Quiltable: Christmas Quilting is a printable roll and write designed by Jared and Madeline Richardson and published by Circle J Games. In it, players use unique placement to design a Christmas quilt in order to earn Christmas cheer (points). Each option in the game is only available a select amount of times, so choosing which option to use involves both strategy and a level of risk assessment.
Quiltable: Christmas Quilting advertises 1-4 players starting at age 8, with a play time of 30-45 minutes.
Let's step into the review.
Quality - N/A - This is a print and play document, so the quality is really up to you, dependent upon the materials you use to print it out.
Artwork - 6/10 - Hanna Beach and Abby Jones included a lot of cool parts in how this game is designed. The Christmas tree is gorgeous. Being able to draw your own quilt symbols is cool. And the way the graphics are organized to cue you to actions makes sense. There were instances where white and yellow were used that I wish would have been darker colors for easier viewing. My other critique is that I think the quilt background underneath where you draw your quilt symbols is a little distracting. But overall, I think the visuals add to the game.
Theme - 6/10 - The theme makes sense for the game. As a player, you're trying to create a quilt, give and receive gifts, and gather Christmas cheer. I don't think the theme was particularly inventive, but the concepts seem to fit well with the game's mechanics. The visuals further the theme as well. Overall, a decent theme for the game.
Learnability - 6/10 - The game itself makes a lot of sense once you understand how to play it. However, I found myself confused at several points reading through the instructions. There were a few important concepts that I almost missed (drawing on adjacent quilt blocks, knowing how to access the end blocks), but was able to find again after searching. Overall, I think it could have been written a little bit better, but was organized decently. Once learned, the game is fairly simple to teach to others.
Weight - 7/10 - The solo option of this game was decently weighted. It was fairly simple in its design, but still a little bit puzzly. This would be easy for someone to pick up. I think the player agency could have been improved by adding maybe one more die to roll (giving one more option) each turn. But overall, the weight of the game was not so simple that I wasn't engaged.
Engagement - 6/10 - It was fun to try to figure out which quilt squares I wanted to make and where I wanted to put them. It was fun to collect points during the game's progress. I also liked how using all of one option meant that other options were unlocked on future turns.
Decisions - 7/10 - While I was making game decisions, my choices also affected what the AI would do. I liked that my future options were restricted because of AI play, but I wish that the AI would have had more to do with actions and not just point collection. This is better in the shared play version where other players are taking different actions. Also, during each turn, I really only had two (or maybe three) decisions each turn. I think that added that third die to the mix would have possibly improved that, but I have not yet tested that theory.
Mechanics - 7/10 - The mechanics in the game were just varied enough to be engaging. Rolling dice, collecting blocks before the options were no longer available, and deciding where to put quilt blocks in order to trigger further point opportunities all worked together in order to create a roll and write that was easy to pick up and relaxing to play.
Solo Play - 6/10 - The solo option in this game plays against one of four AIs. Each AI scores points based on their collected quilt blocks and a score chart for that AI. In this way, there are four levels of difficulty that you can play against in the solo game. I appreciate that ability to tailor the game to be the exact level of challenge that is enjoyable to play. It also lends itself to continued challenge as you get better at playing the game. For the solo option, I do wish that the AI took actions in addition to collecting points. But overall, I think the solo option did a good job at capturing the heart and the mechanics of the game.
Shared Play - 7/10 - This game would be fairly easy to teach to others for group play, taking a few minutes to learn when first sitting down to play. I like how playing with other people makes it a bit more interactive as you give and receive gifts, as your dice options change each turn, and as others take actions that reduce your available choices in unpredictable ways. I think those things put together make this roll and write very enjoyable to play with others.
Replay Value - 6/10 - The game offers a good level of challenge and takes awhile to develop a good strategy. I would play this game more, especially in a group setting, in order to continue to try to reach those high scores and to try to see what results would occur when organizing my quilt in different ways, prioritizing various quilt blocks over others. I think there are enough options in the game to be engaging for multiple plays.
Overall, this is a nice cozy roll and write that would be fun to pick up during the holiday season if you celebrate Christmas. The play time is satisfying without being burdensome. The mechanics are engaging without being too complicated. This is a lightweight, accessible game that most anyone could play.
Overall Rating 3.2/5.0
Keep playing, friends.
(Disclosure: Circle J Games provided me with a copy of Quiltable: Christmas Quilting in exchange for an unbiased review.)
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