Road to SPIEL 2026: KANO by Matagot

Creating a masterpiece usually requires years of training, exceptional talent and a lot more patience than most of us possess. KANO offers us another option: collect the right pots of paint and hope gravity doesn’t ruin everything.

Published by Matagot, KANO is a colourful pattern-building game from designers Pablo Jimenez (Kai-Zen, NIJI) and Angel Pintero, with hand-painted illustrations by Kyoto-based artist Jun Sato. Players compete to create their own emakimono (traditional Japanese illustrated handscrolls) and earn recognition as a master of the Kano school.

What is it?

Rather than attempting to simulate the actual process of painting, KANO has turned the process of artistic composition into a spatial puzzle.

Players collect coloured paint pots from a shared palette and place them onto their individual boards. Arrange those colours into the correct combinations and they can be transformed into artwork tiles, gradually replacing raw pigments with sections of a completed scroll.

The inspiration comes from the centuries-old Kano school of Japanese painting, but the game itself falls very much into the accessible abstract-strategu territory which has proven very popular. Recognise the pattern you need, manipulate the available colours, wokr out how to fit everything together, and hope nobody else does it first.

How does it play?

Each turn begins with the shared palette. Before collecting paint you can swap two adjacent pots, giving you a limited ability to manipulate what is available. You then take at least one pot, potentially collecting several provided they are the same colour and connected i a straight row or column.

Then you place them on to your scroll. But pots obey gravity. When added to your board they fall to the lowest available space in their chosen column, so you can’t simply put the colours wherever they are needed. You’re effectively constructing patterns from the bottom upwards while tyrying to anticipate which pigments you’ll be able to acquire later.

Complete the right arrangement and the paint pots are removed and replaced by an Artwork Tile. Larger works earn more prestige, while secret Masterpiece cards offer valuable personal objectives. Shared red and white goal sheets provide additional targets that can change from game to game.

There is also a limit to your artistic clutter. If you finish a turn with more than four visible paint pots then the excess become Cloud Tiles, spaces which are now occupied but score you no points.

So try and keep your art studio tidy!

Why we’re watching it

KANO looks like a game where the rules are relatively easy to explain but the resulting puzzle created by them is going to be considerably trickier.

The combination of a shared supply, limited manipulation and gravity means you’re not onlu collecting the colours you need but you’re also having to consider where they;ll land, what patterns remain possible, and whether taking a group of pots leaves something particularly useful for the next player..

I can just imagine what my game group will say if/when KANO makes it way to our table, as I have a bit of a reputation with abstract strategy pattern builders. I love them and the others always take great pleasure if they beat me at one.

KANO also looks like an exceptionally attractive game. Jun Sato’s artwork gives the finished scrolls much more personality than a colelction of abstract scoring tiles, while the physical paint pots look great and reinforce the theme and what the players are supposed to be creating.

Also, at around 35 minutes, the game occupies a useful space for games night: substantial enough to offer a real puzzle without requiring several hours and an emergency supply of sandwiches.

The Game at SPIEL Essen 2026

KANO is actually getting a general release before SPIEL, with Matagot and Asmodee currently listing the game for a 16th October 2026 retail release. So this is one you don’t have to travel to Germany to get or, if you are heading to the show, you can buy it before you go and free up some of that luggage space for another title unique to SPIEL this year.

Matagot will be showcasing KANO at the IPA are in Hall 3, Stand F120/F110, where the game will also be available to purchase, or collection for those who have placed advance orders.

The edition is available in English and French with a MSRP of €35.

SPIEL Essen runs from 22nd-25th October 2026.

KANO at a glance

Publisher: Matagot

Designers: Pablo Jimenez & Angel Pintero

Artists: Jun Sato

Players: 1-4

Ages: 12+

Playing Time: @ 35 minutes

Type: Pattern building / tile placement / set collection / spatial puzzle

Languages: English & French

Expected retail release: 16th October 2026

SPIEL: IPA area, Hall 3 Stand F120/F110

More information: Matagot - KANO

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