by W. Eric Martin

In August 2025, designer Kasper Lapp gave us a diary about INK, a game that started with the idea of players collecting cards that would provide symbols to complete missions, with these cards also giving players new missions to complete.

What's interesting about the diary is that aside from the initial clever idea — with a player's interest split between wanting certain symbols now and setting up other missions for the future — much of the development that makes this game so compelling to play in its published form was contributed by publisher Final Score Games.

I've played INK six times on a review copy from Final Score, and it's one of those magical mainstream-friendly designs that can be picked up and enjoyed by a wide range of players, while simultaneously containing elements that certain gamers can exploit for their benefit and an excellent win-loss ratio against a more casual audience.

The gist of the game remains the same as Lapp's original design: Draft tiles one by one each turn, arranging them in such a way that you can complete "objectives" on those tiles. "Objectives" is almost too serious a word for what you're trying to do; an objective requires you to have a block of at least as many connected spaces as the number on that objective, with all of those spaces being the color of that objective. For a purple 4, for example, you need at least four purple spaces in a group — and assembling colored bits into groups is something children do automatically from a young age.

When you complete an objective, you mark that numbered objective as well as any "free spots" in that color block with ink bottles. The more spots, the better since you're trying to place all of your bottles before anyone else can place theirs. If the objective is of size 4-7, you receive a specified bonus action, such as adding a free spot on a tile, removing a bottle to make a space playable again, placing an extra tile drawn at random, and forcing opponents to cover parts of their tile display. (The rules suggest a bonus action layout for your first game, but you can randomize it.)

Face-down bottles cover objectives and cannot be moved
This last element might seem out of place since for the most part INK has only indirect player interaction, that is, I know you want this tile, so I'll take it first. You have the freedom to do that as while some of your bottles must be placed on specific colors, others can be placed anywhere — which gives you the ability to snipe opponents or just take advantage of opportunities that arise. After all, tiles feature 2-4 colors, so even when you're focusing on your two target colors (out of the five included), you'll place other colors as well, ideally creating — and fulfilling! — secondary objectives along the way.

With experience, you can start to see the opportunities for clever play, both in the placement of tiles and the use of bonus actions. Each bottle you place removes a space from a color block, sometimes just shrinking that space and at other times splitting it. You want to build an area that you can "score" multiple times, using the same colored spaces repeatedly to satisfy multiple objectives. By drafting the right tiles, you can build an area that lets you do that, with bonus actions letting you "cheat" by, say, placing a colored square on your board that combines two areas or moving a tile to a new location so that you can score the same area twice.

Fourteen bottles placed after only six tiles?! The work of a champion...or careless opponents
While you're mostly doing your own thing, you need to keep an eye on opponents. Which colors do they need to focus on for their bottles? Which objectives are they trying to fulfill? Which objectives do they need to take advantage of color blocks already in place? Some of your bottles can be placed on any color, so use that to your advantage to keep others from making big moves.

For the complete rules of INK, a rundown of all bonus actions, and many examples of gameplay, watch this video — and to anticipate questions, this post's subtitle comes from a children's saying that predates their knowledge of what drinking is really like: "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." Shout out to my classmates from Vassar Road Elementary School!

Youtube Video
00:00 - Talking down on take & make games
02:19 - How Azul differs from other titles in this genre
04:02 - How to play INK, with many examples
26:07 - Final thoughts