Ask any modern board game enthusiast how they feel about digital adaptations of board games, and they’ll most likely respond with, “It’s good, but the physical game is still better.” That’s true for most digital board game adaptations, of course, as the gameplay was always designed with tangible items in mind, and playing online or against AI just can’t replace the feeling of strategizing with or against another player in the same room as you.
However, Quilts and Cats of Calico is such a fantastic game, both as an adaptation of the board game Calico and its own thing, that it’s a must-play for any cozy game enthusiast out there, regardless of whether they’ve played the board game or not.
In Quilts and Cats of Calico, you compete against another player (be it AI, local, or online) to see who can craft the best quilt. Your quilt is built from hexagonal pieces of different colors and patterns, and you earn points based on individual goals that dictate what the patterns and colors of certain quilt areas should look like. You can also gain points from piecing three pieces of the same color together, and by forming specific pattern arrangements that attract cats to your quilt. Whoever has the most points by the end of the game wins.
It’s pretty simple stuff, but it’s this simplicity that makes the game both so addictive and so pitch-perfect for a digital adaptation. The strategy needed to win a game of Quilts and Cats of Calico isn’t demandingly cerebral, but it’s complex enough that one round simply isn’t enough. You need to play again, and this time, you’re completing more goals, gaining more buttons, attracting more cats, or all three.
In certain rounds, winning almost isn’t the main goal anymore — it’s gaining the most points possible. After a mere two days of playing, I became so addicted to this game that I started seeing the hexagon quilt pieces every time I closed my eyes, with all their different colors and patterns.
The simple gameplay also makes it so that the screen isn’t flooding you with information whenever you play a round. While Everdell is one of my favorite board games, it’s also a pretty hefty one. There are tons of components and reading, so the digital version feels overwhelming in a way the physical version doesn’t.
Calico is essentially just a list of goals, a quilt, and quilt pieces with no text on them. Not only does this make it work great for any screen, even ones of smaller devices like the Steam Deck or the Switch, but it also allows adorable animated cats to walk around the screen as you play, ones that you can pet anytime you feel like it. If their walking around distracts you, though, the game allows you to make them go to sleep, and they’re equally as adorable when they’re in slumber.
While many digital board game adaptations only use a keyboard and mouse, Quilts and Cats of Calico also has controller support, and it’s implemented so intuitively, that I can see this game making it into many year-end lists for the best handheld games of 2024. Another seriously big advantage the video game has over the board game is that Calico is very much what the community calls a “multiplayer solitaire.”
Essentially, it’s a game with very little (or no) player interaction, and your opponent mostly serves as someone who takes away resources and has a score you need to beat by the end of the game. Because of that, Calico usually isn’t the main event of game night and is more what you play when the party is beginning or dying down.
This problem is non-existent with the video game as you can play whenever you want, against AI or someone online, and there’s no pressure to ensure the other player is having fun. You can focus on your quilt, take as long as you want to make decisions thanks to asynchronous playing, and play as many rounds as you please without worrying about the game becoming boring for either player.
But what if the game does become boring? After all, there’s only so much you can do with the same gameplay repeatedly. Not to worry, as Quilts and Cats of Calico has a story mode where you go around town and make quilts for people. The video game designers truly had fun with Calico’s gameplay here, because each person you make a quilt for has specific necessities you need to accomplish and scores aren’t even important with many of these rounds as you often have no opponent.
Instead, you win by achieving certain goals with only a limited supply of quilt pieces. It turns Calico into even more of a puzzle to obsess over, and figuring out how to achieve every goal in the specific order the quilt pieces are handed out is incredibly satisfying.
There’s a cat creator too that’s surprisingly in-depth. You can customize your cat’s fur color, fur thickness, and so on, you can dress that up in hats, football helmets, wings, and much more, and you can decide the goals needed to attract them in a game.
Once you name these cats and save them, you can select them for a game, pet them, and watch them walk around as you try to attract them to your quilt. This truly is a cat person’s dream cozy game come true, one that’s thankfully easily accessible thanks to its compatibility with the Steam Deck and the Switch.
This is more than just a board game adaptation. It’s a long, warm hug from your best friend. It’s sweet, cool lemonade on a hot summer day. It’s listening to the birds chirp as you go on a walk. Even if you’ve never played a board game other than Scrabble or Monopoly, Quilts and Cats of Calico is a must-have for anyone who loves cats, puzzles, cozy gaming, or all three.
A copy of Quilts and Cats of Calico was provided by PR for the purposes of this review.
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