Designed by Ryan Laukat

Laukat’s games inspire you want to live in the world he has created. His games are immersive and expansive. Above and Below is the gateway to those lands that you just want to travel through. First and foremost it’s the art that draws you in. The character portraits, maps, resource tokens and cards all just flow . . part color pallet and part creative detail. Above and Below just gives you a taste of Ryan’s creativity. Most of this is made possible because Ryan does his own art, and it just inspires fun gameplay. Right out the gate, he has us hooked.

Once you start playing, the gameplay and mechanics are amazingly seamless. The thing about Above and Below is that the mechanics and game flow are fairly flawless. Basically, you are managing a group of colonists as they develop and improve their community. Through assigning your colonists to tasks that they specialize in, they can construct buildings using resources collected by harvesting, recruit (Re: above) and explore the Glogo Caverns (Re: below) for supplies while making ethical and moral decisions based on a choose your own adventure style book of moral conundrums. These decisions have an impact on gameplay as each decision may or may not increase or decrease your colonies reputation.

Reading the rulebook is fun. The writing is clear and well thought out, which leaves little room for questions ambigious gameplay mechanics. Again, the art that accompanies the game, is reflected in the graphics design and layout of the rulebook. You just wish Ryan would include more anecdotes, stories and histories that reflect the richness of the world he has created.

As the first in this immersive series of games Above and Below is the perfect gateway to a richly creative world where design compliments gameplay. It’s fun and beautiful and just complex enough to play with family and friends.