Too many board game boxes are filled with bland, featureless wooden cubes and cylinders, so it's always great when designers add a splash of extra polish. Micro Architects recently launched its crowdfunding campaign, and artistically, it's a vibrant burst of color. It includes a selection of absolutely adorable meeple wearing little bowties, sunglasses, and aprons.
In Micro Architects, you gradually fill up your personal city board with rows upon rows of different buildings. By placing these buildings in different combinations, you'll unlock landmarks that can bump up your score if you meet their requirements. Service tiles, which reward you for building pairs of buildings in different colors, and goals that give you a bonus at the end of each round if you fulfill their conditions.
The game is modular, allowing certain sets of rules to be swapped in and out during different play sessions. You can add a deck of randomized event cards that either support or suppress your city building dreams. It's the residents module that really brings the game to life, though, since it adds all of those colorful meeple to the mix. When you play with residents, some buildings also reward you by giving you residents. These residents match the color of their corresponding buildings, and gradually fill up your "residents board", granting you bonuses as they go.
Micro Architects is currently being crowded funded on Gamefound. Several different pledge tiers are available. The base game can be picked up for €25 ($29). Purchasing it alongside the Big City Vacation Expansion (which adds skyscrapers and hotels to the game, alongside a new tropical resort board) costs €45($52). Grabbing both of these, and a playmat, is €60 ($70).
Micro Architects certainly isn't the only city-building game out there, but it's definitely one of the most colorful. What are some of your favorite city-building games? Tell us all about them in the Wargamer Discord.