Downtown Las Palmas – A Neighborhood in Your Hands

Take on the challenge of revitalizing Downtown Las Palmas, literally in the palm of your hand! Lay out the ground level, then build upward by arranging cards to align palm trees, canopies, signs, pets, and windows while navigating a tricky skyline that can limit your placement options.

Downtown Las Palmas is a solo city-building card game played with no table from Button Shy Games, designed and illustrated by Erica Pinto. It takes about 10 minutes, and is recommended for ages 8+.

Setup

Measure the width of your fully stretched hand using the rulebook guide (small, medium, or large). Your hand size determines which scoring range you use. Then shuffle the cards with the city side face up. Flip the top two cards to reveal their goal sides. If they conflict, keep one, reveal a replacement, and shuffle the unchosen card back into the deck. Stack the two goal cards behind the deck, slightly offset so their goals remain visible. Hold the deck and goals in one hand. Then take the top card of the deck into your opposite hand and rotate it so the ground is at the bottom.

Gameplay

Each turn, draw the top card of the deck and choose whether to add it to your city, tuck it behind the city for a penalty, or end the game and score. When adding a card, place it on top of, behind, or between other city cards to maximize scoring.

At any point during your turn, you may rearrange your city as long as every hidden card remains hidden and all other cards follow the placement rules. But beware! Dropping a card immediately ends the game.

When adding a card to your city, you must follow these placement rules:

A. Align any visible ground. If you can still see a card’s ground or a scoring element that sits on the ground, line it up with the other visible ground in the city. If the ground is completely covered, the card may sit higher.

B. Keep every card upright. Rotate each card so its ground runs parallel with the ground on the other cards, even if partially covered by another card.

C. Leave at least one scoring element fully visible. Each card must show at least one scoring element in full; more visible elements improve scoring.

D. Sky cannot cut through a scoring element. You may place a building or other artwork over another card’s sky. However, a sky area cannot cover only part of a scoring element.

E. Sky cannot cover the bottom of a visible building. A building may extend over another card’s sky, but it cannot appear to rise out of the sky because another card’s sky hides its lower portion.

Game End

The game ends when either: no city cards remain in the deck, you drop a card, or you choose to stop. Then score your city as follows:

1. 2 points for every visible card in your city.
2. 1 point for every two fully visible scoring elements (rounded down).
3. -2 points for every hidden card.
4. Earn points for completed bonuses.

Refer to the scoring chart in the rulebook to see how you did. There are three tiers based on your hand size: Intern, City Planner, and Planning Manager.

Tabletop Variant

For players who may not have the dexterity to play Downtown Las Palmas in hand, a friendly tabletop version is available with a few minor rule adjustments.

This variant gives you two face-up cards to choose from each turn. Add one to your city and refill the display, or discard one instead. Unlike the standard game, you cannot rearrange cards after placing them. If you accidentally move a placed card while adding another, return it to its original position before continuing.

Keep the city between the goal cards, although it may extend above them. Cards cannot cover or slide underneath the goals.

Scoring stays the same, but subtract two points for each discarded card and each card left in the deck. Check your score against the medium hand-size ranges.

Impressions

I’m always amazed by what game designers can conjure up with an eighteen-card game. The beautiful cityscape artwork in Downtown Las Palmas really drew me in, especially since I’ve always loved city-building games, thanks to SimCity.

After trying both the handheld version and the tabletop variant, one clear preference emerged for me: the tabletop version.

Downtown Las Palmas starts off fine, but once I had 6–8 cards in hand I began to struggle. My hand didn’t cooperate. My thumbs and fingers would sometimes lock up and cramp when I was building a higher skyline or trying to rearrange cards. It was uncomfortable and I just wanted to finish. It’s frustrating when that happens, especially when a dropped card ends the game, regardless of the player’s physical limitations. Maybe I was pushing myself too far to build what I wanted, or maybe it’s just 25+ years of typing catching up with me.

On the other hand, the tabletop variant fared much better for me. I actually found this mode more challenging (physical limitations excluded), because cards can’t be rearranged. This makes every decision tougher as you add to the city.

I accepted that it is OK to discard and take negative points in order to keep my neighborhood open for better options. Doing so usually put me in the mid-to-higher scoring tier.

The Final Brick

I had been really excited to try Downtown Las Palmas after Palm Island  was such a hit, but the physical limitations I encountered from my first game made play frustrating. The tabletop version worked better for me. But even then, I spent more time fixing cards that I accidentally shifted than deciding how to place new ones.

Downtown Las Palmas is a really neat idea, but I found it frustrating to play.

A couple of rules also needed clarification (found in some videos). That’s often true with Button Shy wallet games: the small-format rulebook lacked a couple of examples I needed to make my first game smoother.

This game can be family-friendly: for those with larger hands and a decent amount of dexterity. Scoring is simple, and the math is easy to calculate. But it will be a struggle for younger children due to the extreme dexterity needed. Definitely teenager-plus territory.

Even so, Downtown Las Palmas is perfect for travelers who want a quick game they can play anywhere, literally in the palm of their hand. Whether you’re waiting in the school pickup line, on a plane, or on the coach, it slips easily into any spare moment.

Ready to put your architectural skills to the test? Pick up a copy of Downtown Las Palmas from Button Shy Games or your friendly local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a promotional copy of Downtown Las Palmas from Button Shy Games for this review.