2019Richard Keene
- Videos
- 7
- Creators
- 4
1 - 5 players90 - 120 minMedium weight

2023Richard Keene
Mainly reviews. Deep Shelf is covered on BoardGameVideo.com by 12 reviews, 4 how-to-play guides, 2 recorded sessions, and 2 unboxings.
From BoardGameGeek
Breakthroughs in deep sea mining technology have ushered in a modern gold rush as corporations' position themselves to extract the oceans riches of rare earth metals. As corporations seek to exploit the wealth of the ocean, ecologists and research groups see the expeditions as an opportunity to study and catalogue rare lifeforms never before encountered. An uneasy collaboration has formed as scientist make use of the vast wealth of industry and the industrialist depend on the breakthroughs provided by studying the vast and hostile deep-sea ecosystem. Deep Shelf is an game of deep-sea exploration, exploitation, development, and research. Players take on the role of competing corporations seeking to find and develop resource nodes, extract rare earth metals, transport them to the surface and research the unexplored deepest reaches of the ocean. As the leader of your corporation, you will decide whether to expand quickly and strip mine the ocean of its wealth, or take a more eco friendly approach and learn as much as possible about the wonders of the deep. Players must be cautious of mining too greedily, or delving too deep, as such actions will damage the natural ecosystems of the ocean, hastening the end of the game, and not everything in the deep is friendly. -description from the publisher
Deep Shelf has 20 videos from 14 creators: 12 reviews, 4 how-to-play guides, 2 playthroughs and 2 unboxings. They date from 2022 to June 2025.
To learn the rules, start with "Deep Shelf: How to Fit Everything in the Box", which runs 5 min.
For an opinion before you buy, start with "DEEP SHELF - DT Preview with Mark Streed" by The Dice Tower. 10 creators have reviewed it. To see it played, watch "[TTS] 2P Deep Shelf Playthrough (Part 1/2) with Designer Richard Keene [UPCOMING KICKSTARTER]" by So Many Games, So Little Time SMGSLT, one of 2 playthroughs.
If you like it, try DinoGenics and DinoGenics: New Arrivals, also by Richard Keene, or Unsettled and Fliptown, which share several of its mechanics.
8 of 14
2019Richard Keene
1 - 5 players90 - 120 minMedium weight
2021Tom Mattson, Marc Neidlinger
2 - 4 players60 - 90 minHeavy weight
2023Steven Aramini
1 - 4 players30 - 45 minMedium weight
From BoardGameGeek:
Breakthroughs in deep sea mining technology have ushered in a modern gold rush as corporations' position themselves to extract the oceans riches of rare earth metals. As corporations seek to exploit the wealth of the ocean, ecologists and research groups see the expeditions as an opportunity to study and catalogue rare lifeforms never before encountered. An uneasy collaboration has formed as scientist make use of the vast wealth of industry and the industrialist depend on the breakthroughs provided by studying the vast and hostile deep-sea ecosystem. Deep Shelf is an game of deep-sea exploration, exploitation, development, and research. Players take on the role of competing corporations seeking to find and develop resource nodes, extract rare earth metals, transport them to the surface and research the unexplored deepest reaches of the ocean. As the leader of your corporation, you will decide whether to expand quickly and strip mine the ocean of its wealth, or take a more eco friendly approach and learn as much as possible about the wonders of the deep. Players must be cautious of mining too greedily, or delving too deep, as such actions will damage the natural ecosystems of the ocean, hastening the end of the game, and not everything in the deep is friendly. -description from the publisher
Designer
Richard Keene
Artists
Anthony Cournoyer, Tan Ho Sim
Publisher
Ninth Haven Games
Categories
Mechanics