New Game Round-up: Practice Spy Lies, Arrange Night Skies, and Become Tile Wise

Welcome one and all to Spycon, the largest super spy convention in the world! You are here to get a precious piece of secret information, but there is a complication: Everyone is wearing a costume, and you don't know who your source is. Find your spy by listening and talking to the visitors, but you have to remember that the interceptors are on site, too, and they might get ahead of you and unveil your spy before you do!

Spycon is a storytelling detective party game in which players split into two teams and take turns being the spy. The goal of the spy is to make their own team guess which costume they are wearing in such a way that the opposing team wouldn't get it. In order to do this, the spy and their team use a special keyword as well as their quick-wittedness, limitless fantasy, subtlety, and impressive talent for mingling.

Space! For millennia, humans have marveled at the cosmos. Modern astronomy gives us valuable insight about what’s happening in the universe, but there is still a sense of wonder to be had in looking up at the expanse above us.

In Stellar, you are stargazers, calibrating your telescopes to bring into view celestial objects of various types — planets, moons, asteroids, interstellar clouds, black holes, even satellites — as you create a beautiful display of the night sky! More specifically, you have eleven rounds to play cards to your telescope and notebook, building a night sky tableau. After that, you'll calculate your points, and the stargazer with the most point wins!

Rocketmen has two variants: the regular game and a simplified one called "Battle for Earth" (the difference being the initial game set-up and length). In general, players gain victory points by launching space missions to one of three celestial destinations: Earth Orbit, the Moon, and Mars. The game ends when a player has a certain number of VPs, all twelve space missions have been completed, or a player places their fifth or sixth token resulting in each destination having at least one mission completed. Every successful mission gives players considerable perks — additional rocket points, extra cash, increased hand size, and supplementary resources — to help them prepare for future missions.

In more detail, each player starts with two secret goal cards. Gameplay is turn-based, and a player chooses one of four actions on their turn: Buy cards from the display, place cards on the launch pad, discard cards, or launch a mission.

Cards in the game include asset, rocket, and mission cards. All of these are dual-purpose; they may serve, respectively, as resources, means of propulsion, and types of missions players would like to accomplish, OR they may be a currency with which players buy other cards. Some asset cards can be disposed of for one-shot special abilities.

To diversify the game rules, you can pick two game variant cards at random, and they will modify gameplay. The solo game is played with six AI cards that steer your artificial opponent's moves.

Square Meal is a quick, puzzle-solving race for 2-6 players. In the game, you will flip, rotate, and overlap your three ingredients cards until they form the pattern on your challenge card. When you complete a challenge card, you'll add it to your score pile and immediately begin working on a new one. You'll lose a point each time you pass. To win, you'll need to form patterns quickly and have the most points when the deck runs out. The game also includes a solo variant.