Gloomies

Have You Met the Gloomies Yet?

Okay, seriously—have you heard of Gloomies yet? If not… where have you been hiding!? I first spotted this little gem at Airecon and tried so hard to get a playtest in, but it was constantly packed. I mean, constantly. So when I saw it again at UKGE, I made a beeline for the table—and managed to play it! Let’s just say it was love at first bloom and yes… it came home with me.

So what is Gloomies all about?

Let me introduce you to these adorable little creatures from outer space—aka the Gloomies. I like to think of them as intergalactic moths who are obsessed with decorating themselves with stunning, cosmic flowers. The game is split into two main phases: growing flowers and then harvesting them.

Phase One: Flower Power

The setup is super simple, and I love that the game box actually becomes part of the board—Each player gets a player aid, a hand of flower cards, and some cute little helpers (which help them out in the game).

In this phase, you’re playing flower cards to grow flowers across the board, placing them in

rows to set yourself up for some juicy bonuses. These include things like:

· Stardust (extra points!)

· More helpers (play more cards!)

· Order cards (even more points in the next phase!)

Once your turn’s done, you get to choose either 2 new flower cards from the display

or 1 wild card, depending on what you’re after. The cards you played this round go ben

eath your player aid and become your personal flower archive (which will matter later).

You keep going until the lower half of the board is filled up—it’s marked with a white line, so no guesswork needed. Then it’s time to score round one! Count up how many of each flower you’ve got. Got 3 or more of the same type? You get double points for that flower. Don’t forget to add your stardust bonus too.

Phase Two: Time to Harvest

Now things get even more fun. Flip your player aid over—it’s harvest time! Grab all those flower cards you played in round one, shuffle them into a deck, and you’re ready to go.

This time, you’re drawing and playing cards to harvest flowers from the rows, still aiming for bonuses (like more helpers, stardust, and yes—more flowers!). Harvested flowers can go on your order cards or directly onto your aid board to rack up more points.

When no one can make any more moves, it’s final scoring time! Tally up everything, and whoever has the most points wins.

Final Thoughts

I adore this game. The art? Totally charming. The 3D flower pieces? Super cute. And the Gloomies themselves? Just look at them—they’re irresistible.

It’s definitely a cozy game that’s easy to learn, quick to set up, and perfect for both seasoned gamers and your board-game-curious friends or family.

Everything fits neatly back in the box (yes please), and the whole experience is just… lovely. If you’re into games with charm, strategy, and just the right dose of whimsy, you’re going to want Gloomies on your shelf.

Have you played it yet? I’d love to hear what you thought! Also, be weary, your pets may steal your Gloomies plushie keyring!

Zatu Review Summary

Zatu Score

90%

Rating

Artwork

Complexity

Replayability

Interaction

Component Quality

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You might like

• The illustrations on the order cards of the Gloomies themselves are adorable.
• 3D flower components!
• The board game box BECOMES the main player board!
• It comes with a free adorable plushie keyring you can put on your bag!

Might not like

• I wish the Gloomies order card and player aid were made of a sturdier material.

The mysterious creatures known as Gloomies want to be adorned with beautiful cosmic flowers, and in Gloomies, that task falls to you. By planting and harvesting flowers, completing orders, and carefully managing your resources, you’ll help decorate these already majestic beings while competing to score the most points.

Gloomies is a 2–4 player game that plays in around 45–60 minutes. It’s split into two distinct phases, the Planting Phase and the Harvesting Phase. While both phases use similar core ideas, playing flower cards to interact with the central board, they feel different enough to keep the game fresh and engaging from start to finish.

Setup

The setup for Gloomies is simple and effective, and it does a great job of easing players into the experience.

Each player takes a player board and places it in front of them with the purple side face up. Shuffle the small flower cards and the larger order cards separately, placing both decks face down in the centre of the table. Reveal the top three cards of each deck to form a shared, face-up market.

Place the stardust tokens, helper tokens, and scoring tokens in piles within reach of all players, along with the tray containing the wooden flower tokens.

To build the game board, choose an orientation for the flower board and place it into the top of the box. Then place the perforated board with holes on top of it, creating the layered board used for the entire game. Shuffle the bonus tokens and place them in stacks of three, purple side face up, along the left side of the board.

Finally, choose a starting player. That player receives 4 flower cards and 1 helper. The second player takes 4 flower cards and 2 helpers, the third player 5 cards and 1 helper, and the fourth player 5 cards and 2 helpers.

Once that’s done, you’re ready to begin the Planting Phase.

The Planting Phase

The first half of Gloomies is the Planting Phase, sometimes called the Growing Stage. This is where the flower board gradually fills up, and where a lot of your longer-term planning quietly takes place.

On your turn, you may play up to three flower cards from your hand. Each card allows you to place a matching wooden flower token into the board. Flowers must be planted in rows, and they must always be placed in the leftmost available space of that row. You can’t skip spaces or jump ahead, once a row has started, it fills from left to right.

You’re never required to play the maximum number of cards. Choosing to plant fewer flowers can often be the better move, especially if you’re aiming for a specific bonus or trying to manage your hand more carefully for later.

Column Bonuses

After placing flowers, you check the column where your final flower was planted. At the top of each column is a bonus, and you immediately gain whatever reward is available there. These bonuses can include stardust, little helpers, or order cards, and they play a major role in shaping your strategy.

This is where Gloomies really starts to shine. Decisions aren’t just about placing flowers, but about positioning yourself to collect the bonuses that best support your plans.

Refilling Your Hand

Once bonuses are resolved, you refill your hand by drafting one or two flower cards from the face-up market. These cards don’t just matter now, they’ll become your personal deck during the Harvesting Phase, so what you take here can have lasting consequences.

End of the Planting Phase

The Planting Phase continues until the board is filled with flowers up to the designated white line. Once that happens, the phase immediately ends and players score.

Players gain points for the flower cards they’ve played, with bonus points awarded for collecting four or more cards of the same flower type. This early scoring can make a big difference, particularly if you’ve invested in rarer, higher-value flowers.

With the board now full, it’s time for the game to shift gears.

The Harvesting Phase

For the Harvesting Phase, players flip their player boards over to the turquoise side. All of the flower cards you collected during the Planting Phase are shuffled together to form your personal deck for the remainder of the game.

The core flow of the phase will feel familiar, but instead of adding flowers to the board, you’ll now be removing them.

On your turn, you once again play flower cards, this time to harvest matching wooden flowers from the board. Harvesting follows similar placement rules to planting, you remove flowers in rows and cannot skip spaces.

Harvesting Bonuses

After removing flowers, you check the column where your final flower was harvested and collect the bonus shown on the turquoise side of the board. These bonuses are different from those in the first phase and are often more directly tied to scoring and efficiency.

Storing Flowers and Completing Orders

Any flowers you harvest must be stored. You can place them onto order cards you’ve collected to fulfil them for higher points, or onto your player board for smaller, but reliable, scoring. Deciding where to allocate harvested flowers is one of the most important decisions in the second half of the game.

End of the Harvesting Phase

The Harvesting Phase ends once the board has been cleared back down to the white line. At that point, the game immediately moves to final scoring.

End of Game Scoring

At the end of the game, players total their victory points from several sources:

• Points scored during the Planting Phase
• Completed order cards
• Stardust collected across both phases
• Remaining, unused flowers
  
  

The player with the highest total score is declared the winner.

Final Thoughts

Gloomies is a wonderfully cosy game that’s easy to learn, quick to teach, and consistently satisfying to play. The two-phase structure means you never need to understand everything up front, playing the first phase well naturally sets you up for success in the second.

There’s a great balance between strategy and accessibility here. You can’t completely ruin another player’s game, but it’s very easy to fall behind if you’re not paying attention. Timing, pacing, and knowing when to push forward or hold back all matter, and the slightly player-controlled length of each phase adds an extra layer of tension.

The theme does a lot of heavy lifting too. Planting, harvesting, fulfilling orders, and physically slotting wooden flowers into the board all feel intuitive and satisfying. It’s a game that works just as well with families and newer players as it does with more experienced groups, and it rarely overstays its welcome.

Gloomies is a super cosy game of planting and harvesting flowers to adorn cute alien creatures, easy to learn, easy to play, and easy to love.

Zatu Review Summary

Zatu Score

90%

Rating

Artwork

Complexity

Replayability

Interaction

Component Quality

View author posts

You might like

• The illustrations on the order cards of the Gloomies themselves are adorable.
• 3D flower components!
• The board game box BECOMES the main player board!
• It comes with a free adorable plushie keyring you can put on your bag!

Might not like

• I wish the Gloomies order card and player aid were made of a sturdier material.