Project Icarus

The solar system is erupting into chaos. The dying sun is releasing intense bursts of solar radiation that’s destroying the planets around it, making it an invitation for death for anyone who enters the system. However due to the extreme solar activity, brand new elements are being formed and are worth billions of units. You’re one of a few brave mercenaries trying to make your way through the system gathering as many resources as you can before the sun goes supernova. You’ll find higher valued resources as you get closer to the sun, but it’ll be hard on your shields. Will you get the resources you need to set yourself up for life, or will you fly too close to the sun and be destroyed?

Built into the game is the Supernova tracker. This keeps track of how close the sun is to going supernova. The tracker advances after each round (after each player takes their turn) and whenever a supernova event card is drawn from the drill deck. The amount of supernova event cards put into the deck depends on how many players are in the game.

In Project Icarus, players take turns moving around the board, drilling resources off of planets, and visit space station to repair and upgrade their ship. Players need to manage their resource space, engine power, drill integrity, and shield levels in order to survive and win the game. Each player is working on getting the resources shown on the selected goal card and be the first to return to their hyperspace vector before their shield runs out and before the sun goes supernova.

—description from the designer