Acclaimed designer Eric Lang’s next board game, Life in Reterra, is under $30 at Target

Award-winning board game designer Eric Lang, whose Viking theme Seething anger is a regular on Polygon’s list of the best modern board games and has something new to share: a tile-laying strategy game called Life in Reterra. This time, instead of teaming up with hot young publishers like CMON or Steamforged Games, he and co-creator Ken Gruhl (Happy salmon) have gone along with the granddaddy of them all, the 100-year-old Hasbro. And while we don’t know everything about how the game works yet, we do know that Lang himself considers it one of his “strongest designs ever,” and that’s enough to get me interested.

A press release from Hasbro describes Life in Reterra as a cozy look at the post-apocalypse that humanity continues after the end of civilization. The art backs that up, with charming little cows and pixelated wooden meeples. It’s a Euro-style game, which means it likely avoids putting players in direct conflict and de-emphasizes the random nature of the dice.

It is clearly inspired by modern classics such as Carcassonne And Kingdomino, which asks both players to build things from shared piles of common tiles. It’s a genre of board games that has stood the test of time, mainly because they are quick to learn and difficult to master – exactly what appeals to new players. In a message at Facebook, Lang seems to agree. He calls the $29.99 title a “lifestyle gateway” — that’s marketing speak for a game that can introduce casual consumers to more complex experiences. But he also praises its replayability, claiming “thousands of setups (that) all feel different.”

“We’ve been working on this game for years,” Lang said in a Facebook note. “I consider this one of my strongest designs ever.”

We’ll know more once the first copies start making their way to eager reviewers. You can find Life in Reterra Can be ordered online from today at Doel.