My Island Origins preview — forget land protection & leave no space

Set sail for a new adventure with My Island, the upcoming competitive legacy game designed by Reiner Knizia, releasing from Kosmos later this year. Gaming Trend got a sneak peek of My Island last week at Origins 2023, giving me the chance to play through the first episode and start my own island. I had a blast playing and can’t wait to check out the full 24 episodes and “Eternal Game” when My Island is available.

My Island tells the story of your arrival on a mysterious, new island. The story is broken into three-episode chapters, expected to run around 90 minutes. There is one sealed envelope with rules and other necessary materials per chapter, adding conditional scoring mechanisms for each of the three included episodes. As a legacy game, players work to evolve their islands over time, and choices made early in the game may have lasting effects. Therefore, it is recommended to play through the game with the same group of 2 to 4 players.

During each of the 24 episodes, players cycle through a deck of 28 cards, placing their own matching tile (following episode requirements) on their personal gameboard simultaneously as cards are revealed each round. Players can spend points to pass on specific tiles or opt to end participation without losing points, and the game ends when all players have ended participation or the deck of cards has been emptied.

At the end of each episode, scoring and assessment occur. Points are calculated and ranking is assessed to determine if players are eligible to complete progress circles or receive stickers to enhance their personal gameboard. This is intended to balance competitive gameplay as the episodes progress.

There are four types of spaces on the double-sided gameboards: Beach spaces, Heather spaces, Rainforest spaces, and Palm spaces. In the game I played, we could only place tiles on Beach spaces or Heather spaces and points were instantly scored by building houses on the Beach spaces. The first tile had to be played touching a Beach space, and all other tiles were required to be placed next to a previously placed tile with at least one adjacent matching space on each tile. Tiles could not be placed on or overlapping into water spaces or other tiles, and once tiles were placed, they could not be moved.

After playing a few rounds, we picked up gameplay and the pace. Tiles are exclusively in 2-space, 3-space, and 4-space configurations, so covering every exposed Beach space can require players to utilize planning and probabilistic thinking, as available tiles are visible throughout the episode. Strategizing where to place tiles for maximum effect and whether to spend points to skip specific tiles keeps each round engaging, and I am excited to see how that energy will translate through the progression of the story, multiple chapters of episodes, and eternal game replay value.

My Island is available for preorder at the Kosmos website.

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