I know, I know, the title is clickbaity — but come on, you know the times we live in. If I don’t smack you with a headline, you won’t even look here. So here we are: you, curious how I supposedly fixed deckbuilding, and soon after, you, annoyed it was just a clickbait trick.

But here’s the good news — it’s not entirely clickbait. Yes, I’m exaggerating, yes, I’m asking myself for mean comments below, yes, I’m being cheeky… but working on Bohemians with Jasper, we genuinely tried to bring something fresh to the deckbuilding mechanic. I think we spotted a few of its weaker spots and gave them a bit of a polish. Let me tell you about two elements of deckbuilding we decided to tinker with.

From 2007 and Neuroshima Hex to 2025 and Age of Galaxy, at Portal Games, we’ve always been science fiction nerds, and our catalog has made that pretty obvious over the years.

So when I got an email about a game where you play a bohemian artist in Paris in the 19th century… I wasn’t exactly thrilled.

I was about to write my standard reply — the one I use when replying to designers who pitch me games for kids, families, abstract puzzles, and all those other projects that are just blasted to every publisher under the sun.

Then I noticed a link to a video in the email.

I clicked it.

And that changed everything.

There are 40 unique cards in the deck. You draw 7 at the beginning of the game—and that’s it. The rest goes back in the box. Those 7 are your hand for the entire game. And because each card is multi-use, you’re suddenly staring the game with 21 possible decisions. Neat.

3 of these cards will form your Galactic Alliance. 1 card will be your Ideology—that’s your end-game scoring bonus. And the remaining three? Like in Imperial Settlers, you just raze them. Grab resources and toss the card. Again, neat.

So now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room—Age of Galaxy has a generic name like hundreds of other SF games. Has a standard, weird-looking alien art on the cards that we already’ve seen hundreds of times. And has a cover that kind of whispers “Star Trek,” but doesn’t exactly whisper “You must have it”

You’ve got a dozen games like this on your shelf already.

So… why would you care?

You would care because you love card games. You would care because the edge is not in the cover. It is in the cards.

It’s in that hand of 7.

It’s in the thrill of planning a galaxy-shaking combo and executing it one turn at a time.

It’s in watching your friends pull off their own powerful alliances.

If you’re into card games, you already know—the magic is in the multi-use cards. In the decisions which cards to Raze, and which turn into 3 card alliance. In the way, those 7 cards give crazy synergies.

You smile.

You know.

Forget the generic title. Ignore the vanilla setting.

You’re ready for one more awesome card game in your life. You know the edge is right there in your hand of seven starting cards.

***

You can learn more about Age of Galaxy HERE.

Hania lives in Krosno, which is nearly 300 km away from the headquarters of Portal Games. Hania has been working at Portal Games since 2020, and I’ve only met her in person barely twice because first COVID struck, and then we had only two more company retreats during which I had a chance to chat with her for maybe 15 minutes in total. A lot has been happening on those retreats! Of course, there are regular Zoom conferences, daily exchanges of emails and messages on Discord, but let’s be honest – in the era of remote work, the contact with the team is different from the daily chitchats during lunch breaks and playing board games together after hours.

I’d have to say that I hardly know Hania, in essence.

„I think you should see this,” Chevee says. I’ve been waiting for these words for over five years. I’ve waited for them since he took on the responsibility of testing prototypes. He’s had dozens of meetings, examined countless prototypes, and each time, nothing managed to meet the high standards we set for them. I haven’t seen any of those games he played with my own eyes.

Until now.

„I think you should see this.” How beautifully it sounds.