Dust in the Wings

After a long hike through the woods, you finally find the perfect place to set up your camera — a lush meadow. A green sea of grass rolls gently in the wind, spotted with flowers opening up to morning dew and gentle sunlight, and flocks of butterflies hovering above in a slow, deliberate dance. Light flickers in the golden dust, as you take the first look through your lens and get ready to capture the most beautiful of sights in your photo!

Dust in the Wings is a family game of perception, planning, and picturing the beauty of nature. Built on the wisdom of Mancala — a beloved game known for thousands of years — Dust in the Wings creates an experience that is light on rules, engaging in its gameplay, and wondrous to the eye!

At the beginning of the game, Butterflies are placed on each flower in the Meadow, a 5×5 grid on the main game board. During each turn, a player attempts to fulfill the requirements of various objectives in order to score victory points.

The board is manipulated Mancala style. The active player will choose a single Meadow space and pick up all Butterflies from that space. One by one, these Butterflies are dispersed. The first Butterfly is placed onto any one Meadow space adjacent to the space which the Butterflies were picked up from. The next Butterfly is placed onto any one Meadow space adjacent to that space, and so on.

The goal is to place the last Butterfly onto a Meadow space so that the space fulfills the requirement of a Gathering objective or Composition objective.

A Gathering objective is fulfilled by gathering a precise number and types of Butterflies onto a single space in the Meadow.

A Composition objective is fulfilled by having a group of spaces that collectively contain a number of Butterflies indicated on the cards. The group of spaces must also match a distinct shape and size depicted on the card.

Even if you managed to fulfill the requirements of multiple cards, only one card may be scored each turn.

At the end of the game, a player’s score is calculated. Each Composition card is worth a number of points as indicated on the card. The values of various Scoring markers, which were collected when completing Gathering objectives, are also added to the final tally.

The player with the most points is the winner!

—description from the publisher