Wouter & Ymke 
Let’s be honest, a game about squirrels running up a tree already has a bit of an advantage. I mean… it’s hard not to like that idea.
In Scurry Up!, you’re climbing this big tree together, trying to grab food along the way. Berries, nuts, flowers, the usual squirrel buffet. The twist is that you’re not just picking what you want, you’re trying to guess what everyone else is going to do at the same time.
That’s really the whole thing. You see something good, and then you think, “yeah… but three other people probably see that too.” The game runs over seven rounds, each one a higher branch, and by the time you reach the top, you count everything up and see who made the best choices. Simple on paper. Less simple once people start getting in each other’s way.
👥 3-6 players, ages 8+
⌛ Playing time: 20 minutes
📝 Designers: David Gordon & TAM
🎨 Artwork: Ammon Anderson & Sandara Tang
🏢 Publisher: UP Games (review copy provided)
Gameplay Overview
Each round follows the same flow. The game gives the steps names, but after one round you don’t really think about that anymore.
First you reveal the next branch. New spots open up, and you immediately start scanning what seems interesting. Then everyone secretly picks a number with their die. No turns, no waiting, just a short pause where everyone pretends they have a plan.
Then everything is revealed at once. That’s the point where you either feel quite good about your choice, or you already know it’s going wrong.
Some spaces are for one player, some can be shared, and some only work if exactly the right number of players show up. That last one sounds great in theory, but in practice it often turns into a bit of a gamble.
If you share a spot, you roll dice to decide who goes first and then take turns picking rewards. But if too many players go to the same place, nobody gets anything. The game calls it an “Oops” moment, which is fair, but it usually feels a bit worse than that.
You collect different tokens during the game, and there’s already a scoring moment when you reach the top branch. After all seven rounds, you score everything properly. Sets, majorities, and a few different ways to turn what you collected into points.
Artwork, Components, and Visual Design
On the table, it looks good. The board is laid out in layers that represent the tree, so it still gives that feeling of climbing up over time instead of just moving along a flat track.
The colours shift as you go up, so it’s always clear where you are. It’s bright, but not in a way that becomes tiring.
The wooden squirrels are probably the highlight. Chunky, easy to pick up, and they have just enough personality to make you care a little when yours ends up in the wrong place. Which will happen.
The tokens are simple and easy to read. Nothing fancy, but nothing confusing either. The bug tokens are a nice small detail, especially since they score in a slightly different way.
Everything is clear, and that’s really what matters here.
Our Experience
The first thing we noticed is how quickly the game starts doing its thing. There’s no slow opening. You reveal a branch, everyone makes a choice, and you immediately see how it plays out. From the first round, everyone is involved, and that never really drops off.
What stood out quite quickly is that the game isn’t about building something over time. You’re not developing an engine or setting up a long-term plan. Most of your attention goes to what everyone else might do in that exact moment. You look at the board, see what looks best, and then hesitate because it’s too obvious. That hesitation ends up being most of the decision.
For us, the game worked best when people leaned into that a bit. Not in a loud or exaggerated way, just small comments, little bits of misdirection, pretending you’re going somewhere else. When that happens, the reveal becomes the highlight every round. Sometimes you read it right, sometimes you don’t, and everyone finds out at the same time.
With a more reserved group, it’s still fine, but it feels different. The same decisions are there, but it becomes more about weighing probabilities than reacting to people. It still works, but it’s less memorable.
The punishment is also quite noticeable. The game looks friendly, but if too many people choose the same spot, you just get nothing. That’s not a small setback, it can be a full lost turn. The exact-number spaces do something similar in a different way, where you’re hoping just enough people go there, but not too many. Those moments are often where things go wrong… or surprisingly right.
One thing that did stand out in a positive way is that the game stays close. Even if someone has a bad round, they’re not out of it. Because so much depends on shared decisions, things shift constantly, and nobody really runs away with it.
Player count changes the feel more than we expected. With fewer players, it’s easier to follow what’s happening and make more controlled choices. With more players, it becomes harder to read, and you get more overlap and unexpected outcomes. Neither is better, but they feel quite different.
Replayability, for us, mostly came from the people at the table. The system itself stays quite consistent, but different groups approach it in different ways, which changes how the game plays out.
Our Thoughts
Scurry Up! feels like a very focused design. It’s not trying to do a lot of different things, and that’s probably the right call. It keeps everything centred on quick decisions and shared timing.
What it does well is shift attention away from rules and onto players. You’re not managing systems, you’re reacting to a situation that everyone can see, but nobody fully controls. That makes it easy to teach and easy to get into, especially with mixed groups.
The scoring gives you something to aim for, but it doesn’t really change what you’re doing each round. You’re still making the same type of decision. It adds a bit of variety in what you aim for, but it doesn’t turn the game into something broader over time.
That also means there’s a limit to how much it grows with repeated plays. After a while, you understand what the game is asking from you. From that point on, it’s more about refining your judgement than discovering new layers.
There’s also a small disconnect between how the game looks and how it behaves. It presents itself as light and friendly, but some of its outcomes are quite unforgiving. That contrast is not necessarily a problem, but it’s something to be aware of.
In terms of audience, it feels quite clear where this fits. It works well for players who enjoy interaction, quick decisions, and a bit of uncertainty in how things resolve. It’s less likely to appeal to players who want long-term planning or systems that open up more over time.
Final Thoughts
Scurry Up! is a light, social game that works best when people engage with it a bit.
It’s easy to explain, quick to play, and keeps everyone involved from start to finish. The simultaneous choices are what carry it, especially when players are paying attention to each other.
At the same time, it doesn’t offer a lot of depth beyond that core idea, and it relies quite heavily on the group to bring it to life.
For us, it’s something we’d bring out with the right mix of people, especially when we want something interactive without too much overhead.
📝 We received a copy of the game from UP Games.
