Deep Shelf

About this board game

Deep Shelf is a deep-sea exploration and development board game for 1–4 players, with an approximate play time of 140 minutes. Each player leads a competing corporation during a modern rush to extract rare earth metals from the ocean floor.

Discover and develop valuable resource nodes, extract their metals, and transport those resources to the surface. At the same time, the deep ocean offers an opportunity to study and catalogue rare lifeforms that have never been encountered before.

The game presents an uneasy collaboration between industrial interests and scientific research. Corporations provide the wealth and reach needed for expeditions, while ecological and research groups contribute breakthroughs gained from studying the vast, hostile deep-sea ecosystem.

• Explore the deepest reaches of the ocean.
• Develop resource nodes and extract rare earth metals.
• Transport resources from the ocean floor to the surface.
• Research and catalogue unfamiliar deep-sea lifeforms.

Your strategy determines the character of your corporation. Expand rapidly and strip mine the ocean’s wealth, or adopt a more eco-friendly approach focused on learning about the wonders of the deep. Every choice must account for the consequences of pushing too far.

Mining too greedily or delving too deep can damage natural ocean ecosystems and hasten the end of the game. The environment is not the only danger below the surface, either: the unexplored deep contains discoveries that may not be friendly.

With its blend of exploration, exploitation, development, and research, Deep Shelf challenges players to weigh short-term industrial gains against scientific opportunity and ecological risk.