Vital Lacerda has a habit of turning unlikely jobs (art dealing, pharmaceuticals, Martian colonies) into some of the most intricate strategy games around. His next one, The Great Library, hands you the keys to the Library of Alexandria, and for heavy euro fans that is reason enough to clear an evening.
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Find events near youDesigned by Lacerda with art and graphic design by his regular collaborator Ian O'Toole, The Great Library casts 1 to 4 players as chief librarians in third-century BC Egypt. You train scribes, send ships around the Mediterranean to gather and deliver manuscripts, and fulfil the king's requests to grow the collection. Time itself is the main currency you spend, the sort of clever wrinkle Lacerda's fans expect. Reviewers place it a touch lighter than monsters like On Mars and Lisboa but heavier than The Gallerist, with a teach of 30 to 40 minutes and games running up to three hours. A solo mode pits you against an automated librarian named Zotikos.
Published by Eagle-Gryphon Games, it was crowdfunded on Gamefound and is due to ship in late 2026, with editions planned in more than a dozen languages. If your shelf already groans under Vinhos and Kanban, this is one to make room for. New to Lacerda's heavyweights? It pays to find a patient teacher and a group to play with before diving in.
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