bingewatches

Fans of the bird-inspired game, Wingpsan, will soon be able to expand their naturalist horizons.

Jamey Stegmaier, co-founder of board game publisher Stonemaier Games, announced on Wednesday that Wingspan is getting a new sequel. It’s called Finspan and instead of focusing on birds, the new game will be inspired by fish and ocean ecology. Finspan will be released later this month on Jan. 22.

Like Wingspan, Finspan will be a “competitive card-driven engine-building game” for up to five players, and contain a “robust solo mode” created by Automa Factory. David Gordon (Monkey Palace) and Michael O’Connell worked as designers on the game, with illustrations from Wingspan illustrator Ana María Martínez, Catalina Martínez, and Mesa Schumacher. Elizabeth Hargrave, the original designer of Wingspan, did not feel like she had “the bandwidth to do [fish] justice,” but assisted with the development of Finspan.

“I’m absolutely delighted that someone else was available to take this one on,” Hargrave said in a release. “As I did with Wyrmspan, I played the game and weighed in on the design at several key points in the development process. It’s been such an interesting puzzle to help make games that feel like they’re in a family with Wingspan, while still delivering a different play experience.”

Both Wingspan and its dragon-inspired successor, Wyrmspan, stand out for their gorgeous art, and it looks like Finspan will follow suit in that regard. The game contains 125 fish cards featuring naturalist illustrations and little factoids on the critters. According to the release, there will be three main gameplay features: growing your collection of fish, laying fish eyes, and hatching those eggs to form schools. A player wins by gaining the most points from accumulating fish eggs, young, schools, and achievements.

For those looking to get a closer look at how it compares to Wingspan, Stonemaier Games has already published the rulebook online.