River Valley Glassworks Deluxe

Super cute game that employs resource gathering of glass pieces, to place in a fun scoring mechanism that delivers some interesting decisions. This game is a 10 because it hits the bullseye for its target audience. 20 minute playtime at 2p , which is awesome. Shapes matter when you draft , and colors matter when you place on your scoreboard. There will be the usual snooty gamers that whine about the randomness. Please get over it. The randomness is exactly what keeps the replayability high. A very satisfying filler game and you'll play it 20 times the first week. Keeper for sure.

River Valley is a top game for me and is my most played game of 2025. (As of October) The rules are clear, it's easy to set up, easy to teach and play, the theme is great, and it's very replayable. There is some strategy but nothing to overthink about. Gameplay feels balanced. Solo mode is fun and the rules are clear and easy to follow. I've won some, I've lost some. I always recommend this game to everyone, especially people who don't have much experience playing games.

This was my favorite new game that a played at Kantcon this year. Simple and beautiful. I bought it right away. Simple enough to play with my kids, and strategic enough to play with other gamers. With a group of 5 new players just learning the rules, we were able to play twice in our 1-hour time slot.

I really love the art and components of this game but I was doubtful that this game would be that good but boy I was wrong. The game rules is really simple to teach and the replayability is really high. I ended up getting the deluxe version of this too.

Simple, quick and fun that I wanna keep playing back to back! Tough tactical decisions throughout and the feeling that if only you had more time to complete your rows/columns. An amazing family weight game that non gamers enjoy playing too.