Doomsday Manager
Ever imagined being in the front row seats to annihilation?
A killer asteroid is locked on a collision course with Earth. As global chaos brews beneath the shadow of impending doom, survival hinges on you.
A battle of influence.
A battle for headlines.
A battle for control.
As the clock ticks toward extinction, can you rally a fractured world, bend power to your will, and build weapons in time? Or will humanity’s downfall come not from the stars- but from within?
Pardon my dramatic start, but Doomsday Manager certainly brought out the Hollywood flavor in me. It’s movies like Armageddon that made me fall in love with the disaster genre (don’t judge me), so I was delighted to see a print-and-play game on Kickstarter that aligned with the theme. And to my delight, the game is fully funded; and still gaining momentum! Very much like the asteroid approaching your way. Ba-dum tss!
In the words of the creator of Doomsday Manager, Denis Kurdiukov:
“Doomsday Manager is a survival game- meaning that by the end of your hour-long session, you might not make it.”
This line, the genre, and the comic book vibe were more than enough to convince me to give the game a shot.
Questions that lingered in my mind before playing the game:
– Will each session be too long for me?
– How immersive can the game be, given it’s tackling such a massive, world-ending concept?
– Can I save Earth?! What will my success rate be like?
All you need
Saving the planet might be hard, but getting the game ready is a whole lot easier. All you need to do is color print 3 pages, and I highly recommend laminating them. It’s a solo roll-and-write game; more precisely, a solo roll-and-draw game. So be ready to draw or mark on every round of the game.
With the prints and laminations sorted, get ready to grab a handful of D6 dice! At least 10 of them for a start. You may need 14, but 10 would also do. Lastly, grab a whiteboard marker.
And that’s it. You’re ready! Check out the playthrough video Denis released- it was the perfect way for me to learn about the game in a single go. You’ll find it at the end of this article.
So after playing the game plenty of times in the space of a week, here are my accumulated findings for Doomsday Manager!
Findings from playing Doomsday Manager
Gameception | Games within a game
Start playing, and before you know it, you’ll realize you’re actually playing four games in one. And that for me, was a new experience!
You’re charting the asteroid to determine its shape and size, solving the matrix to create weapons, handling/manipulating the media, all the while leveraging politicians. Each of these four sectors comes with its own unique mechanics, making the game quite eventful and far from being monotonous.
A slow burn that escalates well
The game goes on for 4 years! In game terms, you have 48 rounds; that’s one month per round. It’s not that every round is packed with actions, but from a broader perspective, the game builds up to something quite climactic. Which makes the game feel real to me.
And speaking of being real, you also need to ‘motivate’ a few politicians to make sure things go your way. Enough said!
As the game progresses, you need to tackle tons of media crises, an election, and even a world war all the while you’re tracking the asteroid and developing a weapon to destroy it. And these events don’t pop out of nowhere- you see them coming. You need to plan for every crisis and find a way to achieve the best possible outcome. And it gets near impossible at times!
Inertia at first but recovered fast
I had a slow start in the first few rounds, needing to revisit the manual and tutorial a few times. It also took me a while to grasp the meaning behind the many icons used in the game. But the best part is- the learning curve only hits the first time. Once you get the hang of it, everything clicks into place.
The same applies to the gameplay. I was just going past each phase when I first played the game, and it took me a good couple of gameplays to realize how many opportunities I overlooked.
In short, the more you play this game, the better you get at it. It ages like fine wine. So don’t give in so quickly!
The many ways to approach it
So far, I’ve played the game six times, each with a different strategy in an attempt to win. In one playthrough, I focused entirely on preparing weapons and the vault by hiring more staff. In another, I mainly prioritized raising funds through fundraisers, propaganda, and leveraging political influence. There were rounds where I completely overlooked the vault, and others where I committed to just one political faction (Socialist/ Patriot/ Globalist).
The many ways to approach the game keep it highly replayable, and also quite immersive. My average session lasted 60 to 80 minutes, and I barely noticed the time passing by. It felt like being pulled into a disaster movie. All that was missing were some popcorn and a few dramatic soundtracks!
Could I save Earth?
Six attempts: four total disasters, one close call, and one sweet victory!
The victory came on my sixth attempt, and by that time I was making the most of every round of the game.
A teensy bit of customization
I am a big (HUGE) fan of customization, so I couldn’t resist trying out a small tweak.
In the research phase of the game, you roll two dice to gradually reveal parts of the asteroid. These two dice, each a different color, serve fixed roles: one determines how many spaces the asteroid will occupy, while the other reveals the type of material found in each space.
It’s an interesting mechanic for charting the asteroid’s composition, but it’s entirely luck-based. So, I tried an experimental gameplay where I gave myself up to five opportunities to reverse the function of the dice. This allowed me to manipulate the asteroid’s composition and introduce a tactical layer to this phase.
Of course, if you think about it realistically, an asteroid’s composition should be a matter of luck, not strategy- but it was a fun exercise nonetheless!
Where to get the game from?
As I write this article on April 7th, the Kickstarter campaign for this fully-funded game still has 16 days left. I’d like to thank Denis for giving me the opportunity to try this game beforehand, which many of you will be enjoying in the days to come.
I hope this article helped you decide whether you want to back the game, and may you play it even better than I did.
After all, our planet is at stake!
Game Overview
Publisher: Nuka Zombee Games
Designer: Denis Kurdiukov
Artist: Denis Kurdiukov
Number of players: 1
Difficulty level: Medium
Rounds of gameplay needed to learn: 2 rounds
Game duration: 60-80 minutes
Available on: Kickstarter
Theme: Roll and Write/Draw | Disaster genre
Number of pages and color: 3 (color print)
Assembling difficulty level: Super easy. No Assembly required
Lamination: Definitely recommended for replayability and longevity
Additional elements required: At least 10 D6 dice and a whiteboard marker.
Time to learn: Within 20-30 minutes
Travel-friendly: 9/10
Shelving friendly: 10/10
Rating from PnP Time: 8.5/10
Tasliman is a board game developer based in Bangladesh, with the dream of exploring the world of games and introducing it to anyone new to it. He is the founder of Kraftz, a brand that develops board games commercially, as well as with reputed entities like BRAC and The Gates Foundation.
