Perennial

Overview

Perennial is a beautiful strategy board game for 1-4 players that plays in 30-45 minutes. From the team that brought you Calico, Cascadia, Verdant, Fit to Print, Nocturne, Knitting Circle, and Cascadia: Alpine Lakes this puzzly game is Flatout Games going back to their puzzly tile-laying roots! Perennial is a unique build-your-own polyomino game that features multiple modes of play. Whether you want a chill, relaxed experience that anyone can get into, or you want to really challenge your spatial gardening skills, Perennial has you covered and it is sure to delight!

Perennial features dozens of unique and tactile components - each with stunning artwork by Beth Sobel!

Since you'll be drafting and configuring your own polyominos from a dynamic display and because the game comes with a variety of unique Scoring Cards, you are able to mix and match new challenges and create new combos each and every time you play! Just as with our other puzzly tile laying games, there are limitless unique game setups to explore!

Perennial is designed by Emily Vincent. Emily has designed many wonderful games, including Knitting Circle, Pirates of the High Teas, and Good Kitties. The solo mode and scenarios were designed by Shawn Stankewich - designer of the International Gamers Awards (IGA) 2022 Solo Award winning Cascadia solo mode. Perennial is developed and art directed by the award-winning creative team behind Calico, Cascadia, Verdant, Fit to Print, Nocturne, Knitting Circle, and Cascadia: Alpine Lakes - Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, Shawn Stankewich, and Dylan Mangini. CoLab member Peter McPherson (designer of Tiny Towns, Fit to Print, and Lodge)alsohelped bring the game to life and polish the edges through his contributions to the game’s development. Finally, Beth Sobel contributed the most breathtaking illustrations! Beth is the illustrator of past CoLab games Calico, Cascadia, Verdant, Nocturne, Cascadia: Rolling, Cascadia Junior, Knitting Circle, and Cascadia: Alpine Lakes as well as countless other board games!

What's in the Box?

FREE Kickstarter Mini-Expansion!

Kickstarter backers of Perennial receive the Fungal Foragers Mini-Expansion for FREE! This mini-expansion includes 3 unique Flower Scoring Cards, 3 unique Animal Scoring Cards, 3 unique Pond/Feature Scoring Cards, and 12 Mushroom Tiles! With these additional cards and tiles, players will have new ways to play that create new spatial challenges and add completely new gameplay elements! These promo cards and tiles are a special THANK YOU to all backers for being early supporters and will not be included with future editions of the game!

How to Play

Want a more in-depth explanation? Learn how to play Perennial with Kovray!

Check out the draft rulebook to read the current rules for yourself!

Once you know how to play, you can test out Perennial for yourself on Tabletopia! We have partnered with the fabulous folks at Tabletopia to build a digital version so you can try the game out now!

 

Solo Mode

Just like our other games, Perennial can be played solo! The solo mode is easy to set up and closely simulates the multiplayer experience with limited upkeep. It is a quick and engaging experience that is simple to learn, while still offering interesting puzzly choices and challenging thresholds to overcome!

Like our other Flatout Games CoLab games, Perennial comes with Solo Achievements, Rules Modifications, and Scenarios with escalating difficulty, so you can challenge yourself to unique game setups and progress toward the title of Master Gardener!

Family Mode

Perennial also has a Family Mode! Since Perennial is a fairly think-y, strategic puzzle with a lot of moving parts (maybe on our other think-iest!), through the development of the game we explored a lot of options for how to make the game more approachable. The Family Mode’s streamlined rules reduce the game’s complexity. Those who might find using the tool cards for the spatial tile placement a bit too complex, or simply want a lighter and more relaxed experience, will enjoy Family Mode. This rule set is also great for introducing younger or less experienced gamers to the game. These adjusted rules streamline the game so that anyone can get in on the action! 

With this range of gameplay modes, Perennial can be tuned to offer different game experiences to different players, depending on experience level and preferences so that it can fit into any game night!

Why Pledge?

Perennial provides a fantastic mix of approachable gameplay with strategic depth. It is a natural follow-up to our wildly successful trilogy of puzzle games, Calico, Cascadia, and Verdant and our recent hits Fit to Print, Nocturne, Knitting Circle, and Cascadia: Alpine Lakes. We wanted to provide fans of gorgeous puzzly games another easy-to-teach, yet challenging-to-master game.Our collaborative team has worked hard to make Perennial an approachable, accessible, and exciting game for a range of audiences. This game brings a lot of the same signature Flatout Games polish that you know and love, while providing a unique new experience. The puzzly tension of drafting the perfect combinations to build polyominos and puzzle together the best garden is super satisfying - we cannot wait for you to try it!

While Perennial can be a fun gateway experience for new gamers, especially with the more casual game modes, it provides more experienced players with variable goals, the tension of balancing different paths to victory, and a great mix of long-term strategy and short-term tactics. This makes the challenge and reward of each new puzzle extremely satisfying! We are very proud of both the gameplay and quality of the product. The Advanced Mode scoring cards were inspired by the massive success of the solo mode challenges from our previous games that added various spatial challenges. These new cards bring that level of uniqueness of each game setup to the multiplayer game so you can enjoy it on your own or with others!

We know that board gamers love sharing the hobby with their friends and family and Perennial is the perfect game to do just that!

The members of our team have years of experience working on a number of successful projects, from Point Salad to Cascadia! What we think these games all have in common is their attention to detail and focus on great gameplay and amazing production quality.

Last year, after we successfully fulfilled Calico, Cascadia, Verdant, Fit to Print, Nocturne, Cascadia: Rolling, Point City, and Deep Dive, our projects Knitting Circle and Point Galaxy + Propolis had over 16,000 backers combined! Since then, all fourteen of our publications have received various accolades - from being some of the most anticipated games on Boardgamegeek.com, to praise from countless reviewers. 

Calico and Cascadia both won the American Tabletop Awards, and Cascadia won the 2022 Spiel des Jahres - broadly considered the highest international achievement in board games!

Since this is our eighteenth published game, we have partnered with AEG to bring Perennial to broader distribution after the campaign. However, as with our previous campaigns, we offer our backers the best possible value for purchasing the game. Kickstarter is your first and best opportunity to bring Perennial home! The Kickstarter Edition comes with free promo cards that will not be part of any standard retail editions, even when the game does make it into broader distribution channels. The pledge price is also significantly lower than the MSRP ($50 US).

Our philosophy is that our backers are major contributors to our passion and our business. We do not take this lightly, and we know that there is always risk in backing a crowdfunding campaign. Because of this, we want to make sure that our backers get the best possible experience and we show our appreciation for their early support. We encourage you to peruse the comment sections of this and our past projects. We pride ourselves on being open, transparent, and responsive creators. The pledge levels you are backing this project at are set to give you the greatest possible value by subsidizing both the overall cost of the game and shipping, as our way of saying thank you for your support. Backing now also lets you support our creative team directly and that helps a lot in allowing us to continue to make games together! You are all vital and play a major role in the success of the game - we can’t do this without all of you, and we appreciate that!

We look forward to chatting with you all about the process and the game overall. We commit to being focused on you and anything we can do to improve the backer experience!

Upgrades

We have put a lot of time and effort into the design and development of Perennial. We believe that we are presenting you with a complete and refined game that is fantastic, right out of the box.

However, without stretch goals, we have decided to team up with our retail partner AEG early and make a larger initial print run in order to add lots of automatic upgrades that would normally only be possible with campaign stretch goals!

Below are some of the upgrades that you will receive with the KS Edition of Perennial.

These upgrades will make each game feel more premium and will give you the best possible gaming experience!

Retailers

Certified brick-and-mortar retailers interested in backing can reach out to us through our website form ( www.flatout.games/retailer ). Interested retailers will be invited to our pledge manager after the campaign has ended. Retailers are encouraged to back the project for any amount with the same email address as they sign up with, in order to stay up-to-date with the project.

Playthroughs

Tune into any of the below playthrough videos to see Perennial in action!

Check out a solo playthrough from Slickerdrips and find out what Tom thinks about the game!

Ilya and Tylor play a 2-player game of Perennial!

Kimberly and Rahdo do a joint runthrough of Perennial! Kimberly plays a 2-player game for the first half, and Rahdo finishes the game with the solo advanced mode!

Learn to Play Perennial with Steph and Michael as they walk through the game and give their initial thoughts!

What People Are Saying

Check out Jenna's preview of the game on The Board Game Garden!

Learn to play and hear what Alicia and Dwayne have to say on BlackBoardGaming!

Check out Kelsey's review of Perennial on Instagram at @kelseyougaming!

Find out why Jennifer gives Perennial a perfect five-star rating in her in-depth review for Meeple Mountain!

Shut Up & Sit Down take a look at Perennial in their Board Games Direct!

Watch Alex's review of Perennial at BoardGameCo!

Man vs Meeple takes a look at Perennial and shares their initial thoughts!

Check out Eric's review of Perennial at What's Eric Playing?

Final thoughts from Rahdo and Kimberly after their joint playthrough of the game!

Check out Spaghetti and Meeples' review post of Perennial!

See what Kelsey has to say at Sprouts and Stories!

Check out Eric's review for The Cardboard Herald!

Read Brian's review for Colorblind Games!

David teaches you how to play in French and provides initial thoughts on the game!

Check out Jonathan's review over at Geek Dad!
 

Pledge Levels

Interested in Calico, Knitting Circle, Cascadia, Cascadia: Landmarks, Cascadia: Alpine Lakes, Cascadia: Rolling, Verdant, Fit to Print, Nocturne, Forage, Honeypot, Point Salad, Point City, Point Galaxy, Propolis, or Deep Dive? You can get the Kickstarter Editions of these games as add-ons or in our post-campaign pledge manager with free promos, special discounted prices, and shipping discounts!

Add-ons

***These pledge level and add-on prices are set well below the MSRP of the games. In the past, our games have been $50+ MSRP when they reach retail, and these KS Editions of Perennial and past games also include additional free content that will not be included in the retail editions. We value your contribution and want to provide you with outstanding value for your early support!***

Shipping

We know that part of the challenge of backing a Kickstarter campaign is that there is a considerable cost associated with shipping games from our manufacturing partners directly to your door. We would like to help with some of that burden, so we are offering a large discount off of our quoted shipping rates to all of our backers!

During our previous campaigns, we have subsidized over $275,000 in backer shipping charges to help pitch in, and we’re continuing with that trend here. Shipping will be charged in our post-campaign pledge manager. Using the pledge manager, you will be able to confirm your address and finalize your order. We have included shipping estimates for some common geographic areas in the chart below. Please note that these are estimates and the actual costs of shipping could change based on many circumstances. Because of the uncertainty of tariffs and freight costs, we may need to add a small increase for tariffs/importing for US backers before we ship. We always do our best to keep shipping as low as possible, but many events beyond our control could always significantly shift prices. The games will ship next year and there is always uncertainty about how much global shipping could rise. We are dedicated to getting you the best possible value for shipping and are committed to shouldering a significant portion of the burden of shipping the game to you. We will provide customs-friendly shipping to the USA, Canada, the UK, the EU, China, and Australia.

Please also note that due to strict tax laws, some sales will be subject to sales tax and VAT, where applicable. Taxes will be collected in our pledge manager after the campaign ends.

Backing for additional copies of the games, or other games in our catalog, will provide lower per-unit shipping costs - so getting an extra copy for a friend or family member is a great value!

We will also have copies of other Flatout Games CoLab titles available as add-ons and in our post-campaign pledge manager so you can take advantage of shipping discounts for multiple items! Did you miss out on one of our previous games? This is a great place to pick up the KS Editions of the games, not available through standard distribution!

Unfortunately, specific import laws, restrictions, and customs mean that we are currently unable to ship games to certain countries including: Afghanistan, Belarus, Bhutan, Brazil, Brunei, Chad, Cuba, India, Laos, Libya, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Syria, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Yemen.

Meet the Team

Flatout Games is a board game design collaborative founded in 2017 by members Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, and Shawn Stankewich. As a design collaborative, they have several award-winning designs under their belt, including the 2019 Dice Tower Family Game of the Year and Spiel des Jahres Recommended Point Salad (2019, AEG); Truffle Shuffle (2020, AEG); TEN (2021, AEG); Point City (2023, Flatout Games); Point Galaxy (2025, Flatout Games); Propolis (2025, Flatout Games); Forage (2026, Flatout Games) Deep Dive (2023, Flatout Games); Verdant (2022, Flatout Games); Satchel Quest (2026, Weird City Games); Public Market (2021, Talon Strikes Studios); Dollars to Donuts (2021, Crafty Games); and Abstract Academy (2021, Crafty Games). They have also been developers on all Flatout Games published titles.

What’s this ‘CoLab’ all about?

In early 2019 Flatout Games opened its doors to create the Flatout Games CoLab. This CoLab is an opportunity for the founding members of Flatout Games to team up with awesome established and emerging folks in the board game industry and make cool things together. Since 2019, the CoLab has brought you Calico, Cascadia, Verdant, Fit to Print, Point City + Deep Dive, Nocturne, Cascadia: Rolling, Knitting Circle, Point Galaxy + Propolis, Cascadia: Alpine Lakes, and Forage + Honeypot, with a combined total of over 85,000 backers!

Our approach is to build the best possible experiences by involving everyone in the entire process. We strive to build passion in each of our collaborators through shared efforts and shared profits. The publication of Perennial is a passion project for everyone involved, and we are all part of an interconnected team - we take risks and are rewarded together. We hope you will join us on our journey!

Let’s meet the Perennial team!

Dylan Mangini, our graphic designer, makes amazing modern board game apparel as well. If you’re looking for some sweet new threads, check out www.teebletop.com!

You can check out more of Beth Sobel’s fantastic work at www.bethsobel.com!

Flatout Games is focused on creating innovative and elegant game experiences. We love puzzly games with simple rules, high replayability, and great tension! Players’ options and decisions should be complex, rules should not be. We love products that are immaculately detailed, and designed with clarity and simplicity at the forefront.

Thank You!

We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to people who have helped make Perennial the game it is today! We could not have done it without the help of these amazing supporters:

Kimberley Bamburak, Nicolas Bongiu, Haley Shae Brown, Kaliope Bush, Joseph Chen, Max Clendenning, Jeremy Davis, Karen Dong, Paul Earwood, Randy Flynn, Patrick Hayden, Tami Hurlburt, David Iezzi, Ashwin Kamath, Carla Kopp, Nick Kopp, Charlotte Kyle, David Lepore, Tylor Murray, Andromeda Pendragon, Aaron Russin, Jason Slingerland, Nicholas Trahan, Manolis Trahiotis, Cody Thompson, Ilya Ushakov, Jackie Williams, Kyndra Williams, Amanda Wong, Adelheid Zimmerman, John Zinser. Arcane Comics, Blue Highway Games, Playtest Northwest, The UnPub, and Zephyr Workshop. 

All of the reviewers and previewers who checked out Perennial and helped us to spread the word!

Thank you so much for taking time to learn more about Perennial! We hope you will join us on the journey to making it a success!