2016 · 1-4 players · 15min · weight 1.13 · 7,422 ratings
At a glance — v4 wide
Controlled-vocabulary primitives + 8-axis MDA aesthetic vector. Vocab v2.
Play a tunnel card from hand to match and close open exits of the prison tunnel network, cooperating to dead-end all paths.
- [3]network_building— “connect nodes to close all escape paths from the prisoner's central cell before deck runs out”
- [2]tile_orientation_choice— “players place tunnel cards matching open exits; orientation of connections matters”
- [3]closing_window— “game ends when deck runs out; all exits must be closed before that happens”
- [2]hand_management_under_draw— “hand of three choices; winning depends on which cards are drawn relative to available exits”
Archetype fits — v4 deep
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balatro closing_window arc and 15-min length are Balatro-shaped, but tile_orientation_choice is purely additive spatial puzzle — no compounding combos. | 5.90 | 9.0 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 9 | 9 |
| Coop Genuine shared fail-state and inter-player tile coordination; bluff_info_asymmetry is moderate (open hands but limited card view). 15-min target is on the short side of the coop window. | 5.80 | 8.0 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 8 |
| Wordle 15-min coop spatial puzzle is closer to Wordle than most — daily-seeded tile draw could work; lacks the emoji-grid output and is 10x too long for the 60-90s target. | 5.40 | 8.0 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 9 |
| Cozy Coop-or-Solo tier (Cooperative + Solo). No cap; gentle no-fail-tone with shared puzzle. Tile-orientation cozy primitive present. | 5.40 | 8.0 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 9 |
| Snap Coop tile placement has no PvP lane shape; small adversarial-vs-board, not faction-vs-faction. | 4.10 | 6.0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 7 |
Translation candidate
Composite fit_score = bayes×0.30 + wish×0.18 + compress×0.17 + difficulty×0.20 + headroom×0.15.
Tile-placement network puzzle with a hand of 3 cards is perfectly compact for mobile solo or cooperative play; simple enough to be a great commute game.
Rules card
Synthesized from sources below. Readiness: ready. Confidence: 0.94.
Readiness
ready (confidence=0.94, rules=0.90, fun=1.00). BGG rank: 2515; year: 2016; weight: 1.13; playtime: 15 min
| Source | Quality | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
llm_memory | 0.90 | draft synthesis | sonnet-self-rated-9 |
llm_memory_sonnet_h2h | 0.90 | source | sonnet-self-rated-9 |
bga_tutorial | 0.85 | rules authority | BGA implementation rules summary |
bgg_comments | 0.75 | player voice | positive/player-voice sample |
llm_memory_opus_h2h | 0.65 | source | sonnet-self-rated-8 |
Core Loop
A light-security prisoner is trying to escape through tunnels starting underneath his cell. Will you be able to join forces and cards to stop him? Bandido is a cooperative game of strategy and observation for the entire family.
Can be combined with the sequel, Bandida.
Turn Structure and State
- BGA tutorial is present; useful for exact turn flow and implementation gotchas.
- BGG description anchor: A light-security prisoner is trying to escape through tunnels starting underneath his cell. Will you be able to join forces and cards to stop him? Bandido is a cooperative game of strategy and observation for the entire family. Can be combined with the sequel, Bandida.
Win Condition and Arc
Win/scoring arc needs verification from a rules authority.
Decision Primitives
BGG mechanisms: Cooperative Game, Network and Route Building, Solo / Solitaire Game, Tile Placement
v4 controlled primitives: network_building, tile_orientation_choice, closing_window, hand_management_under_draw
Why It Is Fun
Fun read needs player-voice synthesis.
Player-voice evidence:
- Quick and simple. Good one to play while waiting for another game to finish or for someone to set one up. Fits in your pocket so can be taken anywhere really. Needs a lot of table space though... Think I might well look into Bandida to...
- A really nice concept for a co-operative game with one fairly substantial flaw: you can win really early by pure luck of the draw AND you can lose largely caused by rotten card draws and just generating masses of exits.
- October 2021 Fast filler game. Takes up WAY more space than it lets on
- A pretty clever game. The rules are so incredibly simple, but the strategy is very hard to figure out. Is it just me, or is the game pretty hard? I can imagine if you have just one player that doesn't really get it (and keeps opening new...
Friction and Failure Modes
- Treat Sonnet-memory edge rules as draft until confirmed by manual, BGA, or transcript.
Translation and Design Hooks
- Use this card to ask: which primitive carries the fun if theme/licensing is removed?
- For iOS, look for short-session compression, clear state visualization, and a digital-only twist.
- For new tabletop design, look for the tension source and decide whether to preserve or invert it.
Edge Rules and Gotchas
No verified edge-rule section yet.
Sources Used
[
{
"kind": "llm_memory",
"path": "data/llm_memory_sonnet/191925.md",
"quality": 0.9,
"note": "sonnet-self-rated-9"
},
{
"kind": "llm_memory_sonnet_h2h",
"path": "data/llm_memory_sonnet_h2h/191925.md",
"quality": 0.9,
"note": "sonnet-self-rated-9"
},
{
"kind": "bga_tutorial",
"path": "data/bga_tutorials/191925.md",
"quality": 0.85,
"note": "BGA implementation rules summary"
},
{
"kind": "bgg_comments",
"path": "data/bgg_comments/191925.txt",
"quality": 0.75,
"note": "positive/player-voice sample"
},
{
"kind": "llm_memory_opus_h2h",
"path": "data/llm_memory_opus_h2h/191925.md",
"quality": 0.65,
"note": "sonnet-self-rated-8"
}
]
Sources (5)
Inputs to rules-card synthesis. Click any pill with ↗ to open the original source.