Thanks Robin! Yes - the different cubes are different types of grasses - except for the pink and purple ones (maybe those could be berries), and  the white ones which are lions.  

Thanks so much Chris! We'd love to see a HABA treatment for this game. Their components are so perfect - and the croc is already one of their pieces!

Glad to hear the rules were clear enough to be understood  and that you had some fun giving the game a try.  Especially glad that the timing of the endgame was so perfect - that was one of the trickiest parts to figure out in the design. Good point about the reference cards. We are taking a look at haw scaling the game could work too.

Given the amount of bits this game's ultimate fate might not be the PnP format ! 

Thanks again, and keep well!

First let me say thank you for taking the time to play ‘Hippos’ and for your amazing and insightful feedback. Let me take a moment to address some your points individually.

• ‘...We won on the very last turn (in other words, at the end of our last turn, the croc would have reached the "dawn" position). One of our hippos made it to the watering hole a turn earlier while the rest made it on that last turn.’ - 

Glad to hear it - the amount of time players have was one of the hardest things to playtest quickly. 

You are certainly correct about this game taking a ton of components - I think ultimately it would serve better as a non-PnP game but for those who happen to have lots of bits laying around it can work in a pinch. 

• With the "slide" action, can players exchange and orthogonally adjacent cubes anywhere on the board, or do they have to be adjacent to the hippo?

Anywhere on the board is ok.

• With the pink and purple cubes, do players need to use a "gather" action to use their effects? Or are they both free effects once they move onto that square?

These are free actions.

• For a hippo to move into the watering hole, does that player need to use a "move" action or can they just go right into the watering hole once they move into an adjacent square?

This costs 1 move action.

• Your rules do not specify how the game changes with 2 or 3 players instead of 4... Do we still try to move all four hippos to the watering hole or do you adjust the number of hippos depending upon how many players are playing (for example, 2 players only have 2 hippos they need to get to the watering hole)? We played 2 player and just each took control of 2 different hippos and it seemed to work fine.

• The balance seemed great for 4 players, or 2 players playing with 2 different hippos. But I wonder how the balance would change if 3 players were played, or if 2 players were only controlling 1 hippo each.

The game plays best at 2 and 4 players. 3 players is ideal for maybe a parent playing with 2 younger kids where the grown-up controls the extra hippo. We also play as a group of three and just share responsibility for the fourth hippo.

• A lot of coop games have varying set up to increase or decrease the difficulty of the game. Have you guys considered altering the set up to adjust the difficulty levels? 

Good idea - definitely worth exploring.

• I am again impressed with the game, we had a lot of fun and this is a lot of good work you guys put together in a mere week! My game is ROUGH, especially with the rules. Your game is simple and the rules were not overwhelming at all. Please take or leave my comments, just thoughts that I had. Thank you for the opportunity and again, congrats on a job well done! You and you son did a wonderful job and I hope my (soon to be born) son will partner with me someday in game design!

Designing with my son is the highlight of every game we make. I hope you get to share that same fun someday! Keep well, and thanks again!

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, players can choose not to take all 3 of their actions - I'll clarify that in the rules doc.