Sugar Gliders

About this board game

Sugar Gliders is a board game for 2–4 players, with each game taking about 30 minutes. Players guide sugar gliders across a tree-shaped board, jumping from branch to branch to collect food tiles and score the most points.

The game begins with 60 face-up food tiles distributed across the tree’s 61 spaces, leaving the center empty. Each player chooses a sugar glider and starts on a space containing a value-1 fruit tile. The tile beneath a glider determines how far it can jump on its next turn.

On a turn, a player either makes a jump or enters a brief state of torpor. A jump moves the glider in a straight line by a number of spaces matching the value of its current jumping tile. Purple big-fruit tiles count as five movement points, and gliders cannot move outside the tree or through another glider.

• Collect food tiles in five types, worth from 1 to 5 points.
• Place used jumping tiles in your personal reserve.
• Use reserve tiles when no tile is beneath your glider, with the used tile then discarded.
• Move from the center to any space by spending a reserve tile.

When a glider lands, the tile on that space becomes its new jumping tile. Alternatively, torpor lets a player take the tile beneath their glider and add it to their reserve without moving.

The game ends when the tree runs out of tiles or all gliders consecutively enter torpor. Players then total the points in their reserves, with the highest score winning. Sugar Gliders also includes a shorter two-player variant using the inner board and fewer tiles. Released in 2012, it offers a compact contest of movement, timing, and fruit collection.