Höyük

Lädt den Player

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9,500 years ago, in a picturesque valley, five clans made the choice to settle down and leave their nomadic life behind. Take control of clan and prove yourself as a leader, as you guide your families through the catastrophes of this fateful time period.




With Höyük, we're giving the spotlight to a game that until now hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. This hidden gem won Pierre Canuel the 2007 award for best game designer at the Parthenay Games Festival (FLIP). Set in the Middle East during the Neolithic period, Höyük is Turkish for ´hill or mound´. Although some of these hills were used as tombs, many were used to construct settlements over the course of time. Villages with this style have a very characteristic appearance, due to the absence of streets between the houses. This concept is also found in the game.

This Spieleschmiede project will run concurrently with an English Kickstarter campaign. If Kickstarter reaches a goal, it will also be available at Spieleschmiede. This way we can insure, that we can reach as many goals as possible.

What kind of gamer will enjoy Höyük?

Although the basic rules are easy to learn, the game is definitely aimed at experienced players. Höyük is a classic example of ´Easy to learn, hard to master´. The way each player interacts on the game board allows for a variety of different tactics. Höyük works great with two players, and only gets better with more. But even with the maximum of five players a game takes only about 60 minutes, so several games can easily be played on a game night.

How do you play Höyük?

After each player has chosen a color and taken the associated houses, you're ready to go. Each round in Höyük is divided into four phases: the construction of new buildings, catastrophes, the aspect cards and the end of the round. During the construction phase, each player receives a construction card showing the buildings that they may build this round.


After each player has built their houses, pens, ovens or shrines in the construction phase, one of the catastrophe cards is played.
The strategy in Höyük consists largely of how you build your houses. Your houses can either be added to an existing block, or begin a new one. The catastrophe cards never target all the blocks, so building more blocks can be an advantage. However larger blocks will give you more points in the end.


In the third phase, aspect cards are played. These cards are used primarily for collecting victory points or to build additional buildings. The player in each block who has the most family homes with access to pens, ovens, or shrines, may draw cards from the associated deck. The aspect cards can be played either sooner (for immediate benefit) or later (for more points when multiple aspect cards of the same type are played together).

At the end of a round the used aspect are placed under one of the remaining stacks and the first player determines who will start the next round.

The game ends when a player has played all of their 25 houses. If you wait too long to redeem your victory points, either a catastrophe or the end of the game could make it too late. At the end of the game, some victory points for the houses and unplayed aspect cards will still be awarded.

You can have a look at the preliminary rules here: Höyük rules

What playtesters say

Although Höyük has changed since the first version of the game in 2004, it remains the same exciting and challenging game. That's why we'd like to share the words of some long-standing players who've been enjoying Höyük for some time now:

A must have game for everyone. Easy rules and fast to learn. Play with friends, family or your regular gaming group. A game which litteraly blows you away.
Flying Penguin Preview of Höyük - on Youtube: Vliegende Pinguin

Fantastic game. Every element works well together, and this is great with the basic or using the variant rules. So many options available on every play, and even the random elements can be curved by skill and foresight.
John "AngryTetris" - BGG User

This game thrives in it's cross of simplicity and depth. Hoyuk takes the somewhat stagnated world of the classic tile-laying game and elevates it to a whole new level.
Matthew Henricks - Playtester

Extra Options

We've prepared some additional options for you:



MAGE Company card sleeves for 5 € With this option you will get 2 sleeve packs, each pack including 50 transparent sleeves. These acid and PVC free sleeves are designed specifically for Mini European Gaming Cards, which are 47 x 71 mm.

Hoyuk Obstacles for 11 € With these obstacles you can make each game truly unique. This option includes five unique landscape obstacles. Each board has its own size and is different from the others. The obstacles are a Volcano, a Hill, a Frozen Lake, a Hole and a Desert. Choose one or two obstacles before the game begins and place them on the board, inside the playing area. The obstacles limit the space you have to build and will make the game much more difficult.

20 wooden shrine pieces for 3 € With this option you can get more shrine pieces. As in the base game, these shrine pieces are from solid wood and painted white.

20 wooden oven pieces for 3 € With this option you can get more oven pieces. As in the base game, these oven pieces are from solid wood and painted black.

Our goals for Spieleschmiede

Once we've exceeded the minimum required funding, many possible improvements await for Höyük. In addition to the base game version (with some rule changes compared to the original), we have fully tested two more game variants that we would love to implement. Because a Kickstarter campaign is running simultaneously with the Spieleschmiede project, we can work on the stretch goals from two directions at once.

10,000€ - 20 Wooden Villager Meeples: This reward adds not only 20 new wooden meeples to the game, but also two new construction cards and new rules. The villager meeples are an additional construction, allowing for many more victory points at the end of the game (achieved by the international board game community).

10,000€ - 10 New Aspect Cards: With this reward level ten new aspect cards will make the fight to victory points even more exciting. At the same time the board will also be extended to fit the new aspect cards (achieved by the international board game community).

10,000€ - 20 Wooden Cattle Meeples: Along with the family meeples being placed in the houses, this level will add cattle meeples as well. The animals must be placed in a pen and, like the villager meeples, provide another way to victory points. In addition, two new construction cards and new rules will be added (achieved by the international board game community).

11,000€ - 10 New Aspect Cards: At this level ten more aspect cards will be added. At this point Höyük will contain a total of 70 cards. These new aspect of cards will be tied to the cattle meeples. A new area for the cards will also be added to the game board.

12,000€ - 1 Wooden Shaman Meeple: The shaman meeple is something very special, because this little man can counteract the effects of a catastrophe card. If his construction card is drawn, the shaman can be placed in a block. All harmful effects of a catastrophe card that would hit that block are dispelled.

12,500€ - 2 New Catastrophe Cards: At this ongoing reward level, two more catastrophe cards will be added for every 1,000€. Each of these cards has a different ability and is seamlessly integrated into the base game. At 12,500€ epidemics will arrive, at 13,000€ mighty volcanoes will erupt, at 13,500€ looting threatens your small settlement, at 14,000€ wolves can attack your livestock, at 14,500€ a drought can destroy the crops, and at 15,000€ an apocalyptic flood can destroy your homes. The total number of disasters rises from 12 to 24 different events.

Who is behind Höyük?

This version of Höyük is published by us - Mage Company. We've already successfully published many games using crowdfunding, such as 12 Realms and Wrong Chemistry. Although there were some problems with the German version of 12 Realms, we have since resolved all the errors and learned a lot from it. Höyük will be produced according to European standards. You can read about what additional measures we have taken here.

The creator of Höyük is Pierre Canuel, who (including Höyük) has developed and published eleven games. All of his games have a strong focus on simple rules, but with a lot of depth and strategic elements. With Höyük, Pierre won the the FLIP game designer trophy at the two-week Parthenay Games Festival in 2007. Thus becoming part of a long line of games having fought there for fame and glory. The FLIP trophy will be awarded in July this year for the 28th time.

How will Höyük be delivered?

Spiele-Offensive.de will handle the shipping of the games in Germany. Our goal is to be able to deliver the game before the Essen game fair in October. Within Germany the game will be shipped for free, for other countries see this postage cost table.
Please do not add the postage costs to your pledge amount yourself. Spieleschmiede will automatically calculate and add them based on your delivery address.

It is also possible to pick up the game directly from the Mage Company booth at Essen. If you would like to do this, please use the following as your delivery address:

Straße: MAGE COMPANY - ESSEN PICKUP
PLZ: 00000
Stadt: ESSEN PICKUP
Land: Germany

Running only through the middle of March

We would like to make Höyük available to the world at Essen. For this reason we only have until 23/03/2014 to gather the required funds. Please tell your friends and acquaintances about it and share the project on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Support Höyük now, and help us produce the best possible version of this game!



This project is run by MAGE Company, 15B´ Han Krum Str., 8000 Burgas, Bulgarien

Pictures of the game and packaging represent the current state of development, and may still be subject to change.

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