Sanity Test for Dog Star Shippers

This rulebook follows typical structure. The index tabs along the margin are a nice touch.

These are easily seen on the front page.

The introduction of the theme is articulate and engaging, and feeds well into the game mechanics.

The overview at the top of page 3 is a good summary, but does not specify an objective. Consider this alternate last sentence: “Maximize your Valor to become the Top Dog of Sirius Shippers! Woof.”

—Describing the plastic components is essential, and very helpful since you do not have component pictures at the start.

—“Yellow Block” should be “Yellow Blocks”.

—Remember that Alt-G or (or Option-G on a Mac) should give you the C-in-a-circle copyright symbol in most fonts.

Given the details in your descriptions, these are not strictly needed in this case.

—“Octogon” in the first line of paragraph 5 of the setup should be “Octagon”.

—this setup is key to learning the game. Devoting a whole page to the pictures is worth it.

—Good and detailed, but showing a picture that included both player tableaus (instead of the footnote on page 6) would be better.

—Showing dotted card lines (in the area where future bases would go) might be better than a text note telling you to leave space.

—The picture should show the hull cube, reputation octagon, and credit cube on their starting space - or show them beside the card with an arrow indicating where they start.

The paragraph about Prelaunch, Encounters, and Business should be BEFORE the Prelaunch heading, and should be under a separate heading such as “A Game Turn”, “Gameplay”, “Game Phases” or some such.

—the explanation on damaged hull is confusing. Consider: “A cargo space is available if your Yellow Block is at or above the level of the cargo space.”

—Can your Reputation Octagon move more than 1 space from neutral in the 4 directions? If not, then don’t put the farthest corner icons in an octagon. Instead, perhaps make the background a shade of that color and include the letters (or the letters and name). If you CAN move two reputation spaces in each of the four directions, then there needs to be two arrows in the outer ring for it to match the text at the bottom of page 8.

—Page 9, bullet point 6: “Shows if the Mission Card cost” is confusing. Do you mean “Cost to purchase a Mission card”?

—Consider showing a spot on the setup picture for where unused and completed mission cards go.

—hyphens in the Neutral and Cargo icons seem awkward. Is there a better way to show these?

—The two-arrow square icon for Upgrades is also not intuitive. Perhaps a rectangle with an up-arrow inside it?

—the sentence about your Tier 2 ship being on the back of your tier 1 ship is IMPORTANT. CONSIDER MAKING THAT SENTENCE ON PAGE 15 BOLDFACE. You also don’t mention anything about putting your ship with Tier 1 face up in your setup. Oops!

—If the game ends immediately when the 8th base is revealed, the 8th base is never used. Is that correct, or does the game end at the end of the turn when the 8th base is revealed?

—Solo rules: keeping the Mercenary and then deducting a Solo Opponent Valor Point is messy. Why not award 1 Valor point to the player instead? It’s more consistent with the rest of the rules.

—The quick reference on the back is a GREAT idea. However, the sentence “All is business is optional” needs to be “All business is optional”.

—It is not clear that you need to flip the Credit Account card over when you pass 20,000 credits.

—There is a missing period at the end of the example on page 12.

The description and images of the cards explain the rules quite well. To make it exceptional, an example game turn with illustrations on two facing pages would be a very good idea.

The “deduct one point for the Mercenary” in the solo game is the only flaw in an otherwise very good explanation.

There are minor points about the reputation tracker as mentioned above.

I can only give this 0 or 3 points. We’re I able, I would award this 2 points because of the concerns mentioned above.

The edge detail for the different phases adds a classy graphics style to the page. Also, desaturating the starry background prevents it from interfering with readability. Nice work.

The flow from the text of the backdrop, to the title in the logo, to the bullet points, to the ad description, is some of the best I’ve seen.

A wonderful mix of text and graphics. It attracts the eye without YELLING AT YOU.

Perfectly integrated into the background.

Too many card images; no action shots of components in use, and no action shots of the game being played by real people.

Just enough text.

The video, as is, is acceptable. However, taking the time to tighten the script and the editing would be a big plus here. Placing cards on the table that move other cards around; having to correct placement as you discuss it, etc, makes for a longer and less engaging video.