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Jason Carr
United States
Evanston
Illinois
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In my last post, I posted some images of my finished product, and people asked for more!
So I'm happy to oblige, and I want to give a mini-review of this fantastic game, and the components I chose to use.
Overview
Space Junkyard is a tile laying/economic-engine building game that is available as a free Print-and-Play game or as a commercially produced game from Mayday Games (NOT Mayfair Games). The game was designed by Gilad Yarnitzky and the art for the version I put together was done by Orlando Ramirez.
It took me about 4 hours of work to make my copy of Space Junkyard, from beginning to end. That said, it took about 4 months to get that work done - which is not a reflection on the game at all; rather it's a statement about my terrible drive to get things done.
The Files
The files are freely available on BGG, and I need to give HUGE props to Mr. Yarnitzky for pushing to have the files left up after the game was picked for publication. Also, props to Mayday games for agreeing to have the files left up.
There are some differences between the files on the 'Geek and the commercially produced game. Let's peek:
Image by maydaygames
On the left, the commercial art. On the right, the PnP art. There's not a huge difference, but the commercial tiles are a little less cluttered and easier to read.
Still, the freely available art looks great, especially on a laser printer with fully saturated colors. Check out my tiles:
The colors are bold and reminiscent of cartoons - which fits the theme of the game perfectly. As one commenter said, the tiles are very 'Buzz Lightyear'.
There are multiple versions of the files available - I would recommend the ones I used: Space Junkyard Vector Set (v2). While there are other filesets that are functional, I think that Orlando's files are the best looking. He also designed the artwork for the commercial game, if that means anything.
The file comes as a 15 page PDF weighing in at 7.5 MB. It will hammer your printer, but it's well worth it. I would highly recommend printing on a laser printer for depth of color, but I'm sure some inkjets would look great too. The instructions are full-page prints (more on that later) and take up the first 6 pages. Then there are 9 pages of components, including resource markers and ship movers that you can make yourself.
Components
As a PnP game, the components are going to be rather irregular from copy to copy. I want to compare the components I used (easily available) with the components from the commercial version, and finally some of the other PnP ideas.
First, the 'built in' components - the ships and the resource tokens included with the game are paper, stuck to cardboard or wooden disks:
Image by: Howitzer_120mm
They're totally usable and ready to go! But the commercial components are a huge upgrade - they come with plastic ships that look great, and wooden components for the resources. Also, the game comes with a board (not necessary for play, but very cool):
Image by: Howitzer_120mm
Image by: Howitzer_120mm
I decided to compromise. I'm not terribly handy, but I wanted sturdier and more tactile components, so I bought/thrifted some parts:
The ships are from Zathura: Adventure is Waiting, and I'm just using small wooden beads for the resources. Hopefully I can upgrade to Risk cubes from a vintage copy of Risk someday. But for now I'm happy with the portability of the small beads.
Finally though, I just have to share this option for resources:
Image by: dirkgent001
I am extremely tempted to make a set of these! I just need a circle punch and some silicone/clear glue.
The Product
Making the game was easy. I printed the files and stuck them to single-thick chipboard to get a nice sturdy tile. I wanted to share a few pictures of the finished product. These are all staged photos, since I haven't gotten to play it yet:
A Short Review
I'd recommend looking at the Dice Tower review for this game if you want details on the mechanics. In short, you move your spaceship through the junkyard and harvest broken-down ship parts or asteroids for resources, which you can store in your ship. Then, you can use those resources to repair pieces of broken-ships and add them to your ship, which gives you the ability to hold more resources. That lets you build even more ship parts... and the cycle continues.
Tom Vasel's main critique of the game is that it's not exciting - this is pretty much true. There's not a whole lot of tension in the game, and it's really about building up your economy. But there is definitely player interaction - after every move, you put a tile back on the 'board' (a 6 x 6 grid of tiles), from the side (sort of like The aMAZEing Labyrinth). This gives you the opportunity to knock your opponent off the edge of the board, or more importantly, knock a tile that they might want off the edge of the board.
If you do take a look at Tom's review, keep in mind that the PnP version does not have the 'Black Hole' tile. This is no great loss, in my opinion, although it would be easy enough to make one to add to the game.
Overall, I rate the game a 6.5 - it's beautiful, the game play works great, and it's not boring at all. If you like engine-building games, this is definitely your cup of tea.
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