In Island Fortress, you play a master builder chosen by Governor Cortland Hansen to help construct the mighty Fort Aldenford using the penal colony on Alcott Island. Your goal is to become the most distinguished architect with the help of your Taskmaster, Workers, and the Governor himself!

In the game, all players use identical decks of five Role Cards to plot their actions such as purchasing workers, building the wall, collecting money from the treasury, and more. In addition to scoring points for having built the majority of blocks on each row of the fortress wall, players can also gain various bonuses for completing favors for the Governor by building the walls in specific ways, following the Governor's preferred patterns.

Island Fortress, formerly known as Huang Di and sporting a Great Wall of China theme, won the first ever ProtoSlam competition held by Cambridge Games Factory in August 2006 and is the first published game by designer Bryan Johnson.