- BGG rating
- 8.0
The Night Cage: Shrieking Hollow
- 1–5 players
- 40–60 min
- Complexity 2.5/5
- 2024
- BGG rank
- BGG #1,689
- BGG rating
- 7.1
The Night Cage
2021
Rules assistance for The Night Cage
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 1–5 players
- 40–60 min
- 14+
- Complexity 2.1/5
For 1 player
Rules assistant for The Night Cage
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
The Night Cage is a board game released in 2021 for 1–5 players, 40–60 minutes per game, and ages 14 and up. It was designed by Christopher Ryan Chan, Chris McMahon, and Rosswell Saunders and its main mechanics are Tile Placement, Grid Movement, and Cooperative Game.
Expansions
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About the game
You awaken in the dark, your skin cold, your mind blank. You have nothing but your fear, a flickering candle, and a question: How long will your light last? Trapped and crawling your way through a pitch-black labyrinth, equipped with nothing but dim candles, you must work together to explore the maze and escape. Unfortunately, your weak candlelight illuminates only your immediate surroundings. Worse still, horrifying Wax Eaters — monsters who despise the light — lurk in the suffocating darkness for their opportunity to strike. The Night Cage is a fully co-operative, horror-themed tile-placement game that traps 1-5 lost souls within an unnatural labyrinth of eternal darkness. To win, players must each collect a key, find a gate, and escape as a group. Escape won't be easy as each player's visibility is limited by the weak light of their candle. They illuminate only tiles directly connected to their own, and when players move, tiles that fall into darkness are removed from the game. Doubling back the way you came only opens new paths, the old ones being lost forever with critical keys and gates vanishing if your light move away from them...
Publishers
- Magellan
- Smirk & Dagger Games
- IELLO
- Banana Games
- Smirk & Laughter Games
Questions and answers
The Night Cage supports 1–5 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for The Night Cage is 40–60 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists The Night Cage for ages 14 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
The Night Cage has a complexity rating of 2.1 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
The Night Cage belongs to these categories: Fantasy, Horror, and Maze. Its main mechanics are Tile Placement, Grid Movement, and Cooperative Game. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of The Night Cage are: Christopher Ryan Chan, Chris McMahon, and Rosswell Saunders. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists The Night Cage as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.