Lacuna: The Simple Joy of Creating Imaginary Lines
Collect beautiful, floating flowers from a calm pond by creating imaginary lines in the relaxing experience of Lacuna.
My husband sometimes surprises me with new games based on others I enjoy. When I was playing BoxOff nonstop, he found a game that felt like a similar abstract experience: Lacuna! Although it isn’t designed to be solo, I found an unofficial solo mode to play this beautiful game. Time to create some lines and see how many flowers I could add to my collection!
Game Overview
Game Name: Lacuna
Publication Year: 2023
Designer: Mark Gerrits
Artist: Nick Liefhebber
Publisher: CMYK
Solo Mode: Unofficial Solo Mode
Flowers are randomly dropped onto the included mat, and the goal is to create imaginary intersecting lines between matches to pick them up. This is only done 6 times, which makes each choice important! Collecting pairs or even trios takes some thought, and the experience is quick and quiet.
First Play
October 2, 2026
Complexity
1
Latest Play
October 2, 2026
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
10 Minutes
High Score
24
Game Area
28" x 28"
Low Score
24
Pretty Patterns
The wooden flowers are simply beautiful! They come in different colors, yet also feature different shapes and icons to help tell them apart. Such a pretty little play area!
I wasn’t as thrilled with the cloth mat, which is stored in the cylindrical box and tends to wrinkle quite a lot. It also looks like it’s full of dust, but mine is pristine in-person. Odd.
Playing against another player is strategic, whereas this solo mode is about taking the time to see patterns.
It felt more akin to an activity, although I challenged myself to always intersect 2 different pairs of flowers. Tricky!
A Pond Shark
You never know what you’ll find lurking in a tiny pond around Halloween… Like this adorable shark! This costume is one of my favorites simply for its quirkiness and teeth!
The pieces to mark intersections are lovely metal pieces. It is possible to play with any number, yet 6 of the same color seems to be the balanced choice for a little challenge.
Gameplay really is just about seeing lines, which can be aided by using the included ruler to check for obstructions.
One neat thing is that the metal pieces occasionally block a future pair, so there’s a little bit of thought to placements.
Intersecting Lines
My mind enjoyed the puzzle of seeing the lines between pairs, but it took some effort to look for opportunities to intersect a couple of them. Lots of flowers to pick up!
I sometimes struggle with abstract games and “seeing” features like this, so I’m sure this isn’t going to be the game for everyone. It’s just very fun when it makes sense to me!
For example, this placement allowed me to pick up the pink and yellow flowers. See the intersection of the lines?
This made it just a little harder. Single pairs were no good to me, and I worked to untangle a few areas of flowers.
A Final Collection
With some effort, I was very pleased with my final set of flowers during both of these plays! I picked up 4 per turn, for a total of 24 flower tokens by the end. Pretty nice!
I was on the lookout for an elusive spot where I might be able to pick up 6 or even 8 tokens at once in a major case of intersecting lines. Not this time, though it could happen!
Playing solo was a very calm sort of experience that was nice and quiet. There was no pressure: I just looked.
There are other abstract solo games I may enjoy more, yet this one offers a pretty unique activity. And it’s so pretty!
Simply Making Lines: When Abstract Works
Theme is often an important part of my enjoyment of an experience, and I don’t always do well when the core feature is around creating lines or patterns. I think our minds work a little differently, so what makes sense to someone isn’t easy to “see” for others. Hence, why I give abstract games a chance every now and then. This one worked for me visually!
It was also more than just thinking of where I could place a line: I challenged myself to always create an intersection, and it was fun to pick out the different pairs. Sometimes, I found something I didn’t see before by searching for another flower. Very cool! This might be more like an activity than a game, yet it felt like a nice blend of relaxing and challenging.
Measuring Assistance
A-ha! Another Calico Critter stopped by to use his muscles to hold up this ruler… Which is really very light. Ha ha!
I didn’t have too much trouble making the imaginary lines, although a ruler helped me determine if there was a clear path or not at times. Perspective is everything.
There isn’t too much more to say about the experience… I dumped out a bunch of flowers, made some imaginary lines, and tried to intersect as many of those lines as I could.
Yet for as simple as the explanation is, it was still a very fun time! Definitely a nice way to unwind and relax a bit.
An Extra Player Piece
Before I could pack up, another Calico Critter stopped by to try to make another line between these red flowers. Hey, that doesn’t even intersect a pair of lines. Choose again!
The only other trick is how the metal piece has to be able to fit between the flowers. So the yellow pair at the bottom wouldn’t be possible to collect. Too close together.
I had a nice time, and probably more than I expected to. Who knew dumping tokens and finding lines was so fun?!
Now to think about trying this out every now and then to try for a few elusive intersections of lots of flower pairs!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 & 2
Solo Mode: Unofficial Solo Mode
Outcome: 24, 24 (2 Wins)
So shiny! This was the depleted pond at the end. Every play used 49 flower tokens, so taking out 24 definitely thinned it all out. My mind enjoyed the quiet experience of seeing where these imaginary lines existed. There wasn’t much to do, but sometimes… That’s all I need! It was nice enough without much tension. I felt like it was a challenge to find the intersections, though, and that will likely keep this interesting to continue playing now and then.
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
8
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
8
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
6
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
2
+ Pros (Positives)
- Gameplay is very calm and relaxing with a focus on creating imaginary lines and finding out where they intersect.
- The component quality is excellent, featuring beautiful wooden flower tokens and metal player pieces in 2 colors.
- It doesn’t take long to play, although there’s no penalty for simply sitting with the arrangement and finding lines.
- Figuring out how to intersect multiple lines between flower pairs is just challenging enough to play multiple times.
- A bit of care is needed with setting up and dropping the flower tokens, yet this is a very fun sort of setup process.
- Untangling areas to open up new pairs is interesting and allows some future planning without needing to think a lot.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The cloth mat looks lovely but is very prone to wrinkling when stored in the box, and tends to look dustier than it is.
- Dropping the flower tokens from any height runs the risk of a few rolling away, although extras are included to help.
- Not much variety exists, as the random arrangement doesn’t change much in terms of creating the imaginary lines.
- Some of the flower tokens blend into the ornate border of the cloth mat, and recounting during cleanup is necessary.
Victory Conditions
Score 24+ Points
- Overall Goal Progress 50%
Goals and Milestones
Score at least 24 points.
Score at least 26 points.
Continue the Conversation
Have you played Lacuna? Was there ever a time when you created lots of intersecting lines at once? I enjoyed this one for its simplicity and calm atmosphere. There was enough to think about without requiring much effort on my part. And such pretty components! Definitely happy to have this in my collection. Just need to watch out for pond sharks next time. Ha ha!
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