by S G

In the early 2000s, I had the privilege of connecting with a NASA scientist who would change the course of my career. She posed a simple but powerful challenge: How do we share all the amazing work happening on the International Space Station in a way that actually excites the general public?

My answer was immediate — games.

With her support, I started down a path that would eventually lead to the successful Kickstarter of 4 Years to Mars. But like any real space program, the road wasn’t paved with yellow bricks. It was littered with asteroids, craters, and — oh yes — funding and budget issues.

History and Design

(Feel free to skip ahead to Gameplay if you’d like)

4 Years to Mars began life as a humble paper prototype for a NASA outreach mobile game called To the Moon and Beyond. My lab had already launched two successful mobile games, and this would be our third—and, in my opinion, the most challenging.

NASA periodically publishes a document called Benefits for Humanity. In its most common form, it’s a dense, 25+ page technical report filled with fascinating information about how NASA research benefits life on Earth and advances exploration. Unfortunately, it’s not exactly light reading and many people find it intimidating.

The mission I accepted was clear: translate that information into something people could understand—and enjoy.

After many hours of brainstorming, we landed on the idea of a card game. Players would:

– Conduct research based on the real research in the document

– Fund technology projects that used that research based on the projects in the documents and in NASA Spinoffs

– Use the funded technology to build mission components.

From this, a paper prototype was born.

The first cards were printed on sticker paper and slapped onto old playing cards. The “board” consisted of images printed on cardstock. We cannibalized games from home to scavenge money, tokens, and components.

Once funding was approved, playtesting began with people from across the agency, and development of the mobile game followed. If you’re curious, To the Moon and Beyond is still playable—just search for it along with “NASA” on Google Play, Xbox, or the Apple App Store (Yes, there’s actually an Xbox version).

From Mobile to Tabletop

In 2021, after 37 years in government and extensive experience using gamification across projects, I decided it was time to venture out on my own. One lingering dream was to turn To the Moon and Beyond into a family-friendly board game—one that taught players about NASA while being genuinely fun.

I secured permission to create the game and use NASA imagery (with restrictions), recruited my son—fresh out of college with a game design degree—and launched my company, Game2Learn.

The design challenges were significant. The biggest? Transforming a single-player mobile game into a 1–6 player tabletop experience that worked both competitively and cooperatively.

Our first attempts failed spectacularly. Copying the mobile formula directly just didn’t work. We scrapped the “one research topic discounted one project” system and replaced it with broad research categories that discounted multiple projects. To increase player interaction, we added Sabotage cards. We also rebalanced the mission objectives to create a consistent mission track.

To the Moon and Back—the board game—was born.

Iteration, Evolution, and Failure (the Fun Kind)

Testing continued in 2022 with a rough prototype at Origins Game Fair. Feedback was honest and invaluable:

– The board was too big

– The artwork felt unfinished

– This is fun!

– And, frankly, Mars is sexier than the Moon

I hired an artist, regrouped, and rebranded the game as 5 Years to Mars.

Artwork required many iterations. I had a clear picture in my mind, but conveying that across the continent via zoom was harder than I thought. Thankfully, my amazing artist grew adept at reading my mind and we settled on a design that not only fit the genre, but allowed players to stack the project cards for easier point computation.

While the card design stabilized, the board continued to be a challenge. A large board with designated spaces worked great—but was far too expensive to manufacture. We explored multiple layouts, tracks, and even tried to recreate some of the parts building fun from the mobile game.

Eventually, we settled on a smaller fold-up board for 5 Years to Mars. In 2023, after Origins, we launched the Kickstarter.

And then… we canceled it.

We had reached over 50% of our goal, but something was still missing.

The Final Countdown: 4 Years to Mars

Determined to fix what was missing, I sought out mentors and publishers and connected with Sean Brown of Mr. B Games. With his guidance, and additional feedback from convention players, I made several crucial changes. The game was split into a Base game, an Events deck, and a Cutthroat deck which broadened the game’s appeal. The game was rebalanced to remove a game year, which shortened the play time and aligned with what seemed to be the industry standard length.

In addition to broadening the game’s appeal, the modular approach reduced the funding goal since the Events deck and Cutthroat deck could be made into stretch goals for the campaign.

In 2024, the game successfully funded on Kickstarter, and I was able to include the Events deck and the Cutthroat deck with my funding.

After manufacturing hiccups and tariff nightmares, 4 Years to Mars became a reality.

Game Play Synopsis

4 Years to Mars is a card-based game for one to six players that can be played competitively or cooperatively. The game is played over four rounds, called Program Years. These represent the four years you have to complete your program. To succeed, you must complete eight Mission Objectives by accumulating 6 points in each objective.

During the first Program Year, you will fund Research cards. Research cards represent topics you are researching in one of your four bays on the International Space Station. Your Research cards reduce the cost of Projects that you will fund in order to advance your Mission Objectives.

In the second through fourth Program Years, players can purchase Project cards as well as Research and Action cards. Project cards provide advances in your Mission Objectives as well as income for the next year of your program. Projects are categorized based on what benefits they provide in Scientific discoveries, helping life on Earth, advancing space Exploration, or inspiring youth through STEM programs. When combined into sets, these benefit categories also advance your Mission Objectives.

At the end of a Program Year, players advance their Mission Objective tokens once per mission icon on their funded Projects. Mission Objective tokens are also advanced based on what sets are made with card categories. The first and second players to complete a Mission Objective receive an Award from the government. This reward can be used to augment the next year’s budget or can be saved for end of game calculations in case of a tie.

After Mission Objectives have been advanced and Awards earned, players receive 20 Spucks (space bucks) from the government and any income their products have generated. The first player token then passes to the player with the smallest budget for the next year. The first person to complete all 8 mission objectives wins the game.

The game difficulty can be varied with the inclusion of Event cards or played more competitively with the inclusion of the Cutthroat cards. Rules are provided for solo play as well as cooperative play.

Conclusion

Even with its ups and downs, this has been a wonderful experience. I encourage everyone: If you have an idea, don’t dream it, do it!

I typically run the game at Origins, so if you’re around, stop by and say hi. I may even have a NASA sticker left to hand out.