Color Nerds, Rejoice! There's Now a Pantone: The Game.

By: Rudy Sanchez

In 1963 Pantone created the Pantone Matching System  (PMS), providing a standard, universal language for the colors used by marketers, designers, printers and anyone else looking for consistent and faithful color reproduction. Since then, the PMS has become a part of every designer’s toolbox.

Now Pantone and Cryptozoic are hoping to become a staple of game nights everywhere with Pantone: The Game. Inspired by Pantone’s color chips, the game is a little bit like charades— players take turns as “The Artist,” arranging color swatches in shapes representing a famous person or character. The other players take turns guessing who the character is, earning points for correct characters.

The game is played in three rounds and gets progressively more difficult as fewer swatches are available to Artists each round. The game can be played with as few as two players or up to 20, and includes an optional team scoring mode. Pantone: The Game is recommended for ages eight and up and Cryptozoic estimates 10-20 minutes per play. Since the game relies more on player creativity and less on complex rules and settings, it’s well suited for knocking back a few beers with pals or a family game night.

The box is styled after a Pantone chip, and inside the game includes 125 character cards and 60 color swatches in 15 colors. While the game is timed and scored, there is no timer or scorecard included.

For those of you that see the world in Pantone color codes, you might be sorry to hear that it won’t give you any advantages. Pantone: The Game is designed to unlock the inner artist in everyone, not just creative professionals.

Then again, that’s part of the fun. Sure, those immersed in design get to geek out over a game named for a color management system they use every day, but everyone else also gets to dabble with their visual artistic side and unleash their creativity in a simple, engaging and competitive game.

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Rudy Sanchez

Rudy Sanchez is a product marketing consultant based in Southern California. Once described by a friend as her “technology life coach,” he is a techie and avid lifelong gamer. When he’s not writing or helping clients improve their products, he’s either watching comedies on Netflix, playing the latest shooter or battle royale game or out exploring the world via Ingress and Pokémon Go.