14 Frantic Minutes (2023)

About this game

You’ve been working as an engineer for a brilliant but very eccentric scientist and you’ve just discovered that the project you’ve been working on is not the climate change solution it was touted to be. It’s a Doomsday device! You rush to tell your fellow engineers. They see your evidence and everyone agrees this could only mean one thing. Now you all have to escape his high-tech lab by working together and using your contributions to the project, so that you can tell others before it’s too late! Suddenly, you hear the sounds of someone heading your way. It’s him. Frantically you each grab the circuitry you were working on and rush for the door. An announcement comes from overhead. "Fourteen minutes ‘til lockdown". You've got to get out, and fast! Players work together by flipping, turning, rotating, and placing polyomino shaped circuit pieces to complete connections in each room to get one step closer to escape and then complete the tricky final circuit before you’re caught and run out of time. Hurry up! The clock is ticking! 14 Frantic Minutes is a real-time cooperative game. You all win or lose together. —description from the designer

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Works with 1 to 4. It has a designed solo mode.
• Rules load. At 1.5/5 this is a light game — explain it in a few minutes, good for a table that has not played much.
• Age. The publisher suggests 8 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.