Matthew Baileyormally I do my research before buying a game and I like to think I am fairly knowledgeable about what is “new” and “up and coming” in the industry.
Today is one of those games that I sat down to play a game that was an impulse purchase because it has a cool box and I have instantly fallen in love with it.
Canvas is a game that had somehow passed me by even though it had a relatively successful Kickstarter campaign having just hit retail stores in the UK was something that caught my eye with its unusual box. So game 33 of the “Bailey family sorta Summer Board Game Bonanza” is “Canvas”.
“Canvas” is a card drafting game where you play as a painter competing in an art competition.
On your turn, you can do 2 things. You can either take a transparent art card from the shop using the tried and trusting draft method of “the one on the left is free and any further right than that will cost you progressively more currency”.
Each player starts with 4 inspiration tokens that act as this currency and you gain more by picking up cards they are placed on meaning it acts as a closed economy which is always my favourite type of these mechanics.
You then collect these transparent art cards which have 2 colours with icons at the bottom, eventually layering 3 of them together to create their own unique Painting with a background.
Because they are transparent the order you layer the cards also matters.
Based on the colours and icons you have amassed on this painting (that has a cool name such as “Heavy Nightmare” (one of Jack’s) or “Divine Childhood” (one of mine)) you then score the card based on the randomly selected scoring you have drawn before the game.
Once everyone has made 3 paintings you add up the scores and see who has won.
It is a fairly simple game that you could comfortably teach to a fairly young child (Toby(4) totally understood what he was doing) and can safely ignore the 14+ on the box. In its simplicity, however, comes a really interesting scoring system that we enjoyed and have played 3 games so far (am planning on playing it again tomorrow with Jack(7) and Katie(35) after the other children are in bed). Maximising your scoring actually takes a lot of thought and it can sometimes be very easy to think about what is the coolest picture rather than scoring.
The star of the show here is the production.
Firstly the Box. The box is designed to look like an oil canvas and has a hook on the back so you can hand it on the wall as a piece of artwork if you chose to.
The manual itself is printed on this exquisite linen paper that I kept touching just because I wanted to.
Rather than a board, the game comes with this lovely canvas mat which lays flat nicely and adds to the appeal.
All of the cards in the game are printed on linen cards and come with sleeves.
The transparent cards are all of exceptional quality and each one has a protective film on (that is actually super hard to take off hence why colours in the pics look a little washed out as it was proving time-consuming to take the films off and the boys just wanted to play).
The cardboard tokens are fine and do their job but there is also a deluxe version with wooden tokens (and an expansion with mirror cards) that I am probably going to end up upgrading to.
I have absolutely fallen in love with Canvas (if you couldn’t tell)
Both boys also loved it and wanted to play multiple times. After we finished playing they then spent a good 30 minutes just making paintings.
This is a game you can play with a 4-year-old, you can take to adult game night and you can play with the grandparents.
It’s very reasonably priced for what it is coming in at the low £30 mark.
My only negative… its so lovely that we all had to sit on one side to see it all face up hence the slightly off pics (and a rare glimpse of me)
This is a game that is simply nice to own. It plays well and it is gorgeous just to have in your house.
My plan is to let the dust settle and if I still feel the same way in a week’s time I am going to put a pin up and put it on the wall in my study.
Don’t worry… We also played a not-great game today that I will post next…
