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Geek Dad
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
‘A Gentle Rain': A Relaxing Puzzle Game
Calm your brain at this quiet lake. What Is A Gentle Rain ? A Gentle Rain is a tile-laying puzzle game for 1 or more players, ages 8 and up, and takes about 15 minutes to play. It retails for $22.99 and is available directly from Incredible Dream or at your local game store. There is also a Bloom Edition that is a Target exclusive for $15.99; I'll include a little bit about that in the Components section below. While the game is primarily a solo game, it can easily be played cooperatively by more players taking turns. A Gentle Rain was designed by Kevin Wilson and published by Incredible Dream, with illustrations by Wiktor Kozyra. A Gentle Rain components. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu A Gentle Rain Components Here's what comes in the box: There's a lot of variety in the tile backgrounds. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu The components list is very short because it's a small game, but they're also nice components. The tiles are squares with cut-out corners, making them kind of shaped like plus signs, so that when you place four of them together there is a round cut-out where the corners would meet. The tiles are illustrated to look like a top-down view of a lake, with floating lily pads, fish swimming underwater, ducks floating on the surface, and so on. UV gloss creates some reflective ripples. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu The backs of the tiles also have some UV gloss that looks like little ripples on the water from raindrops. Flower tokens. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu On the edges of the tiles are larger lily pad halves with various colored flowers, matching the flowers printed on the round wooden disks. There are 8 different flowers, each with different colors and petal shapes. The whole thing comes in a small box—it's not flat, so it wouldn't fit in your jeans pocket, but it's definitely small enough to carry around easily. Target's Bloom Edition. Image: Target Target's Bloom Edition replaces the wooden disk with plastic 3D flowers. They're very cute, though it looks like there are only two different flower shapes among the eight colors. The box is also a different shape, with proportions more like a small book. Ultimately the difference between the two is a matter of preference, but I personally like the wooden tokens version that I have. How to Play A Gentle Rain You can download a copy of the rulebook here. The Goal The goal of the game is to place all of the flower tokens using as few tiles as possible. Setup is a cinch: just place one tile on the table. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu Setup Mix up the tiles and make a face-down stack, and then draw the first tile and place it in face-up. Set the flower tokens nearby. Placing tiles—no completed flowers yet! Photo: Jonathan H. Liu Gameplay Draw tiles one at a time and add them to the lake—you must place tiles so that the flower halves match. If the tile can go somewhere then you must place it. If it doesn't fit anywhere at all, discard it and draw the next one. I could have chosen any of the four completed flowers to place in this space. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu Whenever you create a square of four tiles, completing the circular hole in the center, you may place a flower token. The token must match at least one of the four flowers surrounding that hole. If you've already placed all of the matching tokens, then you don't place any additional tokens. If you're playing with multiple players, just take turns placing tiles. With 7 tiles left, my final score is 15. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu Game End The game ends when you've either placed all of the flower tokens, or you run out of tiles. Your final score is the number of flower tokens placed plus the number of tiles left in the draw pile. (The maximum possible score is 21.) A Gentle Rain is GeekDad Approved! Why You Should Play A Gentle Rain Okay, in my rules explanation, I did leave out a few instructions. Before the setup step, the rule sheet actually starts with 'Get comfortable' and suggests making some tea, putting on some nice music, maybe getting into comfy clothes. This is a game that isn't just about the play, but is about creating a relaxing atmosphere while you play. According to the website, Kevin Wilson designed A Gentle Rain at a time when he was having anxiety attacks and found that doing jigsaw puzzles helped him, and the game definitely has a bit of the feeling of putting together a puzzle. It's a calm, chill experience as you draw tiles and look for matching flowers. There is a little bit of strategy to consider if you're really trying to increase your score, even though that's not the main focus of the game. For instance, if you make a U-shaped hole, that's going to be tougher to fill in because you'll need to find a piece that matches on all three sides. On the other hand, if you do manage to do so, it's an amazing feeling to draw exactly the right piece—and it completes two flower tokens at once. You also want to watch that you don't create impossible-to-fill spaces: since each tile has four different colored flowers on its edges, you don't want to create a spot that has two of the same color facing it. I also try to avoid making too many spaces with the same combinations, because you probably don't need multiple spots for a blue flower next to a white flower. The space on the left may be difficult to fill; the space on the right is impossible. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu There's also the choice of which flower token to place, because you don't want to get stuck completing a circle and then not having the right token to fill it—or not having enough tiles left with a certain color flower. Generally, I choose a token based on which flower halves have been used the most so far, but that's not a guarantee. There is, of course, some amount of luck involved in the order that tiles come out. Sometimes you might just get stuck making a long straight line because you keep getting things that just don't match well or would create those impossible spots. Other times you may just draw match after match, creating your needed squares every other turn. Although each tile is unique, you won't always get every possible combination of tiles—after all, with 8 flower colors, there are a lot more ways to arrange four of them than there are tiles in the game, which means that it's quite possible to create spaces that can't be filled simply because that tile doesn't exist. Whether you're playing for points or just playing to occupy your hands, A Gentle Rain is the sort of game that you can just pull out and play without being too mentally taxing. You can play while listening to a podcast, or watching a show, or having a conversation with a friend. When Incredible Dream sent me a copy, I showed it to my wife, who generally doesn't play a lot of tabletop games, and she immediately claimed it. It's the one game that lives in our dining room instead of down in the basement game room—not only because it's so compact, but because she's taken to playing it as a way to wind down before bed or just when she has a free moment. It's one that my kids have also borrowed often, and we often take it with us when we're out somewhere where there will be a little bit of table surface to play. If you like puzzles and you need a way to carve out a little chunk of calm during your busy day, I recommend giving A Gentle Rain a try! Visit the Incredible Dream website for more information! Click here to see all our tabletop game reviews. To subscribe to GeekDad's tabletop gaming coverage, please copy this link and add it to your RSS reader. Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes. Liked it? 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Washington Post
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
In ‘Run for the Hills,' abandoned children redefine family
In Kevin Wilson's poignant, comic stories, the theatricality of family life often takes center stage. Wilson reminds us that our parents and siblings are both actors and audience for a show that's intensely private but inevitably public. In his hilarious debut novel, 'The Family Fang' (2011) — adapted into a movie starring Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman — Wilson follows the humiliations of two children who are dragged into the mad antics of their performance artist parents. In his most surreal novel, 'Nothing to See Here' (2019), a pair of 10-year-old twins literally burst into flames whenever they get upset — a singeing experience familiar even to the most heat-resistant parents.
New York Times
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
These 4 People Had Never Met. Now They're on a Road Trip to Find Dad.
When people speak of 'found' family, they tend to mean those closest to them who are not related by blood or by law. One might hear the phrase used by a queer person who has found love and acceptance far, far away from their parents, or a member of a church who finds more treasured community through worship than they can at home. But in 'Run for the Hills,' Kevin Wilson's latest novel, the term can be deployed more literally. If a man sets out on a cross-country road trip to find all of his half siblings and the father who abandoned them one by one, what have they all done if not … found family? Wilson, whose past novels include 'Perfect Little World' and 'Nothing to See Here,' is known for his idiosyncratic, at times fantastical family stories, but 'Run for the Hills' is something a little more straightforward. It begins in Tennessee, where 32-year-old Madeline 'Mad' Hill operates a successful organic farm with her mother. One Saturday in March, a 44-year-old writer named Reuben 'Rube' Hill arrives from Boston with some shocking news: He is her half sibling, and she has two more, their father having abandoned Rube, and then Mad, and then two more families after that. He invites her on a road trip to meet and collect the others so the four of them can confront their father together in California, where Rube believes he currently resides. Mad has never thought to search for her father, let alone had the time to. 'He left,' she tells Rube. 'He didn't want to stay. He doesn't deserve my thinking of him.' But after decades of keeping him out of her mind, the seed planted by her half brother sprouts in a near instant, and she accepts his bizarre offer. Before long, they're off into the American West at lightning speed — or, as fast as his rented PT cruiser is able to go. It's a fantastic hook that begins a mostly jaunty series of cascading episodes that feel tailor-made to be adapted into a limited series. 'Another quest,' Wilson writes. 'Mad wanted to scream. Always another quest, some other thing that they had to accomplish, some mountain to traverse or some insane billionaire heiress to humor. The further you get into the quest, no matter how long it continues, you can't leave it. You're too far into it.' If it wasn't already clear from the PT Cruiser, it is 2007, one of the last gasps of an era before hyper-connectivity was the norm. Set in the present, such a story may not have warranted unscheduled, in-person confrontations, and the road trip could have been replaced with a Zoom conference. It wasn't all that long ago when human connection was more reliant upon, well, human connection. Their journey takes them first to Oklahoma and then to Texas, where their half sister, Pepper, is competing in a college basketball tournament. With her in the back seat they head to Utah for 11-year-old Theron, a fifth grader and budding filmmaker who joins the unlikely trio with little protestation from his mother. If the ease with which Rube is able to persuade his siblings to join him raises eyebrows, the journey is otherwise so swift and delightful that the story never collapses under the weight of implausibility. It is a pleasure to watch Rube, Mad, Pep and Theron discover everything they have in common — with one another and with the versions of their father that each child got to know — as the odometer rolls up and up. Rube became a mystery novelist, as his father had been when he was a child. Mad is a farmer, as her father had been when she knew him. The reader wonders if their mutual faith in hideous cars driven by strangers isn't a contrivance at all, but a familial trait. Of the siblings' many mishaps, the most poetic occurs when they're forced to swap rental cars after an accident. Whatever glimmer of hope they have that the new vehicle will be something more exciting than the PT Cruiser is dashed when the agent delivers a similarly hideous Chevrolet HHR. Their father has spent a lifetime driving off from family after family; and here they are, bound together in a revolving door of ugly cars designed for America's large, nuclear families. The agent presents the option as — what else? — an upgrade. 'Run for the Hills' is a touching and generous romp of a novel, a sort of lighthearted family heist in which the anticipated grift is simply a meeting (or confrontation?) with the characters' father. The results of their quest are, frankly, beside the point. In bringing the siblings together — with or without the man who helped create them — Wilson makes a bold and convincing case that every real family is one you have to find and, at some point, choose, even if it's the one you're born into.
Perth Now
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Eagles unveil stunning First Nations jumper
The families of West Coast players are taking centre stage on the club's First Nations jumper, with the Eagles on Monday unveiling a striking design for this year's strip. Wongathai man Kevin Wilson and Maduwongga and Noongar woman Taryn Woods are responsible for this season's guernsey, which highlights totems from players' families and showcases stories of their connections to the club. Across the chest of each jumper is 56 sharp points, representing the number of First Nations players drafted to the club across its history. A kangaroo and emu are among the animals on either side of the central swooping eagle, with the symbolism that they are 'always moving forwards as the players progress as a team'. If you'd like to view this content, please adjust your . To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide. West Coast's players get the opportunity to share their individual family stories and connections to culture, including Tim Kelly, Liam Ryan and Tyler Brockman choosing symbols to represent their children and partners. Tyrell Dewar has an emu represented by tracks and a kangaroo, which is significant to his culture. The Eagles are set to don the jumper for their round 10 clash against St Kilda at Optus Stadium later this month as part of the AFL's Sir Doug Nicholls Round celebrations.
West Australian
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
West Coast Eagles unveil First Nations jumper, designed by Kevin Wilson and Taryn Woods
The families of West Coast players are taking centre stage on the club's First Nations jumper, with the Eagles on Monday unveiling a striking design for this year's strip. Wongathai man Kevin Wilson and Maduwongga and Noongar woman Taryn Woods are responsible for this season's guernsey, which highlights totems from players' families and showcases stories of their connections to the club. Across the chest of each jumper is 56 sharp points, representing the number of First Nations players drafted to the club across its history. A kangaroo and emu are among the animals on either side of the central swooping eagle, with the symbolism that they are 'always moving forwards as the players progress as a team'. West Coast's players get the opportunity to share their individual family stories and connections to culture, including Tim Kelly, Liam Ryan and Tyler Brockman choosing symbols to represent their children and partners. Tyrell Dewar has an emu represented by tracks and a kangaroo, which is significant to his culture. The Eagles are set to don the jumper for their round 10 clash against St Kilda at Optus Stadium later this month as part of the AFL's Sir Doug Nicholls Round celebrations.
