Dinoland header

Create a flourishing world of dinosaurs that avoids the asteroid as much as possible. A Domino Diaries game.

Download

What do I need?

Three simple steps.

  • Read the short playful rules.
  • Click Download > Files > "1 - Base Set.pdf"
  • Print, cut, play!

Want more? You can also generate your own material right on this website! Or pick one of the other PDFs available in the Download section.

Material

Pick your desired settings and press the button! (A new page will open.) When in doubt, just use the defaults for your first game(s).

Turns the material mostly grayscale. Don't compress PDF. (Slightly higher resolution, but huge file size.) Adds the explanation of each dinosaur's action on the dinosaur itself.

Sets

(Click to fold.)
A general expansion with more terrains and dinosaurs. Adds tiles that randomize how the asteroid impact works for your game. Adds special Asteroid Tiles for random events and actions.

Not working? Or unsure what to do? The "Download" button above has PDFs I already made for you! Pick any one of those.

Credits

The fonts used are Cute Dino (headings) and Tinos (body text). Some generative image AI was used. Everything else (code, idea, rules, illustrations) is entirely mine.

This was the second idea for the collection. I was in a bit of a rush and wanted to make this game as a “joke” for my sister’s birthday. (Long story short: she’d found a place in the Netherlands called Dinoland, thinking it was a theme park we could visit for her birthday, then it turned out to be a really small venue with a maximum age limit. So we couldn’t go.)

I started thinking about dinosaurs, the famous asteroid, and how to blend it all into a very simple game I could make before her birthday. That process turned into this game, which ended up being far better than I imagined and more than good enough to release publicly!

It has the simplest ruleset of all the games, because placement of dominoes is almost completely free. The asteroid mechanic adds a bit of complexity, but not much, while you get a clear goal or “time bomb” in return. Just like stories, it feels good to have a game work towards a “climax”, and I’ll probably use this technique for more games in the future.

Because of its simplicity, I decided to also make it the most colorful, textless, and therefore most suitable to play with young children too.

(And yes, as I also mentioned at the Theme Park domino game, the names of the fonts used give insight into my incredibly professional process for selecting them. I basically searched for fonts with “dino” or “dinosaurs” in their name, or something that sounded similar … such as Tinos. Of course, I still check if it’s readable and looks good, but it’s honestly impressive how often this just works out. You can search for the most specific or random of keywords and find a cool, thematic font just sideways of that.)