Adventure Cats 2024

Race to rescue the animals you need to fill your castles and get the most points. But watch out for the gem-stealing dragon!

Adventure Cats is a family board game for 2-4 players. It is accessible enough for 5-year-olds to enjoy, but strategic enough for adults to enjoy!

In Adventure Cats, players take turns moving their cat miniature from tile to tile on the map. First, drop your gems Mancala-style on adjacent tiles. Then, your cat hops from gem to gem, landing on a tile at the end of the line. Puzzle it out so your cat lands on a tile with an animal token to rescue it! Place rescued animals in one of your castles that has room for that type of animal. Filled castles are worth extra points at the end of the game. Plus, for every filled castle, you get to move the dragon one space at the end of your turn!

When the dragon passes through a cat, it steals a gem. Gems are worth points, so you want to avoid getting hit by the dragon--as well as figure out how to get the other players!

Adventure cats is a co-design with my daughter Verna (7 years old at the time of publishing). She wanted to publish a game with Dad this year. We worked hard on it together and made a game our whole family enjoys! Especially my wife, who always wins.

Part of our goal was to make gameplay exciting and simple enough for my 5-year-old son to be able to play with us and have fun. But also make the game puzzly and deterministic enough to minimize "feel bad" moments that happen due to randomness, and make it so my wife and I can enjoy the gameplay as well. We did our best and hope you like the result!

—description from the designer