24. Patchwork

In this episode, we take a look at one of the best two-player games around, Patchwork, a game about quilting!

Patchwork is a colorful 2014 game designed by Uwe Rosenberg with art by Klemens Franz that takes the notion of patches on a quilt and turns it into an elegantly designed game for exactly two players. In Patchwork, players take on the role of quilters, selecting and adding Tetris-style patches from a common pool onto their quilts. Each patch has a cost in time and in buttons, the currency of the game. When players take a patch, they pay the required number of buttons and move along a time tracker the required number of spaces. At the end of the game, you get one point for each button you have and lose two points for each empty square on your quilt, so you need to generate buttons while covering your quilt.

Patchwork is easy to teach and easy to learn. I played recently with my 8-year-old niece. She picked up the game in no time, lost her first game, and immediately said, “Let’s play again!” Patchwork is also a fantastic date night game for couples because it’s low conflict and it’s easy to talk while playing it.