junkyard

A game by Scrappy Studios

The game

Junkyard is a thoughtful, strategic drafting game set in a bleak yet heartwarming post-human landscape. Players take on the role of scavenger robots in a trash-covered landscape, picking through scrap piles to salvage gears. With these gears, players repair their fellow robots who have fallen into disrepair, each bearing a unique personality and special abilities that help you out. At its core, Junkyard is about finding beauty in the overlooked and discarded, consuming mindfully, and building community even in challenging conditions. It questions overconsumption and proposes a future where healing the world starts with mending what’s been discarded. In this game, we imagine a sci-fi future not defined by its collapse and ruin, but by kindness, connection, and sustainable care.

Illustrations are hand-drawn, no AI used.

Scavenge gears.

Repair robots.

Use special abilities.

Components

Game box includes: 40 Robot cards; 9 Pile tiles; bag of Gears; 4 Workbench boards; rules sheet.
Gears come in five colours: yellow, red, green, blue, purple.
There are eight types of Robot cards, each with their own special benefit.

Setting up

Center Set-Up:
Place the correct number of Pile tiles in the center:
9 Piles for 4 players, 7 for 3, 5 for 2.
Shuffle Robot cards and place the deck in the center.
Fill each Pile with 4 random Gears from the bag.

Individual Set-Up:
Each player gets 1 Workbench board.
Each player draws 3 Robot cards and places them on their Workbench.

Gameplay

How to play

The person who fixed something most recently goes first.
Play continues clockwise.

What you do on a turn

1. Choose a Pile or the center of the Piles.
→ Pick one color from that Pile (or from the middle if there are Gears there). Take all Gears of that color (max 4).
2. Assign Gears immediately to your Robots.
→ Place the matching Gears on robot cards.
3. Extra Gears?
→ Place any extras in your penalty box.

Completing a robot

When a Robot is complete, draw a new one from a face-up draft of 3 Robot cards.
→ Select one to add to your Workbench. Refill the draft immediately.
Use the Robot’s special ability before the end of the round.
After the special ability is used, move the Robot to the completed pile on the left of your Workbench.
If unused, it still moves to the completed area — but the special ability can no longer be used.

End of a round

The round ends when all Gears from the center and middle are exhausted.
Refill the Piles with 4 new Gears each.
Continue play from the next person.

End of the game

The first player to reach 10 points wins!