Quilts and Cats of Calico Preview

I am a fan of games in general, not just videogames but board games as well, so much so that my husband and I host a weekly board game night with our friends! One of the games that we like to play is Calico: a game that has you trying to sew the cosiest quilt to try a attract cats to lay on it. Developer Monster Couch have created a digital version of this wholesome board game that can be played with up to four players locally or online. I am curious to see how faithful this digital interpretation will be to the physical game.

As soon as the game’s Main Menu loads, you are inundated with patches of various colours and adorable cats. Besides playing a new Game, Quilts & Cats has an intensive tutorial to teach you how to play, which is useful to go through even if you have played the board game version before, as you will learn what you’ll need to do to perform each action. I was playing on my Steam Deck, but if you prefer, you could always use your mouse if you are on the computer, which may make it easier to place the tile exactly where you want.

The first things you see on the screen are your Design Goal Tiles, four are displayed, but you have to pick the three that you want to try and complete. Each title has a pattern you need to replicate, like AA-BB-CC, or more difficult ones, like AAA-BBB. This means you want to get two tiles of the same pattern or colour for AA, two titles that have the same pattern but are different than the one already used, and CC with the same idea. Each tile has two numbers at the top representing the possible points to be gained. The amount of points depends on the sets of patterns and colours you collect: you are only able to have three sets of different patterns or three sets of different colours, you will earn the smaller number. If you don’t have the required number of pairs, you get zero points. Successfully having the sets in other patterns and colours will give you the higher value. This may sound confusing, but this is exactly how you play in the original version.

Around each Design Goal Tile are six spots to place tiles, which means there is an open area around this to place other patches. These can be combined with the existing patches in the board to create clusters of three tiles of the same colour to earn buttons. There are six different buttons to collect and sew on the quilt: yellow moon, green leaf, light blue raindrops, dark blue blueberries, purple mushrooms, and pink flowers. Once you get one of each button, you will earn a rainbow that will be sewn on the quilt and earn you extra points. While trying to match colours, you will want to pay attention to the pattern on the tiles. On the left-hand side of the screen, there are pictures of three cats, each with two different patterns displayed below. If you place the stated number of titles that match this design, the matching cat will lay on your quilt. There are also cats walking around on the screen or snoozing; if you want to wake them up, there is a button to hit that will wake them from their slumber. This was just a fun and silly addition that put a smile on my face.

When the full quilt is completed, the game adds up your score compared to your opponents’, showing how many buttons you collected, how many points you got from the Design Goal Tiles, and how many cats you were able to attract to your quilt. A round in the game takes maybe half an hour to complete, and your computer opponent knows what they are doing and will be challenging to beat. In three rounds, I only won one time, and I have played the game before! 

If you want to try something different than the Regular Mode, there is a Campaign Mode to check out. Here you move your token around the nine pieces of the board to complete requests from the people living in Cat City. Some of the tasks have you fixing a completed quilt to attract more cats or others like earning three buttons. The demo only had a few different challenges available, but I can’t wait to climb the ranks in the full game and help out more residents in the city.

At first, I was concerned that trying to place the tiles on the board would be hard to do using the thumbstick on a controller. It wasn’t too difficult, as long as you look at the board and notice on the spot when an outline of dashes appears, that’s when you have it lined up right and it will get stitched in. If you are playing on the Steam Deck, you can use touch controls to place if you have issues with the thumbstick. It was nice to have the option to play this game on the go, enjoying the relaxing music, bright colours, and adorable cats wherever I was. 

Quilts & Cats of Calico is a whimsical game that really captures the feel of the original board game and adds new fun elements like cats walking around the board and online multiplayer. The full game has cross-platform play, so you can challenge your friends worldwide no matter the console they are playing on. I can’t wait until I get to use the cat creator to design my own felines and dress them up in cute costumes! If you already have the Calico board game, you are sure to love this title; plus, having the ability to play by yourself or online with friends and family who don’t live near is great. Quilts & Cats of Calico is one of the best digital versions of a board game I have played.