Monster Castle Board Game

Monster Castle is a simple flip & write game where just looking at your own tablet is definitely not enough. Invite different monsters to the party and place them in the castle in a way that benefits you. Every decision... you make directly affects all your neighbors at the table, so in this game, they can quickly love you and even quicker - hate you!
 
When the clock strikes midnight, the King of Pumpkins' castle will host a nightmare party! Ghosts, vampires, witches, skeletons, the whole Frankenstein family, and even unicorns are all on the guest list. But how to fit this ragtag group so that everyone is satisfied – after all, the castle isn't stretchable? That’s a challenge for a true party master!
You have a tablet with a castle plan where you will sketch various shapes with the invited monsters. But which monsters and in which parts of the shapes they will be placed is also decided by your opponents. This is where the treachery and cunning of this game lies. You never know what to expect from your neighbors – they might unexpectedly help you or completely undermine you by throwing in unwanted monsters. At these moments, the atmosphere at the table, to put it mildly, heats up!
Moreover, in this game, even the side of the table you sit on matters – the active player will turn the shape towards themselves in a way that benefits them. The other players will be forced to draw the shape in the orientation it lies on the table in front of them, with no chance to rotate or mirror it. This unusual mechanic adds even more crisis and sharpness to the interaction between players.
And even if everything is perfect for you, at any moment, someone can use a special action to shuffle all the monsters or turn the shape in another direction. All your plans crumble – you need to quickly figure out how to minimize losses while also plotting revenge against the treacherous neighbor! But remember – if you decide to intentionally make life difficult for your opponents, you risk finding yourself in a very difficult position.
If you want to add more puzzle to your games – play on the reverse, more complicated side of the tablet with additional conditions for earning victory points.
 
In short, the rules:
On their turn, the active player takes the top shape card from the deck and lays it face up on the table, turning it in any direction that benefits them. After that, players take turns filling in that shape by playing one guest card from their hand – the active player lays down the first card, then the next player clockwise, and so on, until the shape is fully reproduced. Of course, you will try to play the guests you need in the required parts of the shape, but you can only guess what monsters your opponents will then play – and they will surely want to throw a couple of uninvited guests into your castle.
When you finish filling in the shape, each player must draw symbols of the corresponding monsters in the empty cells of their tablet, maintaining the shape in the position they see it from their side of the table – simply changing the shape's position is prohibited.
Some unwanted guests who cannot fit in the castle or ruin your placement plans can be sent to the moat outside the castle or left on the bridge in front of the gates. Yes, they will remain unhappy and take victory points from you at the end of the game – but you saved space for other monsters. That's not too heartless, is it?
During the party, there will also be three unexpected events that may give you additional points if you have placed monsters in the castle in a certain way by that moment. When this will happen is not exactly known. But the earlier you start preparing for them, the more chances you have to earn a lot of victory points!
As soon as the third clock shape card comes out of the deck (which, as usual, catches you off guard), players play the last event and proceed to the final score count. The largest groups of all types of monsters are counted, their positions relative to the kings – and, of course, we don’t forget about the penalty guests you "graciously" sent to the moat.
On the complicated side of the tablet, the castle plan will be larger, and it will feature five entertainment spots where placing certain types of monsters is recommended to earn bonus points. More conditions mean a more complex puzzle for the party king!
 
Game duration: 30 minutes
Number of players: 2-4