Sushi Go!-style game Yum Cha will help teach players Mandarin
Cantonese collection.
Collect adorable pieces of dim sum and drink tea in Yum Cha, an upcoming board game themed around Chinese brunch items.
Designed to support two to six players, Yum Cha is a new board game with similarities to the beginner board game Sushi Go! - including featuring adorable anthromorphic food items and set collection mechanics.
The game contains a collection of cards depicting various dishes you might find at Dim Sum, a Chinese brunch meal that’s usually paired with tea. Yum Cha – which translates to ‘drink tea’ - includes cards with images of each of the food items alongside their Cantonese, Chinese and Mandarin names, as well as their English language translation. According to the description found on the game’s Kickstarter crowdfunding page, the intention behind including the different names was to help educate players on the various languages.
In the game, players will be looking to collect sets of cards in order to be the first to shout “Yum Cha!” and end the round. Every round begins with 10 cards being dealt to every player, with any cards left remaining being placed into a facedown deck on the table. Each player then takes turns to draw a card from the facedown deck or from any that are in the centre. Whenever a player takes a card into their hand they must discard another card into the centre in return.
A complete collection of dim sum must include three sets of three dim sum – which can be small, medium, large or dessert – and a set of two tea cards. A set of dim sum cannot include more than one of the same type, but a player can have more than one of the same size of dim sum sets. Certain cards in Yum Cha will score players more points, such as special, super or top dim sum cards. However, waiting for these cards to appear gives opponents more time to complete their set.
Any players that fail to complete their set by the end of the round will score zero points unless they have any takeaway cards in their hand. Each takeaway card that a player has will enable them to score a single set of dim sum that they’ve managed to collect. The player who completed their dim sum and tea set will be able to fully score and record their points for that round. Play continues until four rounds have been completed, with the player holding the most points by the end of the game being the winner.
Yum Cha was co-created by Jonathon and Ando Cheung, co-founders of Quokka Games – the studio set to publish the upcoming game, having already released two board games including one called Dirty Laundry, a hidden role game, and another called Carry On.
The Kickstarter campaign for Yum Cha is live until July 6, with a pledge of AU$ 28 (£17/$20) getting backers a copy of the core game in September 2022.