Jump Gate….The Best Game You Don’t Know About?

Apr 28, 2011

It isn’t the highest quality component game out there, but sometimes that just doesn’t matter. The better the game play, the more forgiving you can be with the components.

Jump Gate is published by The Game Crafter and Matt Worden Games, and it is designed by, of course, Matt Worden. The game was selected as Games Magazine 2011 Traditional Game of the Year, but we try not to hold that against the game (wink, wink).

Jump Gate is a space exploration and resource collecting card game for 2-6 players. You place 8 planet boards (large square cards really) around a black hole bard and a jump gate. Players take turns exploring around the galaxy, scanning planets and collecting resources to earn victory points. The game actually looks pretty entertaining and I’m hoping to try it soon so we can get out a review to the world. In the meantime, I recommend taking a look at Jump Gate, especially if you are a Stargate or Sci-Fi fan.

Here’s what they have to say at Matt Worden Games:

Explore far-away planets. Discover what resources and surprises they hold. Be the first to set foot on a new planet and claim it as your own. Collect resources to gain fortune and fame. All of this comes courtesy of: the Jump Gate.

Players are spaceship captains that are competing to be the best at claiming new planets and collecting the resources found at those planets.

Players score points at the end of the game based on the number of planets they scanned and claimed, and their combination of resources collected. Each type of resource has a different method for being scored — so, collecting sets of the same resource is encouraged … and disrupting other players’ collection plans is good strategy.