Mind Space

^{review by Alapai}

Mind Space is a roll-and-write puzzle game for 1-5 people from Allplay. In it, you roll dice to decide which polyomino pieces you draw onto your Brain Board. Once all the cards have been drawn, whoever has the most victory points is the winner.

To start a game of Mind Space, each person is dealt a Brain Board, a scoreboard and a reference card. Each Brain Board is a 9x9 grid that has 5 separate sections, divided by thicker lines, and some parts already filled in. You also draw three goal cards, one per deck and have them placed in the center for everybody to see. Finally, you draw five polyomino cards and arrange them in a line next to the polyomino deck, with one facedown card at the end of the line. To start a turn, the 5 colored dice are rolled. Each die is placed next to a polyomino card based off of the number rolled, with 1s next to the card closest to the deck, 2s on the card next down the line and so on, with 6s placed next to the facedown card at the end of the line. Then, everybody chooses a die and draws the shape from the polyomino card the die is next to in the color of the die rolled. Shapes have to be drawn fully on the board, not intersecting any shapes already there or extending past the edge and they have to be adjacent to another shape on their Brain Board, but cannot be touching another shape of the same color. Each color does something different when you draw them. When you draw a green shape, you fill in a coin on your scoreboard that you can cross off later for a benefit. When you draw a blue shape, if it has squares in a section you haven’t had any blue squares in yet, you cross off the furthest left blue section on your scoreboard, losing points at the end of the game if you haven’t put blue squares in all 5 sections. When you draw an orange shape, you cross off the furthest left orange section on your scoreboard, earning more points at the end of the game the more orange shapes you draw. Purple squares at the end of the game will earn you 2 points each if they are adjacent to an orange square. Pink shapes will earn you points at the end of the game if you have also drawn matching non-pink shapes. If you ever fill in a section of the Brain Board, you also get a coin and points. If you achieve a goal, then you also earn points for it, earning more if nobody else has achieved the goal first. At the end of the game, you also lose points for each square left unfilled on your Brain Board. Once you’ve played 12 turns, which will be obvious by not being able to fill a 5th card into the polyomino card line, you add up all the points you scored and whoever has the most points is the winner.

I am a big fan of roll-and-write games, as evidenced by my review of them back in 2020. I also love puzzle games, with Patchwork being my favorite two-player game. There have been multiple puzzle roll-and-write games and I do enjoy playing them. Mind Space does a good job of fulfilling both those itches, with roll-and-write mechanics similar to games like the Clever series and Second Chance where you get a few randomized things and choose between them and with puzzle mechanics similar to Patchwork and Blokus where you have to make sure you fit polyomino pieces onto a grid. It also adds on a mechanic I often see in other games like Castles of Mad King Ludwig where you are choosing things based off of color, where each color will do different things aside from just being a different shape. Ultimately, it blends the mechanics together pretty well, offering a satisfying victory if you are able to choose shapes/colors and place them better than your opponents.

I have a couple minor complaints that don’t affect gameplay as much as being minor issues. First, the rulebook doesn’t actually explain the colors well, leaving the explanation to the back of the scoreboards which I found a little annoying. Second, the markers in the game left their colors on the Brain Board and Scoreboard a bit too well, requiring extra effort to remove the ink beyond just the erasers on the caps. Ultimately though, this didn’t affect how I feel about the game, but they are things to keep in mind from a learning to play and cleaning up afterward perspective.

If you’re looking for a puzzle game with some roll-and-write mechanics and a somewhat robust scoring system, Mind Space is a great game that fits well into a small box.

Mind Space is available now from our webstore.