Cubyria
- Board's Eye View
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
Over all the games being showcased at this year's UK Games Expo there's not much doubt over which was the most visually stunning. In Cubyria: Architects of a Lost City, over the course of the game, and however well or badly you play, you'll end up with an impressive three-dimensional construct. The game is designed by James Borda and published by Cubyria Games.
The game comprises a huge set of rooms and rooftops with which players will be building. There's a card corresponding to each physical structure and, on your turn, you draw two cards and play any cards to add them to the city. There's no cost to adding a room, roof or stairwell - you just play the card that matches the piece you add. This is a puzzle optimisation game where you are looking to maximise your score by placing rooms etc. adjacent to others with the same 'affinity' (symbol). Your score for a room will usually be greater if it's on a higher level. You're building the city tho' as one of the architects at the bidding of a notoriously capricious Vizier, and for some rooms the Vizier will penalise you if the room isn't on the level that the Vizier prefers.
Cubyria then is a 3D tile placement game where the 2–5 players are looking out for the optimal score for the rooms etc. that correspond to the cards they have in hand. And placements need to be lawful in that rooms need to connect with those that are already on the board; for example, via a connecting door or via a staircase to the next level. You don't have any ownership of the pieces you place out - you score them for the value shown on their card multiplied by the level and enhanced by that piece's affinity with connected pieces already on the board. That gives Cubyria the feel of a semi-cooperative game since the pieces you place out may well provide scoring opportunities for me on my next turn: tho' the players are competing to achieve the highest score, this isn't a game where the interaction is 'take that'. Indeed, there's the option to play the game cooperatively, going for the best collective score, and you can likewise play solo, trying to beat your own best.
Shown here on Board's Eye View is a preview prototype of Cubyria that gives a small inkling of what a fantastic table presence this game has, The board is mounted on a 'lazy susan' turntable. That's not just for the convenience of the multiplayer game; on your own turn it's really helpful to be able to easily swivel the board around so you don't miss any of the available opportunities for connections. The only thing missing is a scoring track or tokens for scoring: players score at the end of their every turn and in the prototype that's done just with paper and pencil. We expect tho' that scoring components will be incorporated in the final version when Cubyria completes its crowdfunding run. The campaign is due to launch on Kickstarter in September. Click here to check it out.
