It's a Wonderful World, and a Wonderful Game

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

Today I want to share with you a game that I love and play a lot: It’s a Wonderful World. This is a game of hand management, set collection, and engine building, where you will develop your empire to be better than your competitors.

Game Overview

It’s a Wonderful World is a 2019 release for 1 to 5 players, ages 14+, with a playtime of 45 minutes. It was designed by Frédéric Guérard and illustrated by Anthony Wolff and published by La Boîte de Jeu & Origames.

It’s a Wonderful World, Heritage Kickstarter edition

Theme

In It’s a Wonderful World, you are the leader of an expanding empire. You will carefully plan your expansion by developing your resource production in order to rule over the world.

Gameplay

A game of It’s a Wonderful World is made up of 4 rounds, and each round has a draft phase, a planning phase, and a production phase.

During the draft phase, each player takes 7 cards, chooses one, and passes the deck to the right or left depending on the round. At 2 players, the draft works differently: each player starts with 10 cards instead of 7, choosing one at a time and passing the rest to the other player. When each player has 3 cards remaining, those are discarded without gaining their recycling bonus. This way, both players still end the draft phase with 7 cards.

During the planning phase, each player selects which cards go into production and which will be recycled. Each card has a resource associated with it. When you recycle a card, you gain that resource and place it on a card in production. If you’re not able to or don’t want to, you place the cube on your empire card instead. For every 5 resources, regardless of type, you can exchange them for a Krystallium, a bonus resource that can replace any other resource and be used at any time. Note that, if recycling a card during the planning phase places the final resource on a card under construction, that card is immediately completed and moves to your empire, already able to produce resources in that same round.

During the production phase, starting from the materials resource on the leftmost side, each player checks how many resources their empire produces. For each resource, the empire that produces the most earns the supremacy bonus, which is a general or a financier token. If there’s a tie, no one gets the bonus for that resource. Each player then takes the cubes produced and places them on the cards in production. As soon as a card finishes being constructed, it immediately moves to your empire and starts producing right away, following the normal production order. Resources that have already been produced earlier in this phase aren’t produced again for that newly completed card.

The production line set up on the table, with each resource in its own bowl

How to Win

The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Points can come directly from cards or through multipliers that give points based on your production types and your generals/financiers.

Components

I own the Kickstarter version of the game, the Heritage box. This box brings an insert system that is just fantastic. The game also included the two campaign boxes, War or Peace and Leisure and Decadence. Later I also backed the Corruption and Ascension expansion, which fits perfectly into the box. For the insert, I’ll rate it 10/10.

The Heritage box insert, with individual compartments for resources, expansions, and campaign boxes

Resources are represented by grey cubes for materials, black cubes for energy, green cubes for science, yellow for gold, blue for exploration, and red for Krystallium. There are also tokens for generals and tokens for financiers.

The player boards are made of two parts that, when joined, form the shape of an arrow. This gives you a hint about the order of production.

One thing to keep in mind: Krystallium is incredibly useful during the game, but it is worthless at the end, so make sure you spend it before the final round is over!

Setup

The game is really quick to set up, mostly thanks to the wonderful insert. Each resource has its own little container that keeps the cubes neatly in place. In total, the game uses 8 different resources.

A closer look at how the cubes and tokens stay organized inside their individual compartments

Solo Mode

In solo mode, the traditional draft isn’t possible, so the rules are adjusted.

When setting up, prepare 8 stacks of 5 cards. These will be your draft cards for the whole game. Each round, you select a stack and look at the cards. Choose the cards you want to produce. At any point, you also have the option to discard 2 cards to look at the top 5 cards of the deck and pick one to add to your hand. You can use this option as many times as you like. You then decide whether each card goes to production or recycling. Once you’ve decided what to do with every card, take a new stack and repeat the process.

After two stacks, you move to the production phase. The only real difference from multiplayer is the supremacy bonus: in solo mode, you earn it for a resource if you produce more than 5 cubes of it, rather than comparing against opponents. At the end of the game, compare your score to the performance chart: under 60 points is Rookie, 60+ is Dictator, 80+ is Emperor, and 100+ is Living God. If you’re playing a solo scenario, each one also has its own bronze, silver, and gold medal thresholds to aim for.

A full setup ready to play, with the resource bowls, draft deck, and empire card all in place for a solo play

My Experience

This game completely conquered my heart. The theme isn’t very present, but the satisfaction of choosing which cards to construct, and arriving at the 4th round able to construct everything, is wonderful. The rules are simple to understand and easy to remember too. I went a full year without playing, and after putting it back on the table, I quickly remembered all the rules. The rulebook is well written, with plenty of diagrams and images that help you grasp the rules.

My 2-player experience with just the base game was really good. I liked the draft phase and how it plays out. The fact that everyone plays simultaneously is also nice, as it makes the game shorter and avoids dead time between turns.

The game comes with solo scenarios that give you certain cards you must construct, plus a score to beat. Knowing your goals from the start is an advantage, since it helps you plan ahead, and at the end of the game it can be useful for deciding which point cards to prioritize.

A finished empire at the end of the game, with all the constructed cards and earned tokens

My Rating

Note: 10/10

I never get bored with this game, and I’m always ready for one more play. I love everything about it, and it showed me that a theme doesn’t need to be front and center for a game to be great. In my May 2026 review I rated it 9/10, but after more thought, I realized the lighter theme genuinely doesn’t bother me.

Final Thoughts

It’s a Wonderful World has earned a permanent spot in my collection, and honestly, in my heart. The blend of drafting, hand management, and engine building creates a deeply satisfying puzzle every time I sit down with it, and the fact that it works so well solo, at two players, or with a full table makes it incredibly versatile. If you haven’t tried it yet, I can’t recommend it enough. And if you have the chance to grab the Heritage edition with its insert, do it, your future self will thank you. I’m currently deep into the Leisure & Decadence expansion, so expect more from this game soon!

Your Turn

Have you played It’s a Wonderful World, solo or with others? What do you enjoy most about it, and is there anything that doesn’t quite work for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Come share them on Mastodon and Facebook.

Videos

It’s a wonderful world in about 3 minutes - Excellent game presentatio by 3 Minute Board Games
It’s a Wonderful World - Playthrough & Review - 2 players playthrough by Before You Play
It’s a Wonderful World | Solo Playthrough | with Mike - Solo playthrough by One Stop Co-op Shop

Set Collection on Marta's BG Corner