Welcome to the Starving Artists Game!

Are you ready to explore your artistic skills and showcase your talents? If so, you’ve come to the right place! In this game, you’ll become an artist striving to create beautiful masterpieces while managing the challenges that come with an artist’s life.

I’m here to guide you through the game rules, so let’s get started!

Objective

Your objective in the Starving Artists Game is to create as many stunning paintings as possible to earn money and become a successful artist. The more paintings you sell, the more fame and fortune you’ll achieve!

Gameplay

During each round of the game, you’ll face a series of challenges and decisions. To play, you’ll need an artist’s palette, a paintbrush, and a set of paints.

1. First, you’ll select a painting to work on. You can choose from a variety of options, each with its own unique requirements and rewards. Make sure to pick a painting that fits your artistic style and skills!
2. Next, you’ll gather the necessary paints by rolling the dice. Each color on the dice corresponds to one of the paints you’ll need. The number rolled determines the number of paints you’ll receive.
3. Once you have your paints, it’s time to start creating! Using your paintbrush and palette, you’ll mix the paints together to match the colors needed for your chosen painting.
4. Be careful though – mixing paints is a delicate process. If you mix too much or not enough, your painting might not turn out as expected. Pay attention to the painting’s requirements and make sure to mix the colors with precision.
5. After completing your painting, you’ll have the option to sell it at the art gallery. The art dealer will assess your work and offer you a price based on its quality. Choose wisely!

Winning the Game

The game ends when all the rounds have been played. The artist with the highest total earnings from selling their paintings wins the game and earns the title of the ultimate Starving Artist!

Final Thoughts

Now that you know the rules of the Starving Artists Game, it’s time to unleash your creativity and embark on an artistic adventure. Remember, the key to success lies in choosing the right paintings, mixing paints with precision, and making strategic decisions when selling your masterpieces.

Good luck, and may your artistic journey be filled with inspiration and success!

Hey there! Have you heard of Starving Artists? It’s a really cool game where you get to be a painter and manage your time and resources. You can play by yourself or with up to three friends. The goal of the game is to create stunning works of art to earn paint cubes, points, and food.

The Components You Need

Get ready to unleash your inner artist with Starving Artists! This incredible set provides everything you need to become a master at paint-by-cube art.

• 150 Paint Cubes
• 1 Paint Bag
• 8 Player Tokens
• 1 First Player Token
• Scoring Track
• 92 Canvas Cards
• 4 Studio Cards

Create Stunning Art with Canvas Cards

Squares: When I look at a canvas, I see a bunch of colored squares. These squares tell me what color paint cubes I need to finish the painting. Sometimes, there’s a diamond shape that has two colors. I can use either color for that square.

Star value: The star value tells me how many points the painting is worth when I sell it.

Paint value: The paint value tells me the maximum number of paint cubes I can collect for the painting when I sell it.

Food value: The food value tells me how much food I get when I sell the painting.

Studio Cards

Each of us has a Studio Card. It has a nutrition track, action track, a player turn reference, and a paint palette.

You can keep track of your nutrition using a nutrition track called A. Just use a player token and place it on the left side.

When you’re the first player, use action track B to track the three phases of the day. The first phase is in the morning, the second is during the day, and the third is at night when you sell.

The objective of the game is to collect paint cubes and complete enough paintings to become the most famous paint-by-cube artist in the world.

To set up the game, give the first player marker to the player who most recently visited a museum. Place it on the first action. If you’re playing solo or the Junior version, check the back of the rulebook for setup changes.

Here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Give each player a set of player markers. Put one marker on the 0 spot of the scoring track and another on nutrition level 5 on the Studio Card.

Step 2: Put all the paint cubes in the paint bag. Each player takes six paint cubes from the bag randomly and puts them in their studio.

Step 3: Shuffle the Canvas Cards. Put them face down in the middle of the table.

Step 4: Create the Canvas Market. Flip over three Canvas Cards and arrange them in a line like this: [describe the arrangement].

When playing the game, you have the option to buy face-up Canvas Cards from the Canvas Market. The price of a canvas is determined by its position in the market, ranging from one paint cube (furthest from the deck) to three paint cubes.

Once you purchase a canvas, all the cards shift down and a new one is revealed in the top slot.

The Gameplay

Starving Artists is played in rounds, representing different days. Each day, you have two actions – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. At night, all players can sell their completed paintings.

Starting a New Day

Hey there! Let’s talk about the Paint Market. It’s a cool place where you can find paint cubes to use in your artwork. I’ll tell you how it works.

First, I grab four paint cubes from a bag and put them in the middle of the table. This becomes the Paint Market. It’s like a shop where you can find different colors of paint. You can add more cubes to the Market when you trade for them or buy new canvases.

But remember, the Market is not just for adding paint cubes. You can also take cubes from it. At the end of the day, when you sell your finished paintings, you can take cubes from the Market. It’s like receiving payment for your hard work!

So, the Paint Market is an important place in our painting world. It’s where you can get the paint you need and also make some money. Pretty neat, right?

In this game, we each need to lower our nutrition by one each day, except for the first day when we start at one. It’s important to keep track of our nutrition levels on the nutrition track.

If your nutrition drops below one, you’re out of the game. When that happens, return your paint cubes to the bag and the remaining players have one more day to finish their work before the game ends.

If the first player gets eliminated, the first player marker goes to the next surviving player right away.

We begin each day with the morning action. The first player puts the first player marker on the first action of the day: morning.

Whenever it’s their turn again, the first player moves the carrot down the action track.

Here are some tips for managing your nutrition:

If you’re feeling really hungry all the time, try the following:

• Keeping more than one canvas in your studio.
• Remember to paint at least three cubes on each turn.
• Winning isn’t just about earning points.

Actions

Every day, starting with the first player and moving clockwise, you will have two actions to take, one at a time. You are also allowed to take one free action per day during your turn. You will sell completed paintings later.

When it’s your turn, you have the following options:

Work: I’ve got an exciting task for you! Grab ahold of the paint bag and randomly pick three paint cubes to bring into your studio. But here’s the catch – don’t start painting with them just yet.

Get yourself a fresh canvas: All you need to do is head over to the Canvas Market and purchase a canvas. Simply pay the amount of paint cubes specified at the Paint Market, which is equal to the position of your desired canvas in the Canvas Market.

Time to get creative: You can use up to four paint cubes from your studio to give life to your canvas or canvases.

You don’t have to paint every square, but you need to choose a paint cube that matches each square’s colors.

Painting Tips

Hey there! Did you know that you can use your paint cubes on multiple canvases? Pretty cool, right?

And get this, you can even use different colored paint cubes on the same square! Talk about creative freedom!

Oh, and don’t forget about the color palette at the bottom. It tells you how many of each color you’ll need to finish your painting.

Wild Cubes: Now, here’s a nifty trick. You can use clear cubes to replace any one square on your canvas. But remember, you can only use one wild cube per canvas. So use it wisely!

Free Actions

Guess what? Along with your regular actions, you get a special treat! Once a day, you can do one of the following during your turn. How awesome is that?

Trading Paint Cubes: Hey there! If you have some extra paint cubes in your studio and you want to trade them for different colors, you’re in luck! Here’s how it works:

First, let me tell you how many paint cubes you can get in exchange for the ones you have:

• If you give me 2 paint cubes from your studio, I’ll give you 1 paint cube from the Paint Market.
• If you have 5 paint cubes to spare, I’ll trade you 2 paint cubes from the market.
• Do you have 9 paint cubes lying around? Great! In exchange, I’ll give you 3 paint cubes.

But hold on a minute! There’s one little rule you need to know. You see, you can use the wild paint cubes (the clear ones) from your studio for trading, but you can’t take them from the Paint Market.

Resetting the Canvas Market: You can spend two paint cubes at the Paint Market to get rid of the current Canvas cards and reveal three new canvases in the order they are revealed.

If you haven’t taken your turn yet, you can buy any of the new canvases right away.

Selling Finished Paintings

At the end of the day (nighttime), you can sell as many of your finished paintings as you want in exchange for paint, points, and food. If you won’t go hungry, you don’t have to sell your paintings right away and can wait until your next turn.

Announcing

Starting with the first player and going clockwise, each player announces if they want to sell any paintings and which ones. Once you announce your decision, you can’t change it.

Selling

If you decide to sell, here’s what happens:

In this game, you can raise your nutrition level by looking at the Food Value on the painting. If your nutrition level goes over five, you get four paint cubes for each extra food. Don’t forget to return all the paint cubes from your painting to the paint bag.

To get paid, you’ll receive paint cubes. The player with the highest Paint Value painting goes first, and players are paid in paint cubes in Paint Value order. Take turns taking paint cubes from the Paint Market, up to the Paint Value of your painting or until the Paint Market is empty.

During a “collection action”, you can take the following amounts of paint cubes:

– If you have the highest value painting, you get four paint cubes.

– If you have the second-highest value painting, you get two paint cubes.

Everyone else: one paint cube.

During my collection actions, I can choose any paint cube from the Paint Market. But I can only take one wild paint cube per collection action.

Ties:

If my painting and another player’s painting have the same Paint Value, we both take the same number of paint cubes. However, the order is determined by player order, starting with the first player.

Selling more than one painting:

If I sell more than one painting in a day, I need to treat each painting separately. This means I take paint cubes from the Paint Market for each painting individually, using separate collection actions.

End of the Day:

Once everyone has sold their paintings, the day comes to an end. The first player marker is passed to the next player in clockwise order, and a new day begins.

End of the Game:

The game will end under the following conditions:

– If a player has placed 15 or more paint cubes on their paintings, the game ends at the end of that day.

– If the Paint Market cannot be replenished at the end of a day due to insufficient paint cubes, the game immediately ends.

– If a player has placed all of their painting tokens on paintings, the game ends at the end of that day.

Once the game ends, the player with the most points wins! Points are determined by the number and arrangement of paint cubes on the player’s paintings.

In the board game Paint-by-Cube, the winner is determined by meeting certain objectives. There are two ways to achieve victory:

• If a player scores enough points
• If a player completes enough paintings
• If one day passes and a player starves

However, if no one starves, the first player to become the Paint-by-Cube Master Painter must do one of the following, depending on the number of players:

• For 2 players: complete 7 paintings or score 16 points
• For 3 players: complete 6 paintings or score 14 points
• For 4 players: complete 5 paintings or score 12 points

If someone does starve and neither the painting nor point objectives were met, then the player with the highest point score wins. It is even possible for the winner to be the player who starved. On the other hand, if both objectives are met by different players, the player with the most points wins in the end.

If there’s a tie in points, the player who has completed the most canvases wins. But if there’s still a tie, we look at the amount of food each player has earned. And if by some chance there’s still a tie, the player with the most unused paint cubes in their studio takes the win.

Optional Rules

Color Study

Instead of using your free trade action, you have the option to place four paint cubes of the same color from your studio in the Paint Market. In return, you can choose any color cube you want from the bag. How cool is that?

Player Trades

Here’s another option! Rather than using your free trade action, you can make a single offer to trade with everyone at the table. The first player who accepts your offer is the one you trade with. Just remember, you can’t make another trade until the next day.

Last Supper

If you’re about to starve on your next turn because you’re completely out of food (your nutrition level is at one), don’t worry! You have an option to save yourself by sacrificing one of your finished paintings. By discarding a completed painting, you can increase your nutrition level by the number of stars that painting is worth. This way, you won’t go hungry and will be able to continue playing the game. But remember, once you discard a painting in this way, it won’t be counted towards your final score at the end of the game.

Colorblind Players



If you have trouble seeing colors or find yourself in a dimly lit space, I’ve got some handy tips to help you out.

First, let’s sort the paint cubes. As new cubes are added or taken from the paint bag, say the colors out loud and keep them in the same order as they appear on the Studio and Canvas Cards: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, and wild.

Next, pay attention to the color counts on the Canvas Cards. You don’t necessarily need to use the squares, just keep track of the number of cubes.

The square count will tell you how many total paints you’ll need to complete the painting.

Rules for Junior Players

• Start with one cube of each color in the Paint Market, except for the wild cubes.
• Every canvas in the Canvas Market costs one paint cube. Don’t worry about where they’re positioned.
• When you’re selling paintings, don’t rely on the Paint Market. Instead, determine the painting’s value based on the paint bag.
• Save the Paint Market exclusively for trading paints. If there are more than four of the same color available, return the surplus back to the paint bag.