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P
2015 · 2-4 players · 45min · weight 2.12 · 1,542 ratings
no digital port yet
BGGEnrichedDeep analysis5Sources1RulesPickDeep dive
Rating
5.72
Users rated
1,542
Owned
4,503
Wishing
682
At a glance
What playing it feels like, broken down.
Core loop
Move test subjects into chambers; at turn end, the rearmost chamber collapses — majority holder scores cake.
What it gives you
How strongly each kind of experience comes through (0–3)
Sensation
1
Fantasy
2
Narrative
0
Challenge
2
Fellowship
1
Discovery
0
Expression
1
Submission
1
How it works (5 mechanics)
- [3]region_majority— “should your test subjects have numbered greater than all others in the falling chamber, they earn parting gifts”
- [3]attrition_clock— “at the end of each player's turn, one of the chambers on the end of the lab gives way”
- [2]escalating_threat— “the Lab is an ever-changing conveyor belt of death and dismemberment”
- [2]area_movement_with_blocking— “players move and Portal their test subjects to various chambers in the lab”
- [2]_other:spatial_attrition_shrink— “chambers on the end of the lab gives way, plunging all test subjects on it into oblivion”
Under-the-radar score: 0.22
Archetype fits
How well this game shape maps to mobile archetype templates. Composite is a weighted sum of the 10 fit dimensions.
| Archetype | Composite | LTF | Session | Combo | Arc | Share | 5in | Onboard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snap The attrition_clock + region_majority loop maps well to Snap's lane-scoring — each chamber collapse is a base breaking. Area_movement_with_blocking creates lane control tension. Bluff_info_asymmetry is moderate: opponents' unit positions are visible but movement intentions are hidden. Loss is Open tier (Area Majority, cap 5). | 5.30 | 5.0 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| Balatro Attrition_clock (strength 3) driving the shrinking board plus region_majority create a tight arc per session (setup→collapsing chambers→final score), but combo_scaling is additive not multiplicative — area_movement_with_blocking does not compound like Slay the Spire relics. Session at 10-15min (session_length_tolerance_min=10) fits the Balatro window. | 5.10 | 6.0 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 7 |
| Coop Portal is explicitly competitive ('Uncooperative' in the title) — there is no shared fail-state or communication constraint, which are the load-bearing coop primitives. Area_movement_with_blocking is purely adversarial. Coop fit is poor despite the coop-friendly IP surface. | 4.60 | 6.0 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 8 |
| Wordle At ~15min the session is too long for Wordle's 60-90s target, and there's no natural emoji-grid output. The collapsing-board structure doesn't compress into a guessing/deduction puzzle format. | 4.40 | 6.0 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 7 |
| Cozy Cozy tier: Hard — escalating_threat (strength 2) and attrition_clock (strength 3) with spatial_attrition_shrink are anti-cozy primitives; the board literally collapses each turn creating escalating_threat. Capped at 3 for loss_tolerance_fit. The Portal dark humor and chamber-death theme are also tonally mismatched. | 4.40 | 3.0 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 8 |
Sources (1)
Inputs to rules-card synthesis. Click any pill with ↗ to open the original source.
LLM memory0.10
BGG tags
Mechanisms (2)
Categories (3)
PuzzleScience FictionVideo Game Theme