2010 · Card Game
Innovation
Players develop a civilization by playing innovation cards that represent technologies from prehistory to the near future. Each card adds effects to a personal tableau and belongs to an age; cards grant abilities, produce icons, score points, or trigger actions that can benefit or disrupt opponents. Players draw, play, meld, and harness card effects to build combos, acquire shared benefits from visible icons, and defend against opponents’ demands. Victory comes from claiming achievements by meeting scoring or card-based criteria, with emergent strategies and different card interactions each game.
- Players
- 2–5 best 2
- Playing time
- 20–60 min
- Age
- 12+
- Complexity
- 2.8 / 5
About the game
- Design
- Publisher
Expansions
See them in Ludoya
Photos from Ludoya tables
All photos in Ludoya
Where to buy it
Shop prices and second-hand copies, checked every day.
On Ludoya's tables
Full stats in Ludoya- 852
- Plays logged
- 381
- Players
- 54m 45s
- Average play
- 128
- In collections
- 20
- On wishlists
- 1
- Pre-ordered
7.2/10
from 72 Ludoya reviews
Sup7.8 Sleeved
First impressions · 2 plays
andycted8.0 Fun for a quick in person, messy, game. Becomes a bit mechanical online. You must know the deck, apparently, to play well
Played it 3 times
Great, original, brainy and really well doned card game. Cool mechanics, resource management, and a pretty unique strategy card game.
No plays logged
Rules questions
Answered from the rulebook by Ludoya's rules assistant.
When I draw a card, which age pile do I draw from?
Draw from the pile matching the highest-value top card on your board. If that pile is empty, draw from the next higher non-empty pile; needing to draw above age 10 ends the game immediately (p. 5).
Do I need to claim achievements in order, and does claiming one use up my points?
No—you can claim any available normal achievement if your score is at least five times its age and you have a top card of equal or higher value. Your points are only a threshold; claiming an achievement does not spend them (pp. 5, 9).
When I use Dogma, do the other players get to use the effect too?
For each effect, other players with at least as many of its featured icon as you must share it, starting with the player to your left; then you do the effect. Players meeting that icon threshold are also immune to its demand effects (pp. 5–6).
If someone shares my Dogma effect, do I always get a free draw afterward?
You get one free Draw action after the Dogma action if an opponent shared an effect and their use caused a game change, such as a card being drawn, melded, scored, or moved (p. 6).
What does splaying a color do, and how many icons does it reveal?
Splaying reveals icons on covered cards: one per card when splayed left, two when splayed right, and three when splayed up. If you change the direction, first unsplay that color and then splay it in the new direction (p. 8).
Does the little picture icon on a card count as an icon for effects?
No. The card image is one of the four icon locations, but it does not provide any benefit (p. 3).
Official score sheet
Innovation score sheet
Every scoring category, from the Ludoya kit. On your phone the totals add up by themselves.
Free, on web, Android and iOS
Play Innovation with Ludoya
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Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.