2025Jason Maclean Jones
- Videos
- 13
- Creators
- 10
Mainly reviews
1 - 2 players90 - 120 minHeavy weight
Zen Monkeys
2026Jason Maclean Jones
- Videos
- 7
- Creators
- 6
Mostly how-to-play and reviews. Zen Monkeys is covered on BoardGameVideo.com by 2 reviews, 3 how-to-play guides, 1 recorded sessions, and 1 unboxings.
2 - 4 players
60 - 90 min
From BoardGameGeek
Show off your inner zen as a disciple of the Monkey King Sun Wukong! King Monkey has decreed that his tribe of monkeys must create a kingdom worthy of his status as Great Sage, Equal of Heaven on Mount Huaguo (Fruit and Flowers Mountain). To do so his disciples must tame the forest by collecting and placing landscape tiles - Each player creating a lovely wild garden full of ponds, paths and ornamental features that show their understanding of Monkey King's teachings and the Six Principles of Zen. Zen Monkeys is a relaxing tile-laying, resource gathering, set collection worker-placement game for everyone; from younger players and new gamers, to families and more experience players. The game looks deceptively simple but has a lot of choice and ways to score under the lid as with only 18 quick rounds in the game, its a race to grab what you need, get building and impress Sun Wukong! -description from the publisher
Watch first
Which Zen Monkeys video should I watch?
Zen Monkeys has 7 videos from 6 creators: 2 reviews, 3 how-to-play guides, 1 playthrough and 1 unboxing. They date from January to March 2026.
To learn the rules, start with "Zen Monkeys - A Preview Video (EN) by Epitrapaizoume" by epitrapaizoume, which runs 1 h 1 min. For a quicker teach, "Zen Monkeys🐒 - Chill Zen…Build Monkey Kingdom, Just Avoid the Guardians" by Meeple University runs 7 min.
For an opinion before you buy, start with "Zen Monkeys: Is it right for you?" by Inspired 2 Game. To see it played, watch "OFPG - Zen Monkeys Preview (Hail the Monkey King!)" by Our Family Plays Games.
If you like it, try DreamEscape, also by Jason Maclean Jones, or Águeda: City of Umbrellas, Take 5 and Nimalia, which share several of its mechanics.
All videos
Creators who cover this
epitrapaizoume
2 videos of this game
Inspired 2 Game
1 video of this game
Jenders Gaming
1 video of this game
Meeple University
1 video of this game
Our Family Plays Games
1 video of this game
Tabletop Tastings
1 video of this game
Games like this
2024Dustin Dobson, Milan Zivkovic
- Videos
- 34
- Creators
- 20
Mainly reviews
1 - 5 players20 - 40 minLight weight
1994Wolfgang Kramer
- Videos
- 57
- Creators
- 51
Mostly how-to-play and reviews
2 - 10 players45 minLight weight
2023William Liévin
- Videos
- 30
- Creators
- 28
Mostly reviews and playthroughs
2 - 4 players25 - 30 minLight weight
About Zen Monkeys
From BoardGameGeek:
Show off your inner zen as a disciple of the Monkey King Sun Wukong! King Monkey has decreed that his tribe of monkeys must create a kingdom worthy of his status as Great Sage, Equal of Heaven on Mount Huaguo (Fruit and Flowers Mountain). To do so his disciples must tame the forest by collecting and placing landscape tiles - Each player creating a lovely wild garden full of ponds, paths and ornamental features that show their understanding of Monkey King's teachings and the Six Principles of Zen. Zen Monkeys is a relaxing tile-laying, resource gathering, set collection worker-placement game for everyone; from younger players and new gamers, to families and more experience players. The game looks deceptively simple but has a lot of choice and ways to score under the lid as with only 18 quick rounds in the game, its a race to grab what you need, get building and impress Sun Wukong! -description from the publisher
Designer
Jason Maclean Jones
Artist
Tomasz Larek
Publisher
BadCat Games
Categories
MythologyPuzzle
Mechanics