BubbleFly
2-4 players




Game components


Game boards (A4)
* Game board
* Pondster board
* Item board
* Shop board


4 player mats
4 health bar frog tokens
4 turn order cards
10 starter item cards
17 shop item cards (items in bubbles)
15 pond event cards
9 Pondster attack cards
4 Pondster cards
10 attack tokens
1 BubbleFly health token (hourglass model)


All components can be printed on paper, but the health bar frogs can also be 3D printed. 




How to assemble game


Print out all the components. 


Place the game boards in this order under or next to each other: game board, Pondster board, item board, shop board. You can tape them together or let them be separate. 


Cut out all the starter item cards, shop item cards, Pondster cards, Pondster attack cards, pond event cards and turn order cards. 


Also cut out the attack tokens, the frog health token and BubbleFly health token if you chose to use the paper version. If not, 3D print four frogs and one hourglass using the included 3D files.






Premise


Welcome to the pond! You are a group of chill frogs, and all you want is to munch on a delicious fly you see trapped in a bubble.
But, oh no, a bunch of Pondsters (pond monsters) are in your way, standing between you and the bubble! 
Get equipment you find floating in the pond to defeat them, and use it before it drops back into the pond!




Game Setup


1. Every player chooses a frog hero sheet, and places their token frog on HP 10.
2. Set the BubbleFly counter on 8 as well.
3. Place a Pondster on the lily pad. Shuffle the enemy deck and then draw an ability from the deck - place it to the according depth level.
4. Set up the shop - shuffle the item deck and place the two topmost cards in the shop slots.
5. Shuffle the starter deck and deal 2 item cards to each player, they are immediately equipped in their appropriate depth level. 3 lines = Surface, 2 lines = Shallow, 1 line = Deep.
6. Shuffle the pond event cards and place them on the game board.
7. The bravest frog begins.


Turn Order


1. The weather is ever-changing - Reveal a pond event and resolve if needed.
2. The Pondster drops (uses) their attacks - resolve them. If an attack gets all used up and discarded, draw a new attack from the Pondster attack deck and place it for the Pondster’s next turn. 
3. The current frog hero may choose to draw 2 item cards and replace any of the already equipped items. Discard all unequipped items into the discard pile. 
4. The frog hero may drop (use) any of their items and resolve it. If the drop level causes the item to be discarded it goes to the discard pile.
5. The frog may use its damage either on the enemy or on the shop items - deal as much as the number in the bubble to pop the shop item and  equip it. The item will now be part of the team’s deck and will be discarded into it once used up. A freshly equipped item from the shop may not be used in the current turn.




How do we win 
Defeat all Pondsters by getting in as many hits as they have HP and get to the delicious BubbleFly before the timer runs out and the BubbleFly pops.


How do we lose
If we fail to kill the Pondsters before the BubbleFly timer shrinks to 0. 
The BubbleFly timer shrinks during certain pond events or when a frog’s health goes down to 0 (splash). 
Whenever a frog loses all of their HP, discard all current equipment, shrink the bubble timer by 1 and the frog finishes their turn. Their HP goes back to 10 for their next turn. 




Keywords


Damage: You can put a damage counter on either the pondster or on an item in the shop (if it's not enough to pop it). Some items specify that their damage is only applicable to shop items, those may not be used to damage the Pondster. 


Drop: Lower the card one step down and activate its ability, if it is dropped into the pond, discard it.


Drop Level: There are three drop levels, Surface, Shallow, Deep. There are indicators on the item cards to let you know where on your player mat they should be placed; 3 lines = Surface, 2 lines = Shallow, 1 line = Deep.


Discard: A discarded item card goes into the shared discard pile, a discarded Pondster attack card goes into the Pondster attack card discard pile etc.
Equip Slots: All players have 2 equip slots, all equip slots have 3 Drop levels.
Draw: When you draw a card you may equip it, discard it, or swap it and discard the previously equipped item. If you equip an item on your turn you may not use it.
SPLASH!: When you reach 0 hit points you SPLASH! That means you discard all equipped items and reduce the BubbleFly Timer by 1. Then you reset your hit points back to 10 at the start of your next turn.


Gain hit point: Move your little frog up on your HP scale.


Heal: You may choose any other frog hero or yourself to gain hit points.




Credits


Created and designed by Lukas Vasanoja, Veronica Lönnqvist, Daniel Pasikov and Hanna Björkqvist during Global Game Jam 2025.


Visual assets and layouts were created by Veronica Lönnqvist using Canva and their assets library.


Illustrations for the frogs and Pondsters were made by Hanna Björkqvist.


The 3D assets were found on Thingiverse, the frog model (link to model) belonging to YahooJAPAN and the hourglass model (link to model) belonging to FirstTakeJoe.