£15.99
Age 8+ | 20-30 minutes | 2-4 players
You are an aspiring hotelier getting ready to exhibit at the industry’s leading luxury trade show. Whispered rumours have reached you that Des Erttrolley, the notorious cake critic, will be attending and judging the confectionary on offer at each stand. You realise that your bowl of mints isn’t going to cut it. You want a slice of the real action. At the last minute, you dash to the cake auction to bag a few bargains. To save time, stack layers as you win them and stop your multi-tiered, gravity-defying showstoppers from collapsing prior to judging.
27 in stock
In Top Cake, fox and out-bid your competitors to win layers of cake in each round of bidding. Stack your cakes as you win them. At the end of the game, the more impressive each cake stack, the more points you’ll get during judging. Win extra points for stacking matching layers and for crowning your creations with a fabulous topper.
Credits:
Designer: Ellie Dix
Artist: Anastasia Cartovenco
Graphic Designer: Maria Tsareva
| Weight | 0.136 kg |
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Ellie Dix –
“Top Cake is a deceptively simple auction game from The Dark Imp’s growing line of attractive small tin offerings. Competing as aspiring hoteliers at a confectionery trade show, players will bid on layers of cake each round and add them to their display, aiming to astound the judges with the most impressive cakes at the end of the game.
“Each bid is made up of two cards – one face up and one face down – from players’ hands of ten. Values range from one to eight, plus a Snatch and a Reverse card which mix up the usual highest bid wins formula.
“A decent amount of player interaction comes from the inevitable bluffing, as players cautiously ponder over which card to place face down and when best to use their Reverse and precious one-use-only Snatch cards. Furthermore, it pays to be cautiously aware on each player’s turn, as any matching cards on a cake layer are removed from play. Comically, this encourages plenty of suspicious, mind-reading glares game after game.
“The icing on the cake is how Dix taps into that satisfying feeling of ‘building’ something that is so often desired in the hobby. Thanks to its aesthetic design, Top Cake isn’t merely asking players to collect abstract sets; it’s tasking players with building a towering cake. The game packs in seven unique types of cake, each boasting distinct, minimalist design thanks to artist Anastasia Cartovenco. As auctions are won, players will stack their cakes with these cleverly overlapping cards, hoping to score extra points through matching layers and crowning them with ornate toppers. It’s a satisfying process, undoubtably helped by its impressive table presence considering the game’s diminutive size. Top Cake manages to push its novelty size aside, admirably presenting itself as a game capable of competing with designs twice its size and price.”
Chad Wilkinson
Tabletop Gaming Magazine