Build It! Guess It! Score it! A Kickstarter Preview of Bilder

Currently on Kickstarter, Bilder has you drawing cards, choosing from one of two options, and building what you chose. But it’s not always so easy, as your building skills will be put to the test with challenges and restrictions.

Gameplay

The game components feature a wide variety of building pieces, from squares and circles to things such as bones and meeples.

On your turn, you draw a ‘what' card. These have two different things you can choose to build, each of which belongs to a different category. There are six categories in total.

There are also ‘how' cards, which impose different limitations while you’re building, such as only being allowed to use five building pieces or building only with your non-dominant hand. During the game there are always three how cards face up on the table. Once you know what you’re building, you may select one of these cards to apply this turn. Each how card also counts towards one of the six categories.

You announce to the other players the category that you are building and then begin the building process, using whichever pieces you like (unless restricted by your how card). You may not talk or make noises while building, but you may move or animate them as desired.

The first player who guesses what you’re building wins your what card. If you followed the rules on the how card, you win that card. If you ever can’t get players to guess what you’ve built, you can forfeit after three minutes or the other players can give up, in which case no one wins any cards. It’s now the next player’s turn to build.

Once a player has won a card belonging to each category, they earn three points and the game ends. Players then count their cards, each card being worth one point. The player with the most points wins.

Review

Bilder is challenging, hilarious, and satisfying. It feels great when your construction comes together, you follow a particularly challenging how card, and someone guesses what you’ve built. But there’s something really amusing about those times when you bite off just a bit more than you can chew, and the buildings that result when you desperately try to get people to guess it.

The shapes that come with the game, though not finalized in the prototype, still promise to have a wide variety. We were left eager to know how we’d use some of them, but use them we did. It was always a fun surprise when we realized we’d drawn just the right card for that building piece we’d been eying, or when a how card forced us to use a more difficult piece.

There’s a really nice range of categories, from locations and devices to events and beings. With each card also listing two options of things you can build, there are many, many prompts included in the game and lots of variety. However, some of the cards, while not exactly adult in nature, are not kid-friendly. You might not want your child building ‘serial killer’ for example, and clues like ‘Jehovah’s witnesses’ would likely be over their heads.

If you enjoy games like Concept or Imagine you’re going to love Bilder. It’s a huge amount of fun, there’s lots of variety in the cards and pieces, and lots of replay value. Check it out on Kickstarter, and see for yourself all of the things you could be building!

Pros: Wide variety in both card prompts and building pieces

Cons: Some of the cards are not family-friendly

UPDATE 7/2/2018: The publisher has updated the game to be more family friendly (at the starter pledge level) with all the more difficult cards in a separate, Kickstarter Exclusive expansion, the "complex deck." All the cards that might be inappropriate were removed from the game.

Disclosure: this preview is based on our evaluation of an unpublished prototype of the game, which is subject to change prior to publication. While a modest payment was received to expedite the review process, our thoughts and opinions expressed here are honest and accurate.