For a thousand years, specialized glass makers have tirelessly and painstakingly created translucent mosaics of color and light that have captivated hearts and uplifted spirits. One part artistry, one part engineering, the work of a stained glass artisan requires precision planning as well as an eye for creativity. From churches and mosques to monarchs and government institutions, stained glass has been prevalent in western architecture for so long at this point that most of us take the arduous effort needed to create such a patchwork panoply for granted.
We easily forget how important these creations were, both to the people crafting them and to those who commissioned them. Thanks to their level of complexity stained glass windows bring with them a rare sense of reverence and stewardship over their caretaking that’s unlike most other forms of artistry.
Just think of how big of a deal it is whenever one of them gets broken. Half the time the windows are more expensive to fix than the buildings they’re part of…
In this lightweight game of dice drafting and dice allocation, Sagrada tasks you with creating an all-impressive window pane for the illustrious Sagrada Familia church. Through the use of various card orientations and a scalable indented player board, your goal is to satisfy the requirements of your patron’s desires while still finding the time to include your own artistic flair for some extra points.
The catch is that no single color or pip value can touch one another, meaning that you’ll have to make some calculated choices over which dice to grab from the pool when. How you proceed will determine the value of your completed work, as well as your reputation as a worthwhile craftsman.
No pressure.
At its core, Sagrada aims to help you understand the demands of a glass maker without having to worry about apprenticeships, chemistry, or keeping a foundry in your den. (It’s for the best, really.) It takes an uncommon theme and offers up an incredibly simple yet clever way to simulate it. Using dice as colors and pips as shades provides a mechanical purpose to your crafting while also underscoring the subtle challenges involved of creating stained glass works.
Hey, who said moving dice around can’t be interesting?
Still, we want to ensure that you’re up for the task of surviving a dice-based faux-glass-making apprenticeship. (It’s a thing, we swear.) As such, we’ve decided to provide one lucky craft maker with means of studying up on this Totally Real Apprenticeship by offering up a copy of the game to be used as learning material. Hopefully it’ll give you a leg up on all the competition out there for the role.
So grab your manganese, cobalt, and copper oxide, because we have some windows to forge, and they aren’t going to just form themselves!
From now until midnight EST on May 6th you can check the contest out on our Facebook page, or by entering below. Just follow the entry form and proceed with the contest. The more you do, even if just one, you still have a better chance than not entering at all. Of course you’re welcome to do that too. But your odds of winning drop to zero. No pressure or anything.
The Fine Print: The Cardboard Republic, in conjunction with Floodgate Games is giving this game away strictly for entertainment purposes. This act is not a paid endorsement by Floodgate or any other entity. This contest is open to individuals only. Staff members of The Cardboard Republic and Floodgate Games are not eligible to participate. For winners outside of the Continental US, the publisher reserves the right to request they cover part or all of the shipping costs.