Patchwork

Patchwork (2014) is a two-player sequencing game where players aim to piece together the most beautiful quilt. You play by adding Tetris-like Patchwork pieces to a 9 x 9 Quilt board. It is a game about carefully threading the needle between earning buttons to spend and spending buttons to purchase Patchwork pieces as you race to finish your quilt before time runs out.

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You play as competing designers, selecting Tetris-like Patchwork pieces from a shared pile and racing to finish your quilt before time runs out. Each piece can be rotated or flipped into place and costs a varying amount of buttons. Useful shapes cost more and awkward shapes cost less.

It's made more challenging because earning buttons takes time. Each go you must choose to either buy a Patchwork piece or earn buttons in a few different ways. This might be my passing opponent's counters or harvesting buttons from your quilt. But if you do this too often the game finishes before you've finished your quilt.

As you play, the space on your board becomes harder to fill and the available pieces become less useful. So each turn becomes a careful balancing act between carefully crafting your quilt, racing your opponent around the board and collecting enough buttons to win the game. What starts as a calming tile-placement game quickly becomes a race to capture key Patchwork pieces in order to best complete your quilt and avoid penalties for uncovered squares.

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Our examiner, Rob Prior, first checked Patchwork 23 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 14 months ago.