tabletoppingboardgames 
A historic café in France is refreshing its look, and they’ve set their sights on a stunning new floor. Not just any floor, though—this one will feature intarsias, a technique of carefully crafted wooden inlays in different colors, forming beautiful patterns. And here’s the twist: they’ve come to you for the design! But, of course, you’re not the only contender. Others are also competing to create the most captivating design. Who will earn the honor of seeing their creation come to life on the café floor?
👥 2-4 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 40-60 minutes
📝 Designers: Michael Kiesling
🎨 Artwork: Lukas Siegmon
🏢 Publisher: 999 Games (Dutch version, review copy provided) Originally published by Deep Print Games.
Gameplay Overview
In Intarsia, you and your opponents have three rounds to construct a wooden floor with intricate patterns and score the most points to win the project. Each round kicks off with gathering materials. You start with a “starting card” that shows ten materials, and there are five unique starting cards, each offering a different combination of materials. Once you have your materials, it’s time to build!
During your turn, you’ll use building actions to add pieces to your floor. Each intarsia piece is built from the outside in and has four parts: the frame, midsection, core, and table. Each part has a material cost, which ranges from 1 to 4 cards of a specific color based on the frame piece. To link these frames together, you’ll use cross-shaped connectors, which cost four materials of the same color.
Once you pay the cost and add a frame, midsection, or core to your design, you’ll receive new material cards in a different color than the ones you just used. The number of new cards you receive is always one less than what you spent. Tables and connectors, however, work a little differently: they let you advance one or two steps on a shared reward track, where you’ll collect the material cards shown on the space you land.
If you complete a goal listed on one of the tool tiles during your build, you can claim it for extra points. Here’s where it gets exciting: if you already own a tool tile of that type, you get to score it again! This means each time you collect another of the same tool, your points for it keep growing.
At some point, you’ll reach a turn where you can’t or don’t want to take any more actions, and you’ll have to pass. When you do, you add your starting hand card to the others and discard down to a max of three material cards. When all players have passed, the round ends with a scoring phase, where points are awarded based on the connector pieces you’ve built. In the next round, starting with the player who passed last, each player picks a new starting hand card and gathers materials to start building again.
After three rounds, it’s time for the final scoring, where points are awarded based on the completion level of each intarsia. The player with the highest score will win the commission and bring their design to life in the café!
Game Info
Intarsia is the latest creation of Michael Kiesling, a designer you might recognize from the widely celebrated Azul, or other notable titles like Tikal and Renature, which he created with Wolfgang Kramer. This particular version of Intarsia comes courtesy of 999 Games, a Dutch publisher that kindly provided us with a copy to share our impressions with you. With room for 2-4 players (sorry, no solo mode this time!) and a playtime of under an hour, it’s a game that’s accessible to ages 10 and up. We’d call this a “family+” game: it’s a little more complex than your average family game but still approachable—more on that in a bit!
Components and Artwork
Let’s open the box! Intarsia immediately catches the eye with its 150(!) beautifully crafted wooden pieces that fit satisfyingly together on your player board, offering a pleasing, hands-on experience that looks fantastic. These components are definitely the stars of the show, giving the game a look that stands out on any table.
Beyond the wooden pieces, the rest of the game components are equally solid. The boards and tool tiles are made from sturdy cardboard, and the cards feel nice and durable. The artwork, by Lukas Siegmon, goes for a charming “wood” aesthetic with a harmonious palette of browns and earthy tones that really bring out the flooring theme. It all feels like a cozy nod to the classic craft of wood inlay, making it clear why the café would want one of these floors in the first place!
Gameplay Mechanics
Now, onto the gameplay! Intarsia combines pattern-building and set-collection mechanics with a satisfying puzzle-like feel. The rules are straightforward enough for players aged 10 and up, but there’s a nice depth here that gives more seasoned players plenty to think about.
In Intarsia, managing your material cards wisely is essential. You’ll be balancing multiple ways to score big points, but they often come with trade-offs. Each tool tile corresponds to a specific intarsia color, meaning that if you’re going for multiple tiles of the same tool, you’ll have to work in different colors. This can impact how complete your intarsias are at the game’s end, where the completion level is a major scoring factor.
For instance, if you focus more on gathering tools, you may have fewer complete intarsias, which score higher when fully finished. On the flip side, focusing solely on completing a few intarsias might mean missing out on some valuable tool points. The game is all about balancing these approaches and choosing when to go for each—do you want a well-rounded score or an all-in-on-one strategy?
Player Scaling and Interaction
We found that Intarsia scales smoothly with any number of players. When playing with fewer people, a certain number of each of the frames are removed from play, which can make them at times feel scarce. In a four-player game, for instance, you might find yourself in a tight spot if other players have already taken many frames of a particular color. Tool tiles also adjust to the player count, ensuring balanced gameplay at any level.
As for player interaction, Intarsia leans towards the “solitaire” side of things, with minimal direct interaction. Besides the shared reward track, players mostly work on their own boards without too much interference from each other. If you prefer games where players are constantly affecting each other’s strategies, you might find Intarsia a bit quiet. However, if you enjoy the satisfaction of creating your own perfect design without others messing with your work, this game offers a fulfilling experience. And just to keep things fresh, each player board has an A-side for a standard experience and a B-side for a slightly more challenging version with different scoring opportunities.
How Does it Compare?
So, where does Intarsia stand compared to other games? Many early reviewers have compared Intarsia to Azul, likely due to Michael Kiesling’s name being attached, along with the aesthetic appeal of the components and the personal player boards. But we’d argue that Intarsia delivers its own unique experience, with a gameplay style and scoring system that stand apart. It’s definitely a one-of-a-kind puzzle—no surprise, given that your design might one day grace a historic café in France (if only in spirit!).
Final Thoughts
In our games, Intarsia has delivered some tense, competitive fun. Players took different paths to score, yet scores were often close enough to keep us guessing until the final tally. (In one game, three of us even ended in a tie!) Intarsia creates a visually striking “mosaic” on each player’s board, offering a satisfying sense of accomplishment when you see your design take shape.
The elegant design and clever scoring choices make it a rewarding experience for anyone who enjoys strategic planning without overly complex rules. Intarsia is a game that feels as fulfilling as completing a beautiful, hand-crafted wood floor—minus the splinters!
📝 A big thanks to 999 Games for providing us with a review copy of Intarsia.
