The Island of Dr. Moreau: A Brutal Surgical Horror Game

The Island of Dr. Moreau is a competitive strategy board game for 1-5 players where you are scientists on Dr. Moreau’s island, creating human-animal hybrids known  as ‘Beast Folk’ from 105 deadly animals. Each animal is represented by a body part with a strength, speed, and ability that gives special combinations to your monster and brings your creation to life.

Stitch your beast using bodily resources from the lab and extracting resources from your discarded parts. During the build phase, you can upgrade your creation and improve its overall strength and abilities. Then in battle, unleash your beast against your rivals’ monstrous amalgamations, because you cannot contain Beast Folk. 

Watch as limbs fall, heads roll, and beasts narrowly win or lose. The winner is the player to reach the target score and win the final battle.

Based on H.G. Wells' story of the same name and drawing from games like Magic: The Gathering, Bears vs Babies, and Exquisite Corpse, The Island of Dr. Moreau is set on a remote island where vivisecting human-animal hybrids occurs under the guidance of a mad scientist, the notorious Dr. Moreau.

It’s a primal world where themes of body horror and transhumanism give life to gruesome monstrosities. Beast Folk creations roam and fight on the island, imposing their superiority, and battling for dominance. As scientists working under Dr. Moreau, you are tasked with creating the most vicious beast of any of your rivals and declaring your new species champion, all in the name of science.

Fun facts: a full-grown mountain gorilla is stronger than 20 adults, the force of a golden eagle’s talons is like firing the bullet of a gun, and a box jellyfish has enough venom to kill 60 humans. These skills along with each animal’s size and ferociousness are factors when ranking these predators in overall deadliness. Whether you’re a fan of the lore or the animals, or if you just love a good monster battle, The Island of Dr. Moreau offers an action-packed experience that is both thrilling and memorable.

This game is the definitive game from the mind of H.G. Wells. Contracted with the Wells Estate and trademarked, The Island of Dr. Moreau is now a world that you can play at home with every copy of the game you buy directly supporting the legacy of H.G. Wells.

Our game has been designed with a simple and intuitive rule system, allowing players to quickly learn and jump into creating new creatures. The card management system and draw pile optimize beast building, so no player is slow to the game. There’s push-your-luck and deception tactics, point combinations, and various paths to victory. Each battle is a unique experience, providing players with endless replayability. Whether you’re a seasoned gamer or new to tabletop games, our game is accessible and enjoyable for players of all skill levels.

Lifelike artwork portrays 105 different animals in their natural habitat. Every card features the scientific name of the animal, its habitat, its regional geography, its size or weight, and a factoid about what makes each animal so incredibly deadly. With cards that are easy to read, fun to play, and color-blind friendly, these human-designed cards captivate your attention while unleashing the animal inside.

Each player starts with 7 cards, 10 finite resources, and 1 score dial.

Use your finite resources or extract resources from your parts to pay the resource cost for your beast's parts.

Assemble your beast with five anatomical body parts. 

Roll up to five battle dice and place them on your beast to activate.

Pick your strongest attack or defense.

Enhance and deceive your rivals to out-strengthen your opponents.

Reach the target score and win the final battle to become the next Dr. Moreau.

Test your wits in a solo campaign where you draft and battle against Dr. Moreau himself. Manage your resources wisely, avoid attacks, and overthrow the doctor before it's too late. Name your champion as a new scientific species and immortalize your masterpiece.

(These will be linked later.)

We absolutely want expansions to grow the base game! There are so many creatures we still want to feature, and we have many ideas for how to do just that. For now, our focus is on delivering an amazing base game at an affordable price. Stay tuned for further news.

We want you to have the best experience playing The Island of Dr. Moreau, and that means we have a clear vision for what the game needs to uphold our commitment to quality, materials, artwork and design. Any added components, items, or merchandise would delay our production and delivery to your doorstep.

Fear not, this game is already upgraded to the max! We have premium 400gsm matte UV cards, robust tokens, and a quality-designed tray keeping all your game parts in orderly fashion. Our goal is that each game and each customer has the finest experience that we originally intended.

If you think there’s something missing to complete your experience, please let us know by commenting on the Kickstarter.

Great! We’ve included a retail tier, and you’re welcome to reach out to us directly. We want our game in as many brick-and-mortar locations as possible, and we’re excited to meet you!

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Full creative control. By self-publishing via Kickstarter, we get to maintain complete control over the IP - define the gameplay, the art style and even the manufacturing. That means the end product is a cohesive and unified vision direct from the mind of the creator to your table with no third-party interference.

It helps reach a wider audience. As a small publisher with a limited library of games, getting broad distribution can be difficult. Not only does the Kickstarter platform provide a trustworthy place for people to support small businesses, it also allows for broad global distribution meaning more people get to enjoy the game. 

It helps generate funds required for manufacturing. Being a small company, we don't have a lot of capital lying around to invest in the upfront marketing and manufacturing costs. So Kickstarter provides a way to generate the funds needed to produce the game and tell the world about it. 

It supports companies you love directly. Simply put, Kickstarter means more money for small businesses. Meaning we can spend less time making ends meet and more time making games!

Note this timeline is an estimate. Unforeseen circumstances in manufacturing, shipping or world events may cause delays. 

This game has been in development for over 3 years, with hundreds of playtesters over 150+ hours, with some of the best minds in the board game industry.

Logos Coming: Ad Magic. Launchboom. Mesa Game Lab. GameQuest.

Stay tuned for more updates!