Packing Party
What happens when you fuse Tetris with colors, puzzles, roll-and-write AND the holiday season?
You get a combo you’ve never quite seen before, especially when it comes with not one but two unique narratives to spice things up.
Time to cue up my first holiday game of the season: Packing Party!
Entry: Before playing the game
First Impressions
Holiday Season
When does the holiday season start for you?
For me, the excitement kicks in right from Halloween. That whole stretch of Halloween-Christmas-New Year, wrapped in my favorite season of winter, makes me giddy every year. So any game that adds to that cozy, festive vibe instantly earns a spot on my table.
Be it Doom Cat for Halloween or Packing Party for Christmas, I’m drawn to them just by the theme. Guilty as charged!
Tetris
My brother had this small game player with a little light stand attached, so we could play Tetris in the dark. I’m talking early 2000s. We’d play whenever we got the chance, trying to beat each other’s scores. Lovely days.
That was my only real experience with Tetris, a stretch of five or six years. And thanks to Shiny Pigeon Games, I finally get to relive those moments in a new flavor!
Colors
Those who read my blogs know how much I love coloring in games. The likes of Rolling Village and Growing Grounds have won my heart by letting me color my way through the gameplay. So the moment I saw that Packing Party asks for six unique colors to draft items, I couldn’t help but nudge my coloring pens. It’s time for you to rise and shine!
A bit on the game
Packing Party: Santa’s Helpers
Step into Santa’s workshop as one of the cheerful helpers wrapping gifts for the foster kids. This version brings a festive vibe, with players drafting unique gifts to pack three gift boxes. The dice determine the shape of each item, while the marker color tells you what kind of present it is. Your goal is to assemble gifts in the allotted boxes and deliver them to the specific kids to earn extra points.
Packing Party: Moving Day
Switch the wrapping paper for cardboard boxes, and now you’re packing up your home before the big move. Here, you’ll draft and arrange items snugly into your three boxes. The dice set the item’s shape, and the marker color marks what kind of household item it is. To score big, you’ll want to organize your boxes smartly and label them according to rooms for unpacking ease later on.
All you need
Packing Party is the third game I’m trying from Shiny Pigeon Games, and there’s one thing I love that ties them all together: zero assembly. Knowing I can print and jump right into the game feels great, especially on busy days.
Print one page per player, grab six markers (ideally red, orange, green, blue, purple, and black), six dice, and you’re good to go! Add an extra die if you’re playing solo. This setup applies to both Santa’s Helpers and Moving Day.
You can choose to laminate the playing sheet, but based on my experience with games that involve coloring, I went the other way.
Entry: after playing the game
So here I am, after a week of playing Packing Party solo, with my spouse and friends!
Findings
The game goes where you go
Do you want Packing Party to be competitive? Or would you rather take it easy and keep things casual? Play it with friends who are new to games, or with those just as competitive as you? The game has you covered for this year’s holiday season, and I loved that. Here’s how:
1. It’s super easy to learn, so you can quickly get everyone ready to play. That means less downtime explaining rules and more time with the polyomino puzzler.
2. You can take the casual route and enjoy the art-meets-puzzle aspect. Focus less on points and have fun drawing the polyominoes in the right rooms or boxes. Brainstorm with friends and turn it into a cozy co-op experience.
3. You can take the competitive route with players who are more into games. Draft rooms or boxes, grab early bonuses, and maybe block your friend from taking a desired color!
4. Are you an introvert? The game has a great solo mode with five rounds. Chase your best score or simply enjoy it as a relaxing puzzly art project.
5. Not a big fan of holiday-themed games? Packing Party still has you covered, haha. Moving Day works perfectly year-round, so you can switch to it whenever the festive buzz feels a bit overwhelming.
More variety than I anticipated
Factoring in six different polyomino shapes to fit into three unique box layouts with six types of items opens up a wide range of possibilities. The goal is to score the most points, but the path to getting there isn’t one-dimensional. For instance, you can focus on labeling a box early to claim bonuses, or aim for more variety in items (colors) to earn extra points. On the other hand, you might fill a box mostly with one type of item (color) to score as well.
There are three special actions you can use to your advantage, allowing you to tweak shapes, dice rolls, and more. In multiplayer, picking colors wisely and keeping an eye on what others draft adds a nice layer of interaction. In solo mode, you have only five rounds to rack up as many points as possible.Â
What takes things further are the two different modes Packing Party offers: basic and advanced. All these elements keep the game fresh and add to its replayability.
Labeling each box in Packing Party ties the narrative beautifully with the gameplay, and as a game designer, that detail deserves a nod. While you label boxes by room in Moving Day, you write the foster kid’s name on the gift box in Santa’s Helpers. Neat touch!
A tale of Color and Tetris
Knowing beforehand that I’d be getting a blast of nostalgia mixed with my love for coloring in PNP games, Packing Party absolutely lived up to expectations. Both Santa’s Helpers and Moving Day gave me twelve unique shapes in total to draft, color, and fit into boxes, and figuring out where best to place them was easily my highlight of the experience. The game also has plenty of room to expand, especially through adding more variations to item shapes and the boxes that hold them. I already caught a glimpse of that in advanced mode!
The difference
While Santa’s Helpers and Moving Day’s basic rules are the same, they vary in terms of:
– Theme
– Polyomino item shapes
– Special actions
– Box layouts
– Scoring objectives
– Rewards
I liked playing both and would definitely recommend trying them to see which one you enjoy more! My friends leaned toward Santa’s Helpers, since they’re more into its festive vibe.
Get Packing Party before Christmas!
Whenever a holiday-themed game goes live on crowdfunding, I often see folks in the community worrying about not getting it by Christmas, and that’s perfectly fair. Why back a holiday game if you can’t play it during the holidays, right?
That’s where Shiny Pigeon Games really stepped up. They launched their Kickstarter campaign earlier than planned to make sure backers receive the game files well before the festive mood kicks in. A big shoutout to Chris Backe and Parker Simpson for making that happen.
With eight days left in the campaign, you know what to do!
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Game Overview
Publisher: Shiny Pigeon Games
Designer: Chris Backe & Parker Simpson
Artist: Parker Simpson
Number of players: 1 to 6
Difficulty level: Easy to Medium
Rounds of gameplay needed to learn: 1 to 2 rounds
Game duration: 20-30 minutes
Available on: Kickstarter
Theme: Roll-and-write | Polyomino Puzzler
Number of pages and color: 1 sheet per player (color)
Assembling difficulty level: Super easy. No Assembly required
Lamination: Recommended for replayability
Additional elements required: Up to 7 D6 dice, a token/tracker, and 6 unique color markers
Time to learn: Within 20 minutes
Travel-friendly: 9/10
Shelving friendly: 10/10
Rating from PnP Time: 8.5/10
Tasliman is a board game developer based in Bangladesh, with the dream of exploring the world of games and introducing it to anyone new to it. He is the founder of Kraftz, a brand that develops board games commercially, as well as with reputed entities like BRAC and The Gates Foundation.
