The game is designed to mix education and science. Ninja cards represent molecules and the interactions teach you about chemistry. It is doing well over on Kickstarter, with $15,000 pledged from 200+ backers and 20 days to go to hit the $18,000 target. You can check more details on the campaign page.
It’s $40 to get the Valence Plus game with 176 cards, manual, element guide, cheat sheets and board. You can go higher to reach more copies of the game (say you’re a teacher with a whole classroom to entertain) or combinations with the t-shirt.
There is already a Valence game so it’s worth looking at the differences.
The Plus version offers thirteen more molecules, ten new chemical reactions and four new elements. In addition there’s tweaks for elements like sulphur, cooper and zinc with secondary Valence numbers. Not having played the original I don’t have the full understanding of what all these additions mean but they do sound a fairly chunky extra oomph.
There’s a catch with the stretch goals. For each $500 the Science Ninjas get beyond their target goal they’re going to start giving away copies of the game to Chicago Public Schools.
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