Pent-Up

About this board game

Pent-Up is a two-player board game that plays in about 15 minutes. Released in 2014, it challenges players to place their pieces and finish with the most of them on the topmost layers.

Each player uses 12 pentominoes, with one side using black pieces and the other using “ice” pieces. A pentomino is a piece made from five congruent squares connected along their edges, and there are 12 different pentominoes in total.

Players alternate turns, placing one of their pentominoes according to simple rules. Every placement contributes to the changing arrangement, as both players work toward having more of their pieces positioned on the highest layers when the game ends.

• Players: 2
• Play time: approximately 15 minutes
• Pieces: 12 pentominoes per player
• Included extras: a variant and puzzles

Pentominoes are familiar pieces throughout the board game community, and Pent-Up uses them in a focused contest built around alternating placement and layered positioning. Its compact play time makes it a concise challenge for two players, while the included variant and puzzles offer additional ways to engage with the game.

As the brother game of SEVEN, Counterplays, and Stack-22 by the same designer, Pent-Up presents the same rules with different pieces. The result is a small, direct game centered on making the most of every pentomino before the final layers are assessed.