A Perfect Rock
A downloadable game
Your home planet was destroyed.
You are aboard the last Generation Ship with the sole survivors of your people. You must find a perfect rock: a new planet to call home.
Make Planets from Rocks
A Perfect Rock is a sci-fi worldbuilding game for rock collectors. Search for a new home by exploring planets made from the rocks, gems, or crystals in your collection.
Create your explorer and their lost homeworld. Discover the strange lands, the cursed skies, or the deadly life on each planet. Debate how you would survive and, when everything has been explored, choose a planet to be your new home.
Channel the feeling of The Outer Wilds, Interstellar, or Subnautica in this creative one-page RPG.
The Aspects
- 1-4 players - Play solo or with up to 3 friends.
- No preparation, no GM - Get started immediately and build everything through play.
- Fast worlds - Quickly explore the planet's surface, monsters, and even mysterious secrets.
- Overcome imperfection - Decide how you'll manage strange, cursed, or deadly discoveries.
- Just 1 page - Easy to learn and teach, no experience required.
- Perfect for a one-shot - Find a new home in an hour or two of play.
But I don't have a rock collection!
Don't worry! You have some options:
- Go for a walk and find interesting rocks. Try the park, the beach, or near a river. Or collect rocks along a road-trip to keep your planet options changing.
- Download The Perfect Rock Illustrations.zip and use naturalist Johann Gottlob Kurr's 1859 sketches to print or play online.
But honestly, you should just start a rock collection.
Inspiration
A Perfect Rock was inspired by the exploration in The Outer Wilds, Interstellar, and Subnautica.
The game design was inspired by creative games like In This World and Rusałka.
Read more about the design here: Designing A Perfect Rock.
The Original Explorers
A special thank you to Justin Vandermeer, Andrea Benning, M. Allen Hall, Matt Gomez, and Matt Latham for playtesting and feedback.
And thank you to the Atopia Discord server for talking about rocks.
A Perfect Rock was created for One-Page RPG Jam 2024.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Come find A Perfect Rock!30 days ago
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
I really have to try this out with my boys. It's very difficult to get them to not pick up rocks.
It sounds like you'll have lots of planets to explore... I hope they enjoy it!
Loved it! Played it on the beach after looking for four interesting rocks. Really enjoyed using the unique features of every rock during storytelling. I’ll absolutely bring this on future vacations. Looking forward to trying HOME one day!
I love that you played this on a beach! I'm jealous, and really happy you enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing this.
I did it rockless, but I love the idea. The creation of the planets bit by bit and analysis of colony viability was a blast to play. The summary from my crew of colony engineers:
Fonda-3 is the worst. It is breathable, but landmass is scant, no native food to be found, and temperature spikes are deadly. A artificial metallic core with no known purpose also leaves us concerned.
Fonda-1 is breathable in a pinch, but we’ll have to subsist on ice bugs and invest in tunnel infrastructure between bases which must be positioned between ridges to protect from intense weather.
Fonda-4 is next best. Breathable atmosphere, but the surface is dangerous (flying beasts, meteors, stray death portals) and an underground base built to be structurally sound will be quite costly.
Fonda-2 is clearly the best choice. Full stop. Requires work with lightning and pest mitigation, but otherwise is a beautiful planet for us. Welcome home, folks.
Haha yes, Fonda-2 sounds like the right choice, though I'm very curious about the death portals, the ice bugs, and the mysterious metallic core...
Thanks for sharing this!
Death portals and the artificial core were both courtesy of the "secret" category. I love that you roll it last, adds a nice twist.
I like this so much! The map is a great call, I could easily take notes so that I could compare planets.
Those are some epic rocks! Thanks for sharing your picture, this looks great.
Looks fantastic and I have just the rock for it
I hope it ends up being a good planet to live on!
What a great idea!
Yes!! That looks amazing!
That planet rock furthest from the star is an emberlite and glows magma red when you hit it with UV :)
Ooh I love how you arranged an asteroid belt! I'm a fluorescent mineral collector so I appreciate the patterns on your emberlite, that would be a cool planet to live on :)
Yeah, I was blown away by that too. So good.
Came across this and I’m a beach rock collector. I collect rocks / brick debris from every location I travel to… so am gonna try this game! Checked out your website and it’s good to see another (Canadian) designer/creator writing about their game creation process. All the best!
Thanks for checking out the design blog post! I also like when other designers talk about their process too.
I hope you find some good rocks, and enjoy the game!
This is so good! It is almost like th perfect ttrpg for me!! Thank you!!
You are welcome!
I learn better by watching. Is there a video playthrough on youtube?
Good idea! Not yet, but maybe in the future.
Looks amazing and I really love the "walk around and collect rocks" aspect of it. Will definitely try it!
Making a cool collection is a huge part of the fun!
Really love the simplicity of the rules!
Thank you!
Wish this had been published like 4 days earlier for my camping trip! This looks amazing and I'm so excited to play it.
Playing this while camping is such a good idea! Thanks for the kind words.
I'll go down to the beach to collect pebbles, play with my son and return the pebbles when we've finished exploring. Thanks for the idea! This game is fabulous.
That's a great idea! I hope you both enjoy it.
This looks like a fun game! Feels extra appropriate too considering earlier this year me and some friends saw a very impressive rock/mineral exhibition which further increased my apprecitiation on geology, and I've been considering starting collecting minerals. The fact that it's possible to play this even without one is very convenient.
I had a big collection when I was young, and I love to keep interesting rocks from trips. Thanks!
Absolutely impeccable design work from Nick, as usual. Works well as a road trip game, or for worldbuilding prior to a space-faring campaign.
Thank you Justin!