Impression and Review of Inoka by XYZ Games

Inoka is a tarot sized card game played with 2-4 people centered around a rock, paper, scissors mechanic. The game was created by XYZ Games Labs, an indie Chicago based games company. Their first game was RobotLab, successfully funded on Kickstarter in early 2017. This year XYZ launched and successfully funded Inoka. I picked up an alpha physical copy of this game at GenCon 2018 and was able to chat with the game’s creator, Noah Miller.

The inspiration for Inoka was actually fencing. After watching some fencing bouts, Noah initially considered a thrust/parry/drive idea for a card game. The actual mechanics for what would become Inoka were written in an afternoon. When presenting his fencing game to his peers, while they liked the mechanics, the theme was considered uninticing (full disclosure, I fenced competitively in college. While I’m disappointed that this game didn’t end up being a fencing themed game, I also understand that the fencing crowd is an incredibly niche market). The theme evolved into the story of chipmunk-like creatures. To quote the Kickstarter:

Long before the age of man, the most enlightened of the forest’s creatures, the Inoka, competed in a contest of strategy and wits to determine who will be Nature’s Emissary.

Once every generation each village sends their brightest competitors to clash in a ceremonial game called ‘Achkai’. The winner is decided by retrieving the most sacred stones and claiming the Leaf Totem. The champion controls the ebb and flow nature itself by becoming Nature’s Emissary.

Artist Amy Nagi, also based in Chicago, provided the artwork for the box and cards.

There are many sources to talk about the rules in general (several links out from the Kickstarter campaign page, as well as a link to a free, downloadable version of the rules themselves) so I won’t spend much time on them. However, able to get a copy of Inoka and play a few rounds with a mother and her daughter as well as another friend later after a few drinks, I’d like to offer some thoughts on strategy and who might like this game.

The game definitely has an element of mental chess. Since each player starts with 9 cards, three Taunt, Defense, and Attack cards respectively and must choose 5, you have a rough idea of what your opponent has in their hand. My usual hand was choosing the highest level of the Taunt, Defense, and Attack cards to start, followed by the 2nd level of Attack and Defense. Since the round could only be ended outright with an Attack card when a player had the leaf totem, I felt having more Attack cards would serve me better.

Ultimately it didn’t. Once a player had the leaf token there is a good chance they might play an Attack card. Having extra Defense cards meant you might reasonably anticipate what the next play would be. Having fewer Taunt cards in my hand meant I might have to play a Defense card instead, which I wanted to save for when I lost the leaf totem. There is some delightful depth here without being overwhelming.

As I mentioned earlier, I played this game with a friend of mine who had a young daughter. The game was simple enough the daughter could pick it up, and she actually won (we helped coach her some, but the last few plays were all her own). The game also, as advertised, travels very well. I was able to play a round later out at a bar. It’s fairly compact and takes up about as much space as a large smartphone. This game would work for a group of friends (it allows up to 4 players with a single box) who are looking for a quick game to play just about anywhere. It would also work well for families looking for a simple game that can be played in under 10 minutes, appropriate both for the very young and, to put it politely, the young at heart.