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The Night Cage box art
2021 Ranked #1,988

The Night Cage

Cooperative horror maze game where candle-bearing prisoners explore darkness and seek a way out. Tiles vanish behind them and monsters stalk the corridors, so every step must preserve light, routes, and the group's fragile hope.

Thematic Games Horror Maze Grid Movement Pieces as Map

Players

1-5

Play time

40-60 min

Age

14+

Complexity

2.07/5

Rating

7.12

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.0/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.7/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it 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?

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

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...

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Editions

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Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

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No files imported yet.

Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
1–5
Best with
1–5
Play time
40–60 min
Age
14+
Complexity
2.1/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

3
Christopher Ryan Chan Chris McMahon Rosswell Saunders

Artists

1
Christopher Ryan Chan

Publishers

1
Smirk & Laughter Games

Linked items

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