Ketupat Rendang

The Game

Ketupat Rendang is a short card game about your favourite Hari Raya dishes. This is the latest game from Malaysian publisher Meja Belakang, the team which brought us Drama Pukul 7 and Nak Makan Apa. Everyone is randomly assigned one main dish and one side dish. This is kept secret. Throughout the game, you lay down cards which have dishes and also fire which is used to cook the dishes. Parts of cards can overlap, hiding some dishes and even fire. Dishes are only cooked if they are adjacent to fire. At the end of the game, you score points for your dishes which are cooked and whoever has the most points wins.

Your secret objective card

Regular cards

You have a hand size of two. On your turn, you simply draw a card then play a card. Cards can be played next to existing cards and they can also be played partially overlapping other cards. Every card is divided into three equal sections. There are many ways cards can overlap. The golden rule is no single card can be completely covered by other cards. That means if two sections of a card have been covered, the last section is protected.

This is how fire works. A section containing one fire cooks one dish in every orthogonally adjacent section. If the section has two fires, then it cooks two dishes in every adjacent section. The game ends after the last card is drawn. You check the play area. For each of your main dish which is cooked, you score 2 points. For your side dish, you score 1 point each. In case you have any fire in hand, you lose points.

At the moment my main dish rendang (red background) scores 8 points because 4 are cooked.

The Play

The gameplay is smooth and fast. Initially, no one knows who has which main dish and side dish. However, there will be clues if you observe your opponents closely. At the same time, you may also want to play in a way which hides your intentions. It is not easy to hide your main dish until the end of the game. After all, you do want to manipulate the play area to show as many of them as possible, and to cook them. It is always a little nerve-racking to play a card with your main dish. It is not always easy to protect your main dish from being covered. The board situation is fluid. There can be many attacks, as in players covering one another’s dishes, or at least what they think are their opponents main dishes and side dishes. You can attack your own main dish if you want to, but I am not entirely sure this is a good idea. The game is short. Shooting yourself, even just a little bit, might set you back significantly.

Don't worry. This is not Overcooked. Too much fire will not burn your dishes.

The Thoughts

This is a pleasant and breezy game. It is of just the right length that it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and there is enough time and space for you to make meaningful plays. So this is satisfying. The board is open information. Player cards is hidden information. The game reminds me of Carcassonne. You can only play one card, but there are several possible positions on the board where you can play it. I am glad I backed the game when it was crowdfunded.