Night Cage, The

Your only light is a single candle. Once it’s gone, so are you.

You awake to discover that you and several strangers are prisoners inside a mysterious underground labyrinth. Equipped with nothing but dim candles, you must work together to explore the maze and escape. Unfortunately, the weak candlelight only illuminates your immediate surroundings. Worse still, you’re beginning to suspect something else is moving in the suffocating darkness.

What is The Night Cage?

The Night Cage is a co-operative, tile placement game that pits players against a maze-like prison where the only bars are eternal darkness. Due to the limited light of their candles, players can only see the tiles immediately adjacent to them. As players move, the tiles they leave behind disappear into the darkness. In this way, the maze is continually made and unmade by the players. To win, players must rely on teamwork and collective strategy to collect 4 keys, find an exit gate, and escape the labyrinth together.

What makes The Night Cage special?

The Night Cage is a game that delivers an immersive, high-stakes experience without the extensive time requirements common in modern tabletop fantasy games. Using simple mechanics and rich design, the game creates the type of tension, atmosphere, and strategic challenge usually associate with games of far greater complexity. 

• Immersive - Unique gameplay tied tightly to narrative immerses the player in the tension and atmosphere at the heart of the game.
• Fast - 2 minutes to set up. 40-60 minutes to play.
• Accessible - Easy to learn for newcomers and experienced gamers.
• Social - The game’s cooperative nature encourages players to communicate and strategize as they play.

You awaken in the dark, your skin cold, your mind blank. You have nothing but your fear, a flickering candle, and a question: How long will your light last?

Trapped and crawling your way through a pitch-black labyrinth, equipped with nothing but dim candles, you must work together to explore the maze and escape. Unfortunately, your weak candlelight illuminates only your immediate surroundings. Worse still, horrifying Wax Eaters — monsters who despise the light — lurk in the suffocating darkness for their opportunity to strike.

The Night Cage is a fully co-operative, horror-themed tile-placement game that traps 1-5 lost souls within an unnatural labyrinth of eternal darkness. To win, players must each collect a key, find a gate, and escape as a group.

Escape won't be easy as each player's visibility is limited by the weak light of their candle. They illuminate only tiles directly connected to their own, and when players move, tiles that fall into darkness are removed from the game. Doubling back the way you came only opens new paths, the old ones being lost forever with critical keys and gates vanishing if your light move away from them...

Awards & Honors

• 2021 Board Game Quest Awards Best Cooperative Game Nominee
• 2019 Ion Award Best Light Game Winner