The solar system creation game Planetarium will be expanded with the Planetarium:  Primordial Expansion, releasing in Q4 from Game Salute’s Sparkworks imprint.

Released in 2017, Planetarium challenges players to develop an evolving solar system in pursuit of their own secret goals (see “Evolve a New Solar System in ‘Planetarium’”). 

The Primordial Expansion offers two “modules” that can be added to the game, separately or together:

The Epochs module moves the beginning point of the game to an earlier phase of stellar development, known as the Late Heavy Bombardment.  This allows players to create more diverse solar systems and adds more early game strategy options as comets and asteroids collide with the planets, delivering resources. 

The Frost Line module refers to the distance from a star at which water and other compounds become solid.  It replaces the Evolution cards from the base game and introduces a Heat and Cold mechanic that restricts the use of some cards to certain parts of the system.  This adds a more competitive element to the game, as players compete to change the temperature of the planets, gaining points or taking them from their opponents.

The Planetarium:  Primordial Expansion comes with 60 cards, 4 Frostline markers, 112 tokens, and 4 planets.  As an expansion, a copy of the base game is required for play.  MSRP is $35.00.

Game Salute launched its new Sparkworks imprint last year to help distinguish its lighter, more casual games (see “Game Salute Launches New Imprints”).