Art Society

Number of players: 2–4 Players
Playing time: 30–60 Min
Complexity: 1.87 / 5
Age: 10+

About the game
In Art Society, players are fashionable art collectors competing to create the most prestigious gallery wall. Bid on desirable paintings, arrange them carefully in your personal drawing room, collect décor bonuses, and try to predict which artistic styles will become more valuable as the game unfolds.

At the start of each round, the current auctioneer reveals a selection of paintings—always one more than the number of players. Everyone secretly chooses a numbered bid card, then reveals simultaneously. Players select paintings in bid order, with the highest bidder choosing first. However, every bid card can be used only once, so spending a high value now may leave you with fewer options in later auctions.

After obtaining a painting, fit it onto your gallery wall. Tiles must connect along a full edge, remain inside the wall’s boundaries, and follow placement rules. Matching picture-frame styles can earn decorative tiles, but placing paintings of the same subject type next to each other creates a faux pas, preventing those connected paintings from scoring at the end of the game.

The painting left unpurchased each round goes to the museum, increasing the prestige of that style. This means players collectively influence the final value of City Life, Portrait, Still Life, and Landscape paintings. When the game ends, score the value of your displayed art, décor, prestige, placement bonuses, and other objectives. The player with the most fashionable and valuable wall wins.

Art Society is a competitive art-collection game that blends simultaneous sealed bidding, tile placement, spatial puzzle-solving, trend manipulation, and light economic strategy.