Hoyuk

Höyük is a freely-downloadable boardgame, with nice graphics provided by Orlando Ramirez, a fan of the game, and inspired by murals at Catal Huyuk, the ancient Anatolian city, and the largest and best-preserved Neolithic settlement yet excavated.

(Assembling a playable set does take some work; I suggest printing the components onto full-sheet labels, mounting onto cardstock, and then cutting them apart carefully.)

During the game, you place houses in the central playing area, with a set of rules to determine when and how houses can be placed adjoining to each other; animal pens can be placed adjoining to houses, and ovens and shrines can be placed atop them. A group of connected houses belonging to one player is termed a "family," and a group of connected houses and pens is termed a "block" (a block can consist of multiple families owned by multiple players).

During a round of play, a player will construct four houses, and two other items -- additional houses, pens, ovens, and/or shrines. What "additional items" you can build is semi-random, and depends on how construction cards are dealt out during the round.

At the end of each round, each block is inspected, and up to three "aspect" cards are awarded to the players: one each for the player with the most pens, most ovens, and most shrines within the block. Ties are broken by house heights--basically, houses can be built atop the rubble of other houses, subject to certain restrictions. Aspect cards can later be used either to build additional items -- or cashed in for victory points.

In addition, on every turn except for the first, a catastrophe will occur. There are basically only two types: in one, half the houses in the largest block are ruined, and in the other, half the houses in the block with the smallest number of ovens, pens, and shrines are ruined. While the type of catastrophe is at random, there are only two types, and planning for catastrophes is therefore feasible.

When a player builds his 25th house, the last turn is in progress, though players may continue building through the end of the round.

Höyük is thus a fairly intricate strategy game, reminiscent in some ways of Alhambra and Carcassonne, which does what games of this type must do: require a handful of choices each turn, but make those choices difficult and interesting. In particular, the moment at which to switch from using aspect cards for construction and using them to garner victory points requires considerable thought.

Höyük is a game that could easily be professionally published successfully -- and despite its existence as a free download, perhaps someone should. I wouldn't mind paying for nicely-executed components.