“What’s He Building In There?” Preview!

Designed by Sean Scott Garrity and published by Baksha Games, “What’s He Building In There?” is a quirky worker placement that’s light enough for new gamers but has enough depth to offer a ton of re-playability.

In “What’s He Building In There?” players are in control of a mad scientist and three henchmen. Their goal is to construct a doomsday device and an escape vehicle. Each device has multiple upgrades and each upgrade is worth more points so a lot of the game is spent balancing the construction of the devices while also managing resources and scoring points through other methods.

The humor in “What’s He Building In There?” is fabulous. The doomsday devices include things like an I.Q.-Reducing ray so from the start it feels like a fun light hearted game. That doesn’t stop it from feeling thinky at times which is a must for a good worker placement game, but the theme really helps keep the stress levels down when playing.

One of the neatest mechanics is the game is that the spots where workers can be placed often have two different options. If a henchmen is placed on it does one thing but if a Mad Scientist is placed on it it does something else or something more.  So it really becomes interesting trying to maximize where you places your scientist in your attempt to one-up your opponents.

The heart of “What’s He Building In There?” is resource managment and what’s neat about it is that in many ways it works like crafting from an RPG video game. Players may need refined steel to build their device but to do so they first have to get raw leather and then upgrade it.

“What’s He Building In There?” is a fun game that I’ve not heard many people talk about. If you like euros or worker placement games then you should definitely check it out.