Digging For Dinos

Cloak & Gamer, LLC Verified independent store

→

Digging for Dinos is a quick 2–4 player spatial set-collection game where rival paleontologists move across a changing excavation site, claiming wooden fossil tiles and trying to a ssemble complete dinosaur skeletons. Each player controls two paleontologists, but their movement alternates between orthogonal and diagonal every time they move. That simple restriction turns “I want that fossil” into a much better question: can you actually get yourself into position to collect it before somebody else digs it up? You Found the T. Rex Skull. Now Find the Rest of It. Digging for Dinos has an easy goal to understand: collect valuable fossils and complete dinosaurs. The interesting part is that you do not simply choose any fossil you want. Your paleontologists sit directly on the dig site, and the tile you collect is the space you leave behind. Because each explorer flips between diagonal and orthogonal movement after moving, your next destination determines both what you collect now and what that paleontologist will be capable of reaching later. The board keeps changing as fossils are removed and replaced, so planning matters, but so does adapting when another team excavates the exact vertebra you were setting up to reach. How the Game Works Each player controls two paleontologist tokens. One movement side travels orthogonally and the other diagonally. On your turn, choose one paleontologist and move it along a legal line to a new dig-site tile, then flip the token so its movement type changes for its next turn. After moving, collect the fossil tile from the space you just left and replace it with a new fossil from the current era. Your collected tiles show pieces belonging to different dinosaurs. Individual fossils have value, but completing the required set for an entire dinosaur makes the collection more valuable. That creates a constant tension between taking the strongest available tile, completing one of your own skeletons, and removing the piece another player obviously needs. As the fossil supply is depleted and dinosaurs are completed, the excavation reaches its end. The paleontology team with the most valuable collection wins. Why You’ll Love It Alternating diagonal and orthogonal movement creates a clever spatial puzzle with almost no rules overhead. You collect the tile you leave rather than the tile you land on, making every move both an excavation and a setup for the future. Completing dinosaur skeletons gives the familiar set-collection structure an immediately understandable goal. Other paleontologists constantly change which fossils are available, creating indirect interaction without attack cards. All-wood tiles and tokens give this small family game an unusually tactile table presence. Fast 15–30 minute games make it easy to play again with a completely different excavation layout. Game Details 🧩 Players: 2–4 ⏱️ Playtime: 15–30 minutes 🎂 Age: 12+ 🗂️ Genre: Paleontology, grid movement, set collection, family strategy 🎯 Complexity: Light — simple movement and collection rules with a satisfying positional puzzle 🔁 Replayability: Medium-high — changing fossil layouts and opponent movement make each excavation develop differently 🎮 Great for fans of: Fossilis, Archaeology-style set collection, light spatial games, dinosaurs, and family games where planning one move ahead actually matters What's in the Box Wooden Fossil and Dig-Site Tiles Double-Sided Wooden Paleontologist Tokens Game Setup and Player Components Rules Show more