Abstract Academy Review
The designer of Flatout Games has made some of my favorite small card games like Point Salad and Ten. In this review we’ll take a look at their latest release Abstract Academy, published by Crafty Games, to see if it joins the top of the class or if it is an art school dropout.
How Do You Play Abstract Academy?
Abstract Academy is a two or four player card game where players are art students competing to win the professor’s praise by besting the other student(s) over three rounds to score the most points in various assignments.
The cards in the game have four quadrants featuring unique combinations of the colors blue, red and yellow. Players play their canvas cards to create a shared art piece. The shared art piece must be exactly a 4×4 area in a two-player game or a 5×5 area in a four-player game. As canvas cards are played to the table, the art piece may expand in any direction until the size is locked by playing the 4th/5th card in a column or row.
Once the grid size is determined, the row closest to the player is their home row, which only that player can play in. The two rows closest to the player are their scoring zone. After completing the canvas, players will review their scoring zone to see if they could claim the scorecard for that round.
New scorecards are added each round. After three rounds count up all the points to determine a winner.
What Do We Think?
We really enjoyed Abstract Academy as a quick, puzzly area control card game. It plays smoothly with casual and experienced gamers alike. The unique theme is both on the nose and endearing for an abstract game. For only being blocks of color, the card art was pleasant to view and always ended up making a unique final piece to enjoy at the end of each round.
My favorite part is at the start of each round when you try to establish your scoring area by placing good cards near you while placing unwanted canvas cards near your opponent to establish theirs. Scoring objectives are known at the start of each round. This creates a fun, immediate tension where players are trying to draw cards so they have a good variety of options to play. However, if you spend too many turns drawing, you leave yourself open to your opponent playing cards to create a poor scoring area for you to work with.
It almost feels like a western standoff. If your opponent draws, you draw. If they play a card, you’ll counter with one of your own so they don’t get one over on you.
The fun in the game is solving the puzzle as it unfolds and recognizing how you can use your cards to maximize your scoring opportunities, oftentimes by playing them strategically into your opponent’s area.
While the game does allow for up to four players to play which is nice, it has been most enjoyable as a two player game.
We’ve seen Abstract Academy available for the low price point of $10. If you’re in your local game store and see this on the shelf, it’s a great one to pick up and support your local store.
Even Good Art is Messy
The one thing I don’t like about Abstract Academy is the tuck box it is packaged in. It requires you to split the deck in half and then slide it into the box with the flap up. We ended up tossing the box and used one of our plastic crayon boxes instead. This is a small but still annoying element.
Summary
Abstract Academy is a delightful puzzle card game with a good amount of tension as you try to lock in the best scoring opportunities for yourself while hindering your opponent’s zone. With a reasonable price point, Abstract Academy is worth picking up if you’re looking for a quick puzzle placement game.
Bring home a copy of Abstract Academy.
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A special thank you to our friends at Crafty Games for sending a copy of Abstract Academy for review. As always, our thoughts and opinions are our own.
Game Info:
Title: Abstract Academy
Players: 2 or 4 players
Designer: Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, Shawn Stankewich
Artist: Dann May
Publisher: Crafty Games
