“The 21st century. Mankind has colonized the last unexplored region on Earth, the ocean. As Captain of the Sea Quest and its crew, we are its guardians. For beneath the surface lies the future.”
That 1993 speech by Roy Schnieder was Sea Quest DSV’s attempt at being “Space, the final frontier…” level of iconic. It may just be nostalgia, but I enjoyed SeaQuest DSV, and even the third season soft reboot Sea Quest 2032. I was thinking about Bubble Net, and Seaquest came to mind. We have a few years to catch up to the show, but it is the 21st century, the future still lies beneath the surface of the oceans, and we should all be its guardians. It was very 1990’s messaging but it remains valid. Shows like Sea Quest, Finding Nemo, and Disney’s underrated Atlantis, put the wonders of our oceans in the minds of a generation, with obvious thanks to 150-ish years worth of Moby Dick and Captain Nemo stories. Now, we have easy access to channels like National Geographic and Discovery, along with a borderline obsession with sharks. But the real world still mostly overlooks whales outside of a few pockets of pop culture.
One of the most surprisingly overlooked facts of whaledom is their feeding methods. Most kids will get a drive-by education about it. Astute adults may know of Killer Whales’ recent appetite for eating the rich, or at least for hunting luxury boats. But how many people can honestly say they know about bubble net feeding?
Be honest. You probably didn’t know, and you probably were wondering what point I was going to eventually make.
Bubble-net feeding is a learned, cooperative, feeding method used by humpback whales. Basically, a group of whales circle a school of fish blowing bubbles to disorient and corral the fish into a “net” of bubbles. Then, all of the whales swim up to eat the trapped fish like the lunge feeding of a single whale. But how do you turn that into a game?
Extremely well, if you are Drayer Ink.
Bubble Net, the game, is a solo or multi-player-solo game. Which means that as long as one player has the cards, and everyone else has the board components any number of players can play at the same time. It should be noted at this point that I have only played using an advance Creator Kit version and that everything may (and many things have) changed between when I received this and when Kickstarter backers and retail stores will receive it. You can watch me play it on YouTube at the of this spotlight.
The campaign itself is funded and straightforward. $5 (USD) for the Print and Play version (included with the other pledge levels), $40 for the standard edition (1-4 players), and $99 for a Party Pack of three standard copies.
You can back Bubble Net on Kickstarter until July 10, 2024.
You can find Drayer Ink online at drayerink.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/drayerink and facebook.com/groups/655073142746866
TheRatHole.ca does not accept payments for our reviews but may have received a promotional copy of this product for review.
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