New Kingdom: Sowers (Game)
Summary
Sowers is a 1-2 player, quick play card game by New Kingdom Gaming. Patterned after Jesus’ parable of the sower, players compete to stack a sequential number of seeds in the Good Soil. There are various mechanics at play, including how the different soils “react” to cards being placed upon them. The artwork is adorable and charming, with an expressive feel that is not too over-the-top. The game’s instructions are a bit tricky to navigate, with a few gaps and disagreements in phrasing between the main instructions and the card cheat sheets the players are given. Overall gameplay could be fun, but the lack of clear instructions makes it difficult for some players to grasp.
Assessment
Sowers by New Kingdom Gaming is a parable-themed card game with delightfully bucolic artwork. The game breaks down the parable’s core analogies — good soil, rocky soil, thorns, and the path — and works it into the game’s core mechanics seamlessly. This provides a great, hands-on tool for evangelists, Sunday school teachers, or parents looking for a way to break down the theological message of the parable in a memorable way.
The game suffers from one significant issue, and that is the fact that the instructions do not make a lot of sense. They seemed too brief to explain gameplay that is relatively complicated, leaving a lot of room for assumptions and/or house rules. The gameplay itself seems like it would be quick, easy, and provide plenty of opportunity for strategy, however, elements of the instructions were difficult to parse out and the game often stalled. With some clarity, this game could be one of the best Christian games on the market.
Light-o-Meter
Artwork: 6 out of 7 Little Lights
Playability: 3 out of 7 Little Lights
Instructions: 2 out of 7 Little Lights
Theological Message: 6 out of 7 Little Lights
Age-Appropriateness: 5 out of 7 Little Lights
Overall: 4 out of 7
Talk
First and foremost, I do really love this game. It has beautiful artwork, really works in a good theological message and element of “practical application”, and I think I would really enjoy the gameplay…if I could figure out what the instructions were saying.
I played this game with a friend and it took both of us — reasonably intelligent adult women — over an hour to understand the instructions and get through two sort-of successful rounds (emphasis on “sort of”). There was simply not enough information on the overall play of the game. There was plenty on the soil types — although some of what was in the instructions was at odds with what was in the cheat sheets the game provides — and the basics of player rounds, but there were some significant gaps and phrasing issues that made the gameplay difficult to grasp.
I still think this game could be an incredible tool for evangelism and giving students who learn best through a hands-on approach some practical understanding of Jesus’ parable. I also think it could just be a fun, quick, easy game for families to enjoy during game night or on vacation (and there is plenty of room for house rules to develop), but as it is, I think the instructions need a little work.
Where to Enjoy
Answers in Genesis Store: New Kingdom: Sowers Card Game (Gift) | Answers in Genesis
This review is for this specific product and this product alone. In no way, shape, or form is this review meant to be an endorsement of the private lives, individual choices, lifestyles, or behaviors of those company(ies), publisher(s), creator(s), producer(s), author(s), artist(s), etc. associated with this product. It is God's sole providence alone to judge, and we make no claim to this right. With our reviews, we're simply looking at the value and merits of this specific product alone through the content and perspective of a Christian worldview. We pray you find it helpful and useful.