Roll & Write games! Remember when these little gems were considered novel and few and far between, just a few years ago? Well, Nao Shimamura’s first kick at the can is a little title called Mind Space and is being published by Allplay. Is it a mind-blowing revelation, or just another set of dice with dry-erase markers to go stale on your shelf? Read on to find out!

Mind Space is a roll-and-write game with a few extra sulci. The first thing that sets it apart from those that came before it is the theme. Players are colouring sections of their brain, and each colour represents a different facet of your personality, and how those quirks interact will lead one player to being crowned the best person.

The gameplay of Mind Space has a row of 5 offer cards depicting various polyomino shapes. One will be placed face down, then 5 face up, and the rest of the deck put aside, creating the offer row. At the top of every round, the 5 dice are rolled, and are assigned to a shape based on the number you rolled. Players all simultaneously choose a die and draw the shape depicted on the card that the die was assigned to, in the colour of that die.

Each colour has its own scoring criteria, each one representing a different aspect of personality. The orange colour represents friendship, the more activities you do with friends, the more points you’ll earn. Even better if you can pair it with complementary purple hobbies. Hobbies score two points for every square that is adjacent to an orange square. The pink romance encourages you to have the same shape, while green just earns you money.

This isn’t the kind of game where you can achieve everything, and Mind Space reflects that. Life is all about compromises, and you’ll mourn as the deck of polyomino shapes (called activities) slowly flow through the offer row, ultimately reaching the end and becoming unavailable to you for the rest of the game. Those activities you used to love just aren’t available to you any more.

It’s incredibly appropriate that while spending money can let you break the rules, it’s also utterly in the end. Cash is just a means to an end, either buying you shaded cells or the occasional wild shape. If you don’t spend it, it’s gone with the wind. Charon doesn’t get paid in Mind Space.

The final result? It’s surprisingly pleasant. Mind Space might not be the most mind-blowing game out there, but it’s got a calm serenity to it, like sipping tea on a quiet morning. There’s more nuance here than the slot machine combo-tastic style of roll and write games such as That’s Pretty Clever. It imparts a little wisdom in unexpected places, and the trade-offs it forces you to consider make for a decent and enjoyable experience. In a crowded genre, Mind Space is a lovely surprise.