifts bluff_info_asymmetry to 6 — closest to Snap's hidden-card-reveal shape — but communication_constraint requires drawing input which doesn't fit Snap's 3-min async card-tap flow. | 4.70 | 5.0 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 5 |
| Cozy No Hard/Open trigger fires (no PvP-conflict BGG mechanism, no anti-cozy primitives) → Unknown tier, no cap; but party-decoding pressure and competitive alien-grab race break unhurried tone, so loss_tolerance_fit lands mid at 5. | 3.90 | 5.0 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| Balatro communication_constraint and semantic_overloading are pure social-deduction primitives — no engine_growth, no combo chain, so combo_scaling_depth is 1 (well below Balatro's joker-relic ceiling). Solo decision density collapses without a human partner. | 3.50 | 4.0 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
Sources (5)
Inputs to rules-card synthesis. Click any pill with ↗ to open the original source.
BGG tags
Mechanisms (2)
Categories (6)
Card GameDeductionHumorParty GameScience FictionWord Game