The game features a unique mechanism of worker selection and sharing with incredible illustrations, adorable miniature robots, and very welcoming play for everyone!
• Toy manufacturer Verdes Innovations has been a fixture at the annual SPIEL game convention for years with its V-CUBE line of "rotational puzzle cubes", and now the company plans to release its first game, with Theodore Karvounis' Twinkle being Kickstarted (link) ahead of a mid-2021 release.
Here's an overview of this 2-4 player game that plays in 15-30 minutes:
Over the seven rounds of the game, you form your constellation one die at a time, building off either or both of the "starting stars" on the player board. To set up, roll the six colors of d8 dice, then place them on the central game board. Place the d4, d6, d10, and d12 dice in each of the six colors to the side. On a turn, choose either:
—One of the d8 dice without changing the value on it
—Any three dice not previously claimed (with d8 dice being an option), then roll those three dice and choose one of them, returning the other dice to the central game board or the side as appropriate.
Place your chosen die in your constellation, either as a star branching off one of your starting stars or as a star branching off a previously placed star. Each starting star and each placed star may have at most two branches off of it, and each placed star must have a lower value than the star from which it's branching off.
If a newly placed star has more sides than the star it's branching off of, you immediately score 2 points. Otherwise, you score points only at game's end, with your dice scoing points based on their color. For example, with yellow you score 1, 3 or 6 points for having one, two, or at least three yellow dice. Blue dice are worth only 1 point each, unless two blue dice branch off one star, in which case the pair is worth 4 points. Black dice score based on their sum off each starting star, and red dice based on how many even or odd non-red dice are on the same line. Whoever scores the most points wins.
You can also play Twinkle with mission cards that reward the player with the lowest total sum, the fewest types of dice, the fewest colors, and so on, with 1-3 of these mission cards in play as desired.
In Bloodstone, you control one of the characters and use a custom dice mechanism to determine your attacks and movements, using your miniature to move around the arena and engage in combat. You hope someday to escape this damned place, but tonight...you fight!