Reef's Up!

Reef's Up! is a semi-collaborative board game where each player embodies a different coral species aiming to grow as much as possible across a shelf of crustose coralline algae. This game supports 3-4 players, but we generally recommend a full group of 4 players for the optimal play experience.

The main goal is to have the most coral and reach the top of the reef! You might be competing for space but the whole world will be worse off if any of you don't make it. Work together, and build a diverse, thriving habitat for aquatic life everywhere!

Originally made for the 2026 G4C Student Challenge, Reef's Up! is an overview: both to the challenges coral face from humans and climate change broadly, but also to some of the beauty that coral reefs provide. And most importantly, what humans can/need to do so over 1 million aquatic species still have reefs to call home. 

This print-and-play version of Reef's Up! contains: 

• Beautifully illustrated and designed cards, including 48 Action Cards, 26 Global Actions, 4 different Coral player cards and 60 assorted Algae cards. 
• A printable game board where spacing of pieces determines your trajectory forward and your overall score. 
• An accompanying playmat with places for all the different card types to be easily laid out.
• Player's guide rulebooks that are formatted to fold into 8-page zines!

Team:

Production Design, Producer - Joan
Art Direction, Card Design - José
Research, Card Drafting - LJ

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This game was made for GAM 440: Games with a Purpose Bootcamp