We have a weekly board game night at Card’s Board Game Café in Grande Prairie. We recently learned a new game which is for 2-3 players. Seikatsu has a basic version out there with a Japanese theme and another with pets. The game components are not hard to recreate so I decided to make my own version.
For the game you need a board with rows of circles.
Row 1 has 4 circles
Row 2 has 5 circles
Row 3has 6 circles
Row 4 has 7 circles
Row 5 has 6 circles
Row 6 has 5 circles
Row 7 has 4 circles
I just used a punch out cardboard from one of the games we recently purchased and cut it to the correct shape. You could also use a piece of 12X12 card stock and trace whatever you decide to use for your circles.
For the playing pieces, I decided to use poker chips. I had been given these poker chips and they came in four different colours. You need eight pieces/circles of each colour.
You also need eight of each of four stickers, symbols or pictures. We recently found some Marvel stickers at our Shelve and Share at our local dump and they were perfect for this.
I have eight Hulk fists, eight Captain America shields, eight Iron Man masks and eight Thor hammers.
The last four chips were of Vision….the wild tokens.
You could make tokens out of cardboard and colour the edges. I am thinking of buying enough plywood circles and wood burning a set then painting the edges. The symbols or pictures could be as easy as letters or numbers.
Overview
The hardest part to wrap your head around is that you are not a character nor a colour of token. Each player “controls”, for end game scoring, two sides of the board, a “V” shape. For only two player’s, one of the “V” shapes would just not be scored.
During the game you will be playing a token on the board. If you match the character on the token next to the one you place, you score a point for each of the matching tokens next to your token.
At the end of the game, you match colours in each of the seven rows you “control” and count the colour that you have the most of in each row.
Vision, the wild tokens, can be played as any character during the game and used as any colour once in each row when scoring at the end.
How to Play
The game starts with drawing tokens out of a bag equal to the number of players and place them randomly around the center. I suppose you could use a toque or hat as a bag; it just has to be something you can’t see through. It is important to mention that on the playing board, the center space will remain empty.
Each player draws two tiles from the bag, keeping them hidden in their hand. Starting with the “strongest” player (the Pets version said “wisest”) and proceeding clockwise, each player places one of their tiles on the board next to a tile already on the board. For each matching symbol next to the tile played, that player scores a point. Once you play a tile, you draw a new one from the bag. You should always have two tiles in your hand to choose from.
The last tile placed was the red hulk fist. The player that played it would score 3 points; one for the tile played and two more for the two fists adjacent to it.
If you do not match any adjacent tile, you do not score any points.
When someone plays a Vision token, it can be any symbol. Here it is played to be Iron Man to score 3 points.
The strategy part of the game is that while you are matching symbols, you must also try to collect colours in your rows for end game scoring. You only get to score one colour in each row and it is the colour that occurs most in that row. The colours do not have to be adjacent to count. The Vision tile will increase your total by one for each Vision in that row. If two colours tie for the most, you just count one or the other.
| Largest colour group in each row | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Points | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 21 |
Here is an example of a full board (I just laid it out randomly) and what the scoring would be from one player’s two sides.
| Row | Largest Colour Group | Number of Tiles in Largest Colour Group | Number of Vision Tiles | Total Group | Total Points |
| 1 | red | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 2 | red or white | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 3 | green | 3 | 1 | 4 | 10 |
| 4 | blue or red | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | green | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | blue | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 7 | any colour | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
This player’s total score would be 38 plus the points scored during placement for matching symbols.
The only thing missing is a scoring track. Someone will have to keep score on paper as players match symbols during the game. The final colour scoring would then be added to those scores.
We are always on the lookout for quick games that can be taught easily and used as a filler game. This game only takes 30 min and is rated for ages 10+. The game sells for roughly $40 so it is nice to be able to make your own version with things you have on hand for free.