Stonemeier Games has announced Wingspan Pocket, a lighter, purely card-driven version of popular tableau-builder, Wingspan. Wingspan Pocket will be available directly from Stonemeier Games on July 15, with local retail release following “a few weeks after launch fulfillment is complete,” finally followed by major online retail release around late August. The card game will also be available for purchase during Gen Con, July 30 – August 2.
Wingspan Pocket is designed by original Wingspan designer Elizabeth Hargrave and original artists Natalia Rojas and Ana Maria Martinez. It’s designed for 1-5 players, ages 8+, and a playtime of around 30 minutes.
The small travel-size box includes the following components:
- 2 rulebooks (multiplayer and solo)
- 5 Nest cards (57x87mm)
- 5 player aids (80x120mm)
- 1 first-player card (57x87mm)
- 106 double-sided bird/food cards (57x87mm)
- 60 egg tokens
- 5 player tokens
- 1 goal display
- 9 double-sided goal cards (44x67mm)
- 11 Automa cards and 1 solo Nest card
- 1 box (110x160x50mm)
The full rulebook is available to view online.
Cards in Wingspan Pocket are double-sided, with one side featuring the bird cards, with their food costs, and abilities, and the other side depicting different kinds of food. When cards a drawn into a player’s hand, they’re selected as either food, or bird.
Unlike Wingspan, which features a board of three rows, Wingspan Pocket features only a single row of birds (sans board). Your row of birds is activated every turn – even when playing bird cards. Pocket also introduces a new type of power: ongoing, allowing players to constantly gain a certain benefit.
Players earn victory points by playing birds and laying eggs, and the game ends once after one player plays their sixth bird card.
Wingspan has proven an incredibly popular, family-friendly board game since its release in 2019. The bird-themed game has spawned several expansions, as well as entire stand-alone spinoffs that explore other themes: the slightly more challenging Wyrmspan, and the slightly easier to play, Finspan. An excellent digital version of Wingspan is also available on PC, consoles, and mobile devices.
