Create a Picture Square by Square in Block Party

Can you build an angel in 30 seconds with only a few colored blocks, and still make it recognizable? Will you attempt a bonus point and try to use fewer blocks than anyone else at the table?

Find out in Block Party, a party game designed for 2-6 players and published by Big Potato Games.

Gameplay

Each player takes one building card. Each building card shows a series of objects. In the center of the table, you place all the building blocks. These are small little cubes that come in a variety of colors. Every round, one player will be the guesser, and all the other players will be the builders.

At the start of each round, the guesser turns over a challenge card. This reveals a certain amount of time from 30-60 seconds, and a special challenge rule, such as trying to build with the fewest possible blocks or the fewest number of colors, for example.

Next, all the builders will look at their building cards and choose one object from it to construct. You may not use an object you have already built that round. The guesser then sets the timer to the amount of time listed on the challenge card and starts it, and each player tries to build his chosen object using the blocks from the center of the table. When taking blocks, you can only take them one by one.

Once the timer runs out, everyone stops building. The guesser then goes around the table trying to guess what each player was trying to build. If the guesser correctly guesses an object, he and the builder both earn one point. If the guesser incorrectly guesses, no points are rewarded; however, once per round, each of the builder players has the opportunity to steal a guess. This allows you to try to guess what object someone else was trying to build, after the guesser has made an incorrect guess. If your guess is correct, then you and the builder whose object you guessed each earn one point. If your object was guessed correctly (in either case) and you followed the special objective on the objective card, you earn a bonus point.

After the guesser has gone around the table and tried to guess everyone’s object, all blocks are returned to the center of the table and a new round begins with a new guesser. Players keep the same building cards for the entire game. After everyone has been the guesser once (or twice in a 3-player game), the game ends and the player with the most points wins.

Review

Block Party takes a party game concept that’s fairly familiar at this point, and refines it into an enjoyable, well-designed game that’s quite streamlined and unique enough to stand on its own. The fact that you are always using the same building card means you’re slowly working your way through the easier ones and eventually have to try tackling the trickier ones. This also gives you time to consider how you might build the more difficult ones, which is especially helpful if you’re new to the game.

Scoring is so simple and straightforward. The ability to steal a guess if the guesser is incorrect helps to keep players interested during the guessing phase and can even lead to some light choices: do you try to steal a guess on an object you’re not entirely sure about, or hope the guesser makes a mistake later in the round on an object you’re more positive about?

The more players you have, the more likely you are to run out of cubes in the colors you need, forcing you to improvise or perhaps making certain words on your building card more difficult than others.

The components in general are well designed. The blocks are fun to play with and it’s interesting to see how people slowly adapt and improve at building pictures with them. On the downside, a timer is required for gameplay but not included in the game (which we're never fans of), and we would have liked a few more challenge cards included to increase variety. 

If you like party games where you’re creating pictures for other players to guess, Block Party is likely to appeal to you. It’s quite nicely put together, and the building of the pictures with only colored blocks, resulting in an abstract pixel-like artwork style, is a unique way to make your image — while the challenges add variety.

Pros: Straightforward scoring system, ability to steal a guess, the blocks pose a fun challenge for creating images

Cons: Only six different challenges, there are a lot of similar types of games

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of these games.