It’s a smart, arty party game
GEOMETRIC ART
Designer: Romain Caterdjian, Hsu Wun Hao, Eros Lin| Publisher: EmperorS4
If you’re a gamer with an artistic streak, the tabletop hobby offers plenty of opportunities to express the creative side of your personality. From the hit drawing-and-guessing game Telestrations to the bluffing and subterfuge of A Fake Artist Goes to New York, there are more art-themed games than you can shake a paintbrush at.
It means that Geometric Art, from Taiwanese publisher EmperorS4, faces some pretty stiff competition. But this silly and sociable release does an admirable job of distinguishing itself from a crowded pack, combining familiar elements from much-loved drawing games that have come before it with a handful of twists that help it feel fresh, challenging and – perhaps surprisingly – genuinely artsy.
The game comes with two modes – co-op and competitive – both of which see players roll a handful of wooden dice showing a collection of lines, curves, shapes and squiggles. On each round you’ll use this random assortment of elements to attempt to draw an object determined by a set of category cards. Then, you and your fellow players will take turns to guess what one another’s masterpieces are supposed to depict.
The cards themselves only show broad, often open-ended categories: monster, city, fairy tale, clothes. It’s up to you to decide exactly what to draw using the shapes at your disposal. You’ll find yourself racking your brain for inventive ways to use the elements available on each round, asking yourself whether a particular combination of lines and squares could form a bridge, a car or a skyscraper. It takes some genuine artistic thought, and while you don’t need to be any good at drawing to enjoy the game, you do need to be able to think visually in a way that feels quite creative.
Once you and your friends have finished drawing, you’ll simultaneously reveal your work, and it’s here that Geometric Art reveals the second part of its expressive one-two punch as you try to work out what the hell everyone’s pieces are supposed to represent. You’ll stroke your chin and 'hmmmm' approvingly as you discuss the inherent suggestion of the organic in the artist’s use of bulbous forms and disjointed positioning of elements. And then you’ll probably guess completely incorrectly, leaving yourself looking like a prize numpty.
But it’s here that the game recognises something important about art. Any kind of artistic endeavour is a two-way process. There’s the creator, then there’s the audience. Expression and interpretation. How a work is interpreted can be just as important as the artist’s intent in its making. It’s probably the kind of thing they talk about in art school, I dunno, I couldn’t tell a Reubens from a Renoir. But Geometric Art makes both sides of the equation equally fun, and it manages to make both its cooperative and competitive modes thoroughly enjoyable, feeling almost like two games for the price of one.
It’s an impressive achievement, and a great option whether you’re playing with kids or over wine and cheese with your impossibly sophisticated friends.
OWEN DUFFY
WE SAY
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – but this is an objectively good addition to anyone's collection. A strong entry in the draw-it-and-guess-it genre.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX
► 7 Dice
► 5 Artists’ boards
► 5 Coloured pens
► 35 Topic cards
► 10 Ability cards
► 1 Exhibit card
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED TELESTRATIONS
Geometric Art is a deft, dice-chucking evolution of classic silly drawing games.