Aquarium Designer

In this tile-laying game, players are aquarium designers trying to create the most delightful aquarium.

Tiles can have up to 4 areas depicted on them:

 Brown (area where visitors can see seals)
 Pink (dolphins)
 Light blue (penguins)
 Dark blue (angel fish)

At game plays over eight rounds, in which players pick and place tiles. Points are awarded points at the end of the game for the areas they created. The player with the highest score wins.

Gameplay

At the beginning of the game, every player gets an "Entrance" tile (featuring all four areas). Shuffle the layout cards to make a draw deck (cards face up), and place a number of layout tiles equal to the number of players face up. The player that has most recently visited an aquarium goes first.

Each round, there are two phases: a tile acquisition phase, and a building phase.

During the tile acquisition phase, players take turns picking a tile from the available layout tiles. Play proceeds clockwise, and each player may decide to pick immediately, or postpone their decision ("pass") and pick a tile after others have picked theirs. Players can only pass once: if a player decides to "pass" they will have to pick a tile after the other players have picked their tiles or passed. This continues until all players have picked a tile. The last person to pick a tile will be the starting player next round.

Examples: 4 players, A-B-C-D, A starts

1. A: picks, B: picks, C: picks, D: picks. Every player has a card, acquisition phase ends. D is next round's starting player.
2. A: picks, B: passes, C: picks, D: picks, A: does nothing, B: picks. Every player has a card, acquisition phase ends. B is next round's starting player.

During the building phase, player place their tiles in their own Aquarium. The following restrictions apply:

1. The sides of the tiles have to touch completely. The orientation of the tile does not matter.
2. Tiles cannot go outside a 3 by 3 frame. Entrance does not have to be in the middle.
3. Areas on the tiles do not have to match.
4. Once placed, tiles cannot be moved.

At the end of the round, the layout cards are replenished.

After eight rounds, players will have a 3 by 3 grid.

Scoring points is easy:

 You can only count connected areas with 2 or more animals.
 For each area, count the number of tiles in that area and add the number of animals.

The player with the highest score wins.

—user summary