Build the most beautiful sand castle on the beach

It’s the annual sand castle building championship again, and this time it’s your turn to compete. Push your luck in the search for the finest decoration tiles, but if you get too greedy and drop them, your rivals will scoop them up. Look out for the waves!

Sand Castles is a fun family game with engaging table presence.

Close up of a row of face-up decoration tiles. In the background there are some face-down tiles.

Flip tiles to search for the best decorations.

A wave tile hovers over the table. Down below it is a partially built sand castle and a row of decoration tiles.

Push your luck, but watch out for the waves!

A sand castle wall is being dropped into the wooden base. In the background is the pool of face-down tiles.

Build the best decorated sand castle to win.

A child wearing a yellow hat is using a red bucket to build an awesome looking sand castle. A blue shovel looks on approvingly.

The Game

In the game, players will be building sand castles by using decoration tiles that they collect by flipping up face-down decoration tiles in the rock pool. You can push your luck while collecting tiles, but if you draw 2 matching tiles you drop all past the first of the matching pair and all players draft the dropped tiles. You also have to watch out for occasional waves washing away players' stashed tiles. If you're lucky, the crab and seagull critters might help you to find what you need. Collect tiles wisely, and build sand castle walls (which have point values based on the difficulty required to build them) as soon as you are able. Or push your luck for better decorations to earn more points! The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

A wide shot of the game in play on a table. There is a partially built sand castle in the foreground, and another at the back right. Between them are decoration tiles and some helpful critters.

Components

  • 46 Tiles
  • 2 Helpful Critter tokens
  • 20 Castle Walls
  • 4 wooden Castle Bases
  • Rules

Gallery

Click on a gallery image to access a link to its higher resolution file.

Sand Castles box

Details

Design by
Ben Nelson
Art by
Ben Nelson,
Tom Jellett
Players
2-4
Time
30 minutes
Ages
8+
Theme
Beach, Blue Shovels
Mechanics
Children's Game, Push-your-luck, Set collection
Complexity
Light
Retail Release
July 2023

Downloads

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