Blue Biome: Experience the living systems of the Ocean

🌊 Science-based. Deeply strategic. Surprisingly addictive.

In Blue Biome, every decision has ecological consequences.

Build thriving ecoregions, compete for limited resources, respond to environmental change, and discover how the same principles that shape real ocean ecosystems can shape your strategy.

The game already exists. We now need your help to print it.

We have developed and tested Blue Biome over the past 18 months. Players from a local board game club and participants at two different events have already played it. Now, we are ready to reach a much larger audience.

“We could not literally stop playing.” — EU4Ocean’s Post

"There are many educational games, but this is FUN!" — A Blue Biome playtester

Help us bring Blue Biome to life and dive into the strategy of a changing ocean.

🌊 Game Overview

Blue Biome is a science-based board game for 2 to 4 players where you build and develop marine ecoregions inspired by real ocean science 🌊🎲

Strengthen your ecoregions with favourable events🌤️, but be ready to face natural disturbances 🌪️🔥📈 and human-driven threats that will test your strategy.

As you play, you’ll discover how species interact, compete, and depend on one another, and why balance is essential for survival.

Focused on resource optimisation and smart decision-making, Blue Biome blends strategy and just the right touch of luck to create a dynamic and educational experience for those who love to play games of approx. 45 minutes to 1 hour ⏱️

Perfect for marine enthusiasts (like us!), families, board gamer and students (10+). 

👀 What's in the box

The game board features a detailed topographic world map with geographic coordinates, allowing you to visualise the vast structure of the ocean from continental shelves to the deepest trenches. The cards are inspired by real marine ecoregions and environmental processes, and every species interaction is based on scientific resources gathered in our database. This isn’t just ocean-themed. It’s science-based.

Graphic designer Isaac Muñoz brought the cards and othe game elements to life through carefully crafted artwork. The visuals remain faithful to real marine species and ecoregions, while adding a subtle touch of fantasy that enhances the atmosphere without sacrificing scientific accuracy.

Every card, ecoregion and species in the game is connected through a QR code to the Blue Biome website, where players can discover the science behind what they have just experienced from species ecology and distributions to ecosystem roles and environmental pressures.

Last but not least, the box artwork is inspired by original creations from Jori Neteland-Kye 🎨🖌️, bringing a distinctive artistic touch to the Blue Biome design and helping make the game feel as imaginative and alive as the ocean it represents.

🎲 How to play

Blue Biome is played over 12 marine ecoregions which are made up of 4 interconnected species forming real ocean food chains. The game revolves around three core actions:

BUILD: to develop your ecoregions, you must gather essential natural elements (light, nutrients, temperature, and oxygen). Resource availability depends on environmental conditions and the roll of the dice. Strategic planning matters… but so does adapting to nature’s unpredictability.ADAPT: event cards shape the world around you. Some bring opportunities allowing you to harvest extra resources and strengthen your ecoregion. Others introduce threats from environmental change or human impact.

Special interaction cards represent real inter-species relationships, such as parasitism, letting you exploit another player and redirect resources to your own advantage.SURVIVE: your ecoregion is never completely safe. Other players may compete for resources with you, and powerful special cards — like the Apex Predator 🦈 — can disrupt your carefully balanced food chain. Only the most resilient ecoregion will endure.

Blue Biome is intuitive and easy to pick up once you understand the underlying principles, but surviving the ocean’s challenges will require strategy, adaptation, and a bit of courage  just like in the real ocean!

Check out our step-by-step guide video below to learn the roles, objectives, and core mechanics of Blue Biome.

Want to go deeper? Explore the scientific principles behind the game mechanics on our website.

You can also visit our Cards Gallery and Video Gallery to discover more about every ecoregion and species featured in the game.

🏆 Rewards 

Choose the Blue Biome experience that works best for you and help us bring ocean science from the research world to the game table.

🌊🎲 Blue Biome: Core Game
The complete Blue Biome board game experience. Build marine ecosystems, connect species through food webs, respond to environmental change, and discover how the ocean works through strategy and play. Includes the complete core game and everything you need to play.

Blue Biome: Ecoregion Expansion (available if unlocked) 🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏
Explore even more of the ocean with 11 additional marine ecoregions, bringing new species, ecosystems and ecological connections into your game.

More ocean. More species. More ways to play 🌍

Every pledge helps us bring Blue Biome into production and supports our wider mission: making real marine science accessible, engaging and fun!As the campaign hits certain milestones, we’ll add rewards to the existing pledge tiers. Every stretch goal applies to every copy at no extra cost.

🎯 7,400 € – We did it: Blue Biome enters production 🎉🎉🎉
Blue Biome is officially funded! This means the core game can move into production and start its journey to your table.

As a thank-you, every physical copy will include a 👉 🗃️ custom cardboard insert to keep components organised and make setup and pack-down smoother. 

🎯 ✅ 10,000 € – More Oceans to Explore 📦 ⬆️
We unlock 11 additional ecoregions as a game expansion 🐟🦀🐬 

From new marine ecoregions to new ecological challenges, this stretch goal adds more variety, replayability, and ocean literacy to Blue Biome.All shipping costs are estimated according to the price list available at the moment. The final shipment price can slightly change in the future but you will always know exactly the shipping cost at the end of the campaign when you complete your PLEDGE MANAGER*.

At the moment, distribution is managed within the EU, which allows us to offer more affordable shipping rates to EU countries. Shipping to regions such as the USA, Canada, and Australia is currently more expensive due to international logistics. However, if there is sufficient interest from overseas backers, we will explore more cost-effective fulfillment solutions for those countries.

*PLEDGE MANAGER: This is when you will give us your final shipping details (address and contact info).

⏳ Timeline

💪Meet the Team

We’re two marine scientists, Cristian Munoz Mas and Francesca Confente, one of us focused on oceanography, the other on marine biology.Over the years, we’ve worked in both research and industry, exploring how the ocean moves, how ecoregion function, and how human activities shape marine life. But beyond degrees and jobs, what truly connects us is our shared passion for the sea. We’re fascinated by its hidden dynamics and deeply motivated to help protect it.

We believe that the more people understand how the ocean works, the more they’ll care about it — and that understanding should be accessible to everyone.

That’s why we created Blue Biome: a project that brings real marine science closer to society. Our mission is to make ocean science understandable, engaging and accessible through interactive learning. Because understanding the ocean is the first step toward protecting it 💙 Thank you for being part of this journey with us!

Follow Blue Biome on Youtube, Facebook and Instagram for updates, behind-the-scenes content, and more ocean stories!

✨🌍 More than a Game

Blue Biome is more than a board game. It is a project we want to build together.

By backing this campaign, you are adding your own grain of sand to help bring Blue Biome to life and helping us take ocean learning beyond the game table and into Blue Schools and educational communities.

Every contribution, large or small, brings us one step closer to producing the game, expanding its educational resources, and creating opportunities for young people to explore, understand, and connect with the marine environment 🌊

The game is only the beginning! Blue Biome is part of a broader educational initiative that connects physical play with deeper digital learning. 

Together with our continuously growing interactive maps and multimedia content, these tools can also be explored independently by students, teachers, families and anyone curious about the ocean and allowing players to keep exploring the science behind the game long after the game session ends.