In-Depth Review: SWATCH

Let’s face it… swatches are the best part of painting.

•Game Stats•

•Publisher: Minerva Tabletop Games
•Designer: Scott James / David Digby
•Artists: Scott James
•Players: 1-4
•Sweet Spot: 3-4
•Mechanics: Card Drafting / Racing / Trading

!!!Find it on Kickstarter now!!!

This is not a paid review! We just love highlighting awesome games and designers!

Artistry and strategy colorfully collide, spilling onto your table in the form of Swatch! What at first appears to be a beautifully minimalist, laid-back abstract experience, quickly becomes a tense race across the spectrum as you collect a wonderful array of hues to satisfy your color scheme. As smart and exciting as it is sleek and gorgeous, Swatch embodies the essence of color creation. Let this light-weight gem unleash your inner artist!

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•THOUGHTS•

Kitty: Please, please tell me I get to make color puns?!

Brooks: That’s gonna be a hard no…

Kitty: Oh, come on! I’ll make them my best puns to date!

Lizzy: Well, that’s a low bar. How about we give you a firm limit of three?

Kitty: I can work with that! Or should I say, I red you loud and clear!

Brooks: Liz, I blame you for this.

Lizzy: Yeeeeah… moving on. So for us, art is a theme we can always get behind. From large, sprawling, complex games about curating a collection or painting a fresco, to small, fast-paced set-collection fillers; we constantly find our shelves littered with new artistic additions. Swatch is certainly no exception, and it took us by surprise. With a lightning pace, yet a thoughtful depth that keeps it anchored with tension, Scott’s wonderful little creation had us glued to our seats and engaged throughout.

Kitty: We stumbled across Swatch while on Twitter one day. We follow and have always enjoyed Scott’s content, and decided to reach out when he asked for reviewers for this beautiful little game. The best part was that we ended up getting to demo the game with him personally. It was our first ever time playing a game with the actual designer, and we geeked out soooo hard! From there, we were hooked.

Brooks: After countless play-throughs, we kept being surprised by the wonderful weight and clarity that Swatch offers. The game is lithe and streamlined, providing a pace that never causes interest to falter. The goal is simple; complete your private objective, which consists of a specific color scheme. This is accomplished through obtaining swatches that complement said scheme. It’s very apparent that the game was created with deep consideration of color theory and the actual swatches are aptly, and often hilariously, named. (I’m looking at you, “A Little Bit Nudie”)

Lizzy: Everyone likes to get a little bit nudie now and then! Regarding gameplay, turn order for each round is determined by the position in which you place your marker. The tableau of action cards is spread out in a tiered display. The next few rounds of available actions are therefore visible a couple turns in advance. From left to right in the tableau, players place their markers selecting from the cards present. If the card you want is at the end of the line, this means next round you’re choosing last. That mechanic, paired with the ability to skip to the next row of cards (while taking a penalty for jumping the line, but securing the action you want) creates a constant risk/reward factor. This is one of the many subtle ways that Swatch rises above.

Kitty: Endgame has a unique mechanic as well that beautifully balances gameplay. If you have any excess paint left over after you have successfully completed your objective, your victory remains on layaway as you continue taking turns, getting rid of one cube each round. This makes it so that throughout gameplay, you don’t simply vacuum up paint cubes, screwing over your opponents and anticlimactically winning. Tension mounts as you nervously wait to see if the other players have been more efficient and steal the victory due to a lack of excess leftovers. It’s almost as though you’ve been a sloppy painter, splattering all over the place, and you’re forced to clean up before you can win! This is just another reason why this game blue my mind!

Lizzy: I see what you did there…

Kitty: BLUE… my mind… like… the color…

Brooks: *heavy sigh* The artwork represented in Swatch is also crisp and abstractly striking. The cubes representing the lower tier colors; discs representing red, blue, and green for purchasing swatches; and player markers that are separate colors from the rest, are a little harder for me to distinguish being partially color-blind. A screen print on the components or simple dot system would help dramatically. Although, these are simple alterations that can be done as per individual need, as I do on a regular basis for games. Creating unique patterns for differing cube colors is something I’m super familiar with!

Lizzy: Swatch also provides a solo mode that holds up well, with variable levels of difficulty to set for the AI player. The game also provides a dash of take-that with the ability to swap paints with other players, but if you are not a fan of that mechanic, it can easily be altered to swapping with the supply. All in all, Swatch was a true sleeper hit. It was engaging and light, while being thinky and competitive, never resorting to cutthroat methods to achieve a tense, climactic victory.

Brooks: We found ourselves continually trying different methods to achieve success while always maintaining the fun, edgy pace that it delivers from the start. Swatch is a paradise of color, crisp depictions, and thoughtful, stylistic gameplay. It will certainly become a favorite for our group and earn its rightful place in our menagerie of art-themed games!

Kitty: With artistry being a passion of mine, I take any opportunity to unleash my inner Dora Maar. Swatch provides a quick and substantial hit of the benefits associated with the wonderful spectrum of art. Color and creativity should be a priority for everyone. It stimulates the brain, releases dopamine, calms and helps heal the mind, and relieves stress! And why would you want to argue with that?! It’s cyan-tifically proven!!!

Lizzy: You really saved your best one for last…

Kitty: Shhhh… these puns have just been a pigment of your imagination.

Brooks: Aaaand, scene.

Brooks: 8.5/10 ~ Lizzy: 8.5/10 ~ Kitty: 8/10

!!!GAME PLAYLIST!!!
Life in Color ~ OneRepublic
BLUE ~ Troye Sivan/Alex Hope
Moody Orange ~ Rainbow Kitten Surprise
Black Parade ~ Gin Wigmore
Sound & Color ~ Alabama Shakes
Blue Madonna ~ BØRNS
Yellow Light ~ Of Monsters and Men
Blanco ~ J Balvin
Rose Colored Glasses ~ Kelly Rowland
Deep Burn Blue ~ The Paper Kites
Pale Green Ghosts ~ John Grant
Black Light ~ Tyler Glenn
Purple Stain ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers
Colour Vision ~ MAX
Gold ~ JoJo
Pink Light ~ Muna
Patterns ~ Vera Blue
Violet World ~ Sody
Every Color ~ Louis The Child/Foster The People
Turn Blue ~ The Black Keys
Bodak Yellow ~ Cardi B
Green Eyes ~ Joseph
Better in Color ~ Lizzo
Black Mambo ~ Glass Animals
China Blue ~ Reece
Café Amarillo ~ Local Natives
Colour ~ MNEK/Hailee Steinfeld
Orange Trees ~ MARINA
Blue Valentine ~ Áine
Pink Dreams ~ Todrick Hall
Bleed Me White ~ The Sweeplings
Suburbia Blue ~ Future Junior
Tears of Gold ~ Faouzia
Red ~ Alfie Arcuri
Colors ~ Jason Derulo
Navy Blue ~ Charlotte Lawrence
Purple Rain ~ Prince & The Revolution