Something Fishy

The ocean world holds you, the solo King of the reef, the job of keeping the reef full but not too full. As fish show up you tell them where to reside, sneakily putting together groups of the same fishes so they will leave and make a home elsewhere. You only have this position for a short time, and then one of the other fish will take this responsibility. Don't let the reef get too crowded or you fail and the reef falls to decay.

In Something Fishy, a solo mostly abstract game, the player takes the position of Reef King. The job that is placed on each King is to maintain a balance of fishes. Fish tokens are drawn randomly, two each turn. The player will roll three dice to indicate where the tokens may be placed. The player take two of the rolled dice, add them together, forming a number of an area to place the token. Each area of the reef, has 1-2 numbers that correspond to it, providing an overlap for each number, so each area has two groups of numbers for placement, kind of like a Venn diagram with "lanes" that hold three fish each, and an area consisting of two lanes that overlap to the left and right groups of numbers as well. If, after the two fish tokens are placed, each area is checked for three or more fishes of the same color; those fish tokens are taken off the board and placed to the side, making more room for others "arriving". If, after 24 turns and the reef areas have not been overran by having three fish in one lane, you win. If, after checking for full lanes, and removal of the threes that are duplicates, a lane is still full with three tokens, you lose.

—description from the designer