Junk Art combines with wood-work in dexterity game Moku Tower
Be sure to log your creations.
Stack pieces of carved wood to form artistic creations in Moku Tower, an upcoming board game about scoring points with sculptures.
A dexterity game for two to six players, Moku Tower challenges people to build towers using wooden blocks of different shapes, sizes and wood types. With the aim of scoring a certain number of points - which will depend on the player-count - before anyone else does, the players must attempt to fulfill all the requirements shown on the cards they choose to draw before the sand in the hourglass timer runs out.
Players start the game by drawing two special function cards - which enable the player to force their opponents to complete more requirements or do their stacking in a certain way - before deciding who goes first. The first player must then choose how many cards to draw for their go, with a starting position card being essential and the extra pieces and super jetpot cards being entirely optional. In a similar fashion to the party board game Junk Art, the players will need to stack their pieces in accordance to the instructions shown on the card. In Moku Tower, which type of wood pieces the player uses is important, with the current player needing to exactly match the card combination.
Whilst the starting position cards have players stacking blocks in a particular order, the extra piece cards show how many additional pieces the player must add, with the super jetpot cards providing some extra requirements such as staying silent the entire time or using only a specific part of their hand.
The more cards that players manage to complete, the more points they’ll score. However, all requirements must be fulfilled before the player’s time runs out, otherwise they score nothing. Should a player drop anything in the course of stacking, they’ll also instantly fail. If the current player manages to successfully complete all their requirements within the time limit, then they flip the hourglass and the next player instantly goes - which means that the quicker the players manage to do their sculptures, the less time their opponents will have to do theirs.
Moku Tower was co-designed by Louis Hsu and Ivan Kan, with this being the duo’s debut tabletop title. The eight different types of wood pieces - from ash to maple - were produced by Mokuomo, a company specialising in creating art and decorative pieces using natural wood, with the game set to be published by the business.
The Kickstarter campaign for Moku Tower is live until October 29th, with a pledge of HK$540 ($69/£52) getting backers a copy of the game in December 2021.