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In the game, 1-6 players draft cats and toys, then add the cats to their 4x4 shelter. Each player begins with a starter cat, and cats score based on being in sets or next to a variety of cat types. On a turn, from an assortment of four cat tiles and three groups of random kitten and toy tokens, you can take the smallest token group and any two cat tiles, the medium-sized token group and any cat tile, or the largest token group and the rightmost cat tile, that is, the cat who's been on offer the longest that no one wants. So sad.
You can give toys directly to cats to score points, or you can discard three toys to place up to four kittens in a single space as a kitten habitat. Doing so allows you to score points from sets with cats, but if you keep kittens on their own you can score points for them as a set of four matching kittens or a set of all seven types, so allocate your kittens with care!
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Image: Eric Yurko
Once a player fills their shelter with cats and kitten habitats, you complete the round, then tally points to see who has satisfied their cats the best. Way Too Many Cats! is due out in the first half of 2023. (Kickstarter link)
Having volunteered in a few cat neutering programs in New England, I can testify that there are indeed way too many cats out there. Propagating cardboard cats seems like a far nicer thing to do...
• In Dissent Games' Library Labyrinth, a co-design from Jessica Metheringham and Mill Goble, players need to combine the powers of fictional and historical women and navigate changing paths in order to capture literary terrors and return them to their proper shelves. (KS link)
For more on Metheringham's history and design work, check out this March 2022 profile.
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