At Spellenspektakel Utrecht 2025, I had the pleasure of meeting Thomas Carlier, co-founder of Haumea Games. They proudly presented their new game, Snorkeling.

Intro

Step into the shoes of a deep-sea diver who wants to discover the wonders of the underwater world.

Rating

Overall	7.5
Story	7
Game system	8
Design & art	8
Replayability	7

Snorkeling is a short, entertaining card-laying game for 2 to 6 players aged 8 and up. It has a short playing time of about 15 minutes.

The story

Explore the ocean as a diver and stay underwater as long as possible to enjoy the beauty of this world. Discover coral, lantern fish and turtles. The deeper you go, the more amazing it is. But… you are not the only diver… the other divers want to push you up as quickly as possible so that they can see more of the unique creatures in the ocean. Will you manage to stay underwater the longest?

The goal is to be the first to score 12 points.

Game rules

When preparing for the game, each player receives a lantern fish card with a value of 5. This indicates the depth at which you are currently located. This card is placed face up on the table in front of you. The remaining lantern fish cards are removed from the game.

The game consists of several turns and several rounds.

A turn

During your turn, you may choose from two options

• Playing one or more cards on the central discard pile.
• Not playing any cards on the central discard pile.

Playing one or more cards on the central discard pile:

You may play a card on the central discard pile when:

• You have a card that is exactly 1 value higher than the top card on the pile. If the top card has a value of 4, the next correct card is 0.
• You have cards of the same colour as the top card on the pile, regardless of their value.

When you have been able to discard one or more cards onto the central pile, you may play a card onto one of your fellow players’ face-up cards. Please note that this card must be exactly 1 value lower than the card in front of them.

If you have played all your hand cards during your turn, you may take the top card from your face-up card pile back into your hand. Please note: if this is the lantern fish card, you must leave it where it is and draw an extra card from the draw pile.

Then draw 1 more card from the draw pile. A player must always start with 2 cards in their hand at the beginning of their turn.

Not playing a card on the central discard pile:
If you cannot play a card on the central discard pile or do not want to do so, your turn ends immediately and you draw a card from the draw pile. It is then the next player’s turn.

End of a round

As soon as a player has a card with a value of 0 in their own open card pile, the round ends immediately.

The other players count their scores. Your score for this round is equal to the value of the top card of your open card pile. You add these scores to the scores from your previous rounds.

End of the game

When a player is the first to score 12 points, the game ends. In the event of a tie, a final round is played.

Content and design

The illustrations are by Justine Vanhuffel and are beautifully detailed and of good quality.
The rulebook is clear and well organised. The small box is perfect for putting in your coat pocket or bag, making it ideal as a game you can easily take with you.
The rulebook also includes two game variations for players who are already a little more advanced in diving.

Box content

• 1x rulebook (FR/ENG/NL)
• 75x cards in 5 colours (3 of each value)
• 6x lantern fish cards with a value of 5

Conclusion

Snorkeling is an extremely fun, short and fast-paced game. It is perfect for novice card players and is also easy to take with you.

It is a well-designed game, more complex than the well-known UNO but just as fast-paced. The illustrations are also beautifully detailed and of good quality.

One small comment: the game was originally conceived in French and is called Plongé. I wonder why they chose Snorkeling for the English and Dutch versions, since snorkeling usually keeps you at the surface of the water. Scuba Diving or Diving seemed more logical to me. But that’s beside the point.

Text and photography: Esmeralda Wolf