This game was my entry in the Shared Pieces Game Design Contest, run by the Abstract Gaming Society and About Boardgames. Not a winner, but it made the top eight (of over 50 enties).
Components
- 1 4x4 square grid board
- 2 differently colored tokens, one for each player
- 8 doors (dominoes on-edge, Settlers of Catan roads or the like)
Object
Trap your opponent's token.
Setup
Arrange the board as follows, with the two tokens (represented by the blue and yellow circles) being placed within the squares, and the doors being placed on the edges of the grid squares as indicated.
Door Movement
Doors are located on the edges of the grid squares. They may be swung from either end, ending their movement 90 degrees away from where they started.
Example:
Doors may swing into positions that lie on the very edges of the board.
The doors are shared pieces. They do not belong to either player, therefore either player may move any door on their turn.
Token Movement
Tokens are moved in one of two ways:
- Simple movement of one space orthagonally (not diagonally) into an adjacent space.
- Tokens can also be pushed by a door swinging into them.
Example:
Simple movement is only possible if it is not blocked by a door and the destination square is not occupied by an opponent's token. Similarly, a swinging door can only push a single token. If the path of the token is blocked by another door, if the destination square of the token is already occupied by another token, or if the door would push the token off of the board, then the door is blocked from swinging in that direction.
Gameplay
Each player must perform two actions on his turn:
- The first action must move the active player's token, either by simple movement, or by sweeping the token into a space by swinging a door.
- The second action may be:
- A single-space orthagonal movement of the active player's token.
OR
- A door swing that may or may not result in the movement of either player's token. If a door was moved in the first action, the same door may not be moved again in the second action.
Ending the game
A player loses if he is unable to move his token on the first action of his turn because it is blocked by doors and/or the opponent's token.