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The final result, co-designed with Hjalmar Hach and first released by Horrible Games at SPIEL '17, does just that, with intuitive gameplay that anyone can grasp in a couple of minutes and chunky tiles that one would expect to populate such a game. When you put a title like this or Azul on the table, you can expect questions from passersby — should you be playing in a public space, that is — because the bits themselves inspire curiosity. They have that toy-like quality of HABA games that attracts people to them, and become akin to an interactive sculpture during play. Given the massive number of new games on the market, components like these elevate a game above others aimed at the same market. You need to get eyeballs on your game in one way or another if you want it to sell, and having fancy components in pictures that people will share and share again is one way to do that.
As for the game itself, Silva explained that it took them a while to come to the simplicity present in the final design. The end result is akin to Bruno Cathala's Kingdomino in that you're playing with something familiar yet new. In both games, the players take components from a shared pool to create their own thing. In your first games or if you're a more casual player, you'll mostly be looking at your castle as expands turn by turn; if you get a bit more intense, you'll keep one eye on the shared castle of tiles that you're disassembling in order to plan ahead for the next turn or two. What might be available next? How can you build in three or more colors at once so that this level can be built atop the next, allowing you to build shrines that will stand above everything else, netting you the most points in the end.
One of many possible set-ups to start the game
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