Releasing later this year, Quilts and Cats of Calico is an adorable light-strategy puzzle game about arranging pieces of a quilt. Based on an actual board game, it can be played by yourself or against real-life opponents, vying to get the best score you possibly can. We’ve played through a demo build more than once, and it’s safe to say we can’t get enough.
We’d never played Calico before – the board game that Quilts and Cats of Calico is based on – but it’s instantly hooked us. It’s an easy-to-play but hard-to-master strategy game about placing coloured and patterned hexagons into a quilt. Completing certain patterns will net you points, and the goal is to score as many points as possible. Three colours together will award you with a button being sewn onto your quilt – with each button being worth a number of points. Matching certain patterns will also lure more cats onto your quilt, giving you extra points. Finally, a number of hexagons will ask for certain colours or patterns to be arranged around them. There’s quite a lot to pay attention to, then – and with the patterns and colours in your hand being random, it can be harder than it seems to meet each objective.
It’s never frustrating, though. Playing a game of Quilts and Cats of Calico is a relaxing and meditative experience. If you don’t do as well as you wanted to, you’ll simply want to jump in and try again. It’s also helped by the fact you’ve got adorable cats wandering around your quilt as you play: hold your mouse cursor on them and they’ll purr, reacting to your affection. It’s adorable – and unlike your real-life cats they’re not suddenly going to turn around and whack you. Win-win.
There’s also a fully-featured campaign mode in Quilts and Cats of Calico. The demo only gives us a very small taste of it, but it’ll see you talking to various characters, helping them out with their quilt-related quandaries. The short section we played simply saw us dealing with one aspect of the full puzzle of Calico: we either had to match colours, or match patterns. We imagine the challenge will keep increasing as the campaign progresses.
If you’re a fan of replayable puzzle games and a lover of cats, Quilts and Cats of Calico is a no-brainer. This is a faithful reproduction of a popular board game, brought to life with love. It looks beautiful, it’s adorable, and once you start playing, it’s hard to put down.
Quilts and Cats of Calico will be available on PC later this year. A free demo is available to download so you can try it out for yourself.
