Bringing the board game Calico to digital format, Quilts and Cats of Calico has players taking on the task of strategically creating quilts with colored and patterned fabric scraps. This puzzle strategy game will have single and multiplayer modes and be available on the PC and Nintendo Switch, with the release date to be announced.
I got a little preview of the online multiplayer during their beta in January and quickly found the game addictive. I'm not normally one for playing board games online. I don't have the patience for them. However, Quilts and Cats of Calico has proven to be delightfully complex in its online multiplayer format so far. It was also pretty cool to be able to create in-game versions of my cats and put them into the game in the hopes of luring them to my quilt.
What makes Quilts and Cats of Calico complex is in its rule system. If you've played the board game, you're already familiar with it. Players are given 3 design goal tiles to start with that dictate how many of 6 available patterns and colors to surround the tile with. Players gain points from several sources: Correctly surrounding one of their design goal tiles with colors and/or patterns as dictated, putting 3 colors in a row to gain colored buttons, and attracting cats to their quilt based on arranging their favorite patterns in the shape they prefer. This creates a wide variety of potential patterns and sources of gaining points. With players sharing the tile source, there is a lot of potential for players to interfere with one another's patterns, picking up colors and patterns another player may have been planning to use.
To win, one must plan ahead and stay flexible for any potential interferences that may occur, and winning is as much up to chance as it is strategy. I played multiple games, and once I had the gist of the game, I won 3 times. However, I had enough instances where, regardless of my ability to adapt, I still lost because other players just happened to draw a tile or color I needed before I could take my turn.
The games tended to run a bit long if players took the full 3 minutes allotted to them to play their turn out. However, if playing with people who are quick to move, a game can go by quite quickly.
Now this is not a review, I'll save that for when the game fully comes out. But I did enjoy what I got to play of the online beta, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the game when it's ready.
Wishlist Quilts and Cats of Calico on Steam.