Donuts. Not sure that the word needs anything else special to go with it, donuts are on my top faves list for any meal. Now when you add board games and food together you get quite a combination that almost always peaks my interest. Now let’s make that food donuts and throw it all together and I am down and ready to dig in!
Donut Shop is a new Kickstarter coming from 25th Century Games in February 2023. The game is designed by Jeffrey Allers with art by Nick Whittle and James Churchill. It plays 2-4 players at approximately 30 mins.
Overview
Donut Shop puts players head-to-head as new employees at the local bakery where your job is to arrange, box and sell the donuts to waiting customers. Push the extras like sprinkled donuts and coffee and make a little more coin for your pocket compared to your fellow employees. Sell the most and you will be the employee of the day!
Gameplay
In Donut Shop players will each take on the role of an employee and start with a single 2×2 donut box, 1 order card and 1 donut tile. The main game board is played in the middle of the table and the Donut tiles and Order cards are placed in their appropriate holders.
Turns are taken one player at a time, with the following steps:
1-Add your donut tile to the display case
2-Score for a donut placement
3-Box donuts up
4-Draw a new donut tile and order card
You begin by placing your tile in the display case lining up a side to side. The donuts don’t have to match but you are going to want to join at least one of them into a bigger pattern. That’s because at that point you will score one of the four donuts on the card with the largest continuous pattern of them you can see in the display case at 5 cents per donut. This will often be a big pattern, but watch out because you can suddenly see them being interrupted.
Step 3 on your turn allows you to optionally box a number of donuts with either your personal box of four or with any of the boxes in the stacks that are four, six, eight, nine or twelve. When you do this you need to turn in one order card per different type of donut in the box. Some of them give you extra money like coffee cards or the sprinkle cards when you complete the order.
Finally for the last step of your turn is to draw one donut tile and one donut order card. There is a face up and face down market for both, you must take one of them as face up and the other as face down. This ends your turn and the next player clockwise will take a turn.
The game ends when either of the two face down stacks of donut tiles or order cards runs out. Each player takes a final turn and then the game finishes. Players will add up all of their hard-earned money and the player with the most is the winner!
Impressions
Like I led with, I love a good donut. So on theme alone I was interested and hooked. The game is a donut game and you do all the things you would expect-make ’em, box ’em and sell ’em. I love that the game makes sense for a donut store. Another great part of that is the art/graphic design of this. A napkin holder, donut display and all of the art make this one look like a game that fits in the old 50’s Americana era in a very cozy way.
Donut Shop is at its core is a tile-laying game. The tiles are simple, 2×2 with four donuts making it easy to match up styles. It is easy to build huge chains of one donut type and score on each player’s turn however it is often interrupted with a boxing of donut types to disrupt them. I liked the building of the donuts and the way the boxes shut it down and move/change the game quite a bit. There is a lot of jockeying that goes on and trying to find the best place to put a box down and when to place it has a small bit of press your luck as you don’t want to get snipped by another player on the area you are working on.
If you enjoy a good tile-laying game this is one to check out. The AP is low because you only have one tile, you must place it to the display and then the game kicks into finding the best combo to box up. There is something strong about this game in the way it moves into a constant crescendo of small to big and back to small moves. Families are sure to all enjoy the aesthetics and the gameplay and sometimes that is a rare combination in board games but here I think we see it done very well. The game does not overstay its welcome, we got most of our games played and boxed in less than an hour. This game is sure to find a way onto our table often and like a good box of donuts it will definitely be a hit that everyone will want to get their hands on!
Make sure to check this one and the other two games in the three game special, Color Field and Agueda from 25th Century Games coming to Kickstarter February 2023! For more information and how to back these awesome games go to:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chadelkins/agueda-color-field-and-donut-shop
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