Designer: Nao Shimamura (シマムラナオ)
Artist: Yamauchi Rock Boy (ヤマウチロックボーイ)
Publisher: ハレルヤロックボーイ (Hallelujah Rockboy)
Players: 1-100
Ages: 10+
Times Played: 14 on a purchased copy

This will be a sort of review of a game I first reviewed in April of 2020. I’m writing this as an updated “review” of the game (and will skip most of the detailed rules here), but there are a few things you should know before we get started.  It is scheduled today because I helped license the game for Allplay (boardgametables.com) and they are launching it on Kickstarter on Tuesday, under the new name and theme, Mind Space.  I will financially benefit if you back it.

This is my favorite roll and write game.

At first glance, it has many of the colored polyomino tropes which pervade the space, but it separates itself from the crowd for me – both in mechanics and in theme integration.

In theme, the game takes place over 12 months of college, and for each month, you’d draw one shape in your tatami door room. The shapes you can choose from are mostly the polyominoes you would expect, but they arrive on a conveyor. There are always 5 shapes available, with a 6th as a consolation prize of sorts. Each month, dice are rolled for the five colors used in the game and assigned to certain positions of the conveyor.  At the end of the month, the shape in the 5 slot is removed, the others slide down a position, and a new shape is added to the 1 slot. 

As I think about it now, I didn’t properly couch my original discussion of the game in enough of a modern sports analytical lens. There’s a certain WAR aspect to considering the 12 shapes you’ll draw during the game. For each yellow shape I draw, I’m _not_ drawing something else. What are the best food pyramid proportions of each color? It’s not that easy of course – maybe it’s 1 yellow, 1 blue, 1 red, 3 orange, and 2 purple, and 4 green. But what happens when the reality of that hits the conveyor?

In the original review, I glossed over it, but I had a friend who thought the yellow shapes were categorically never worth drawing. I’m not involved in any of the art, theming, development work, etc. that Allplay does, but occasionally a question comes back to me. They too had a question about the yellow shapes (now green, but I’m still going to call them yellow for the purposes of this article).

So I threw all of the score sheets I’ve kept into a spreadsheet and looked at the correlations between how many times shapes were drawn, the points the player earned from them, from the bonus cards, and overall scores.

The game will always give you a way to score points – even a yellow shape which doesn’t directly provide points will cover up spaces which would otherwise subtract from your score. But when I inevitably must veer off my personal ideal course, what is the swap I’m making? How do I maximize the switcheroo. Which color will get less shapes.

(I’m not going to share the full data (because spoilers!) but no rules about the yellow (green) shapes changed – the spoiler being how it did inform a change for another shape. That was a moneyball informed adjustment.)

It is these decisions which reflect the genius of the game’s dice conveyor. The game chooses to let you draw each color each turn – you won’t have an unproductive turn where your colors are limited and you can’t constructively progress your game forward. You have a polyomino radar which wakes up each morning and gets to the studio early to put together your forecast for the shapes you’ll see in the upcoming turns. (Well…maybe see.) If there’s a shape you want, you sort of know if it will or won’t (likely) appear soon. You can also save up your ducats to try to corral the rowdy dice. (For some shapes – like the red scoring – the spotlight is firmly on how you best use the conveyor.)

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OK. So mechanically, I’m sold. But, uh, how do you take a game so steeped in local anime allusions and make it appeal to a Western audience. When I talk to friends in Japan about games I’ve signed or am considering licensing – it is this one which always throws them for a loop. Not that the gameplay isn’t worthy, but they see it as such a niche release.

That theme though! Even if the tatami mats or the kotatsu don’t quite translate culturally, this idea about fitting the different parts of your life – hobbies, friends, romance, work – into your schedule is alluring. Games about the realities of everyday life have me firmly in the crosshairs. The Allplay team did a wonderful job mapping the tatami mats onto your gyri and sulci. Now you’re doing the same scheduling – but in your mind, with the bonus cards more directly involved in the theme as well. More introspective games about feelings, k? please, thx. 😘

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But the most telling aspect of my adoration for the game is the same as always. The reality of my gaming life is that I have scores of games to screen for scouting purposes and games my friends need to play for their purposes, so a game seeing too many plays after my opinion has sort of settled is rare. But here, I got to change that play count at the top from 7 to 14.

To discuss it in some of my favorite board game critique terms, those of Japan’s Arclight Game Award, how does it fare in the following:

• Does the game offer an interesting experience?
• Is it a game you want to play over and over?
• Do you want to introduce the game to others?
• Is it a game that causes the people around you to want to play?
• Does the game have a universal appeal?
• Is it a game that fits with current trends?

It does offer an interesting experience – as the dice/card conveyor and the scoring cards keep it interesting. (Though I think the uncertainty of how to balance which shapes to draw is what makes it compelling – how do you master the scoring setup?) It is a game I want to play over and over – which helps because it’s also one I love introducing to others. Coloring, dice, and puzzles, oh my! Both of these later two (playing over and over as I introduce to other people) are driven in this case by its universal appeal – it’s the kind of game I can pull out when we have an odd player count (7?) or with people of mixed gaming interests. It’s both a stressful and relaxing experience. Both casual and puzzley.

I hope you like it. 💛

best,
JN

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Dan Blum (2 plays): I am a little tired of roll-and-write games, but this one is better than most of the recent crop; until you get near the end of the game it’s always possible to do something positive on a turn, it’s just a question of what, and what consequences that play has for future turns. (I have played other R&W games where there are too many turns where you can’t accomplish anything.) I hesitate to say “I love it” after just two games, but I do like it and would happily play more. (And I will probably get a copy of the new edition.) My only quibble is that, while in theory you can play with any number, playing with more than maybe three players seems as if it will require a bunch of extra colored pens or pencils to avoid slowing the game down.

Jonathan F. (1 play): I knew nothing about this game and am not a fan of Roll/Flip & Writes.  That said, I quite enjoyed Cartographers within this genre and this game has a nice and somewhat similar feel to it.  The theme is as thin as a tatami mat, but there are moments of satisfaction when you notice a high scoring play that you had somehow missed before.

Dale Y. (1 play)  I really liked this one.  It was a delicate balance of having some foresight of the shapes available on the conveyor belt, but tied to the randomness of needing the right color to come up with that shape.  If you got the right color/number combination early in the life of the card on the conveyor, do you risk choosing something else and hoping you get lucky again later? Who knows. Also, be sure to remember that each card in the conveyor is unique; once a shape is gone, you’re never going to get to draw it again.  I have only played once, but I want to play this one more. Perhaps when James Nathan gets the other version, he’ll have an extra one to sell to a friend.

Lorna (multiple plays): One of my favorite roll and writes. I like the decision of color vs shape. The scoring takes a bit to get used to and I love how challenging it is.  I own the first edition but plan on picking up the newer one as well.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

I love it! James Nathan, Dale Y, Lorna
I like it. Dan Blum, Jonathan
Neutral.
Not for me…