OctagO
Designed in collaboration with Charles Pratt and JooYoun Paek
Octago is a strategic generative board game. It combines the traditional Go game and octagon-shaped tiles. The objective of the game is for the user to destroy other player's 'branches' while preserving his or her own. Starting from a single tile, the game board grows generatively as the playing goes on. While the board grows, players can experience the beauty of the rule system.
Rule 1: One blank, 3 buds
- Each player selects a color and draws three tiles of the same color. These tiles are your ‘buds’.
- One blank tile is set in the center of the table.
Rule 2: Draw random tiles by taking turns
- Moving clock-wise, players take turns drawing random tiles, and connecting them to the tiles already on the table.
-To connect tiles, they must be placed next to each other, with at least one side of each tile meeting evenly
-Tiles of one color can only connect to tiles of the same color.
- Blank tiles, those without color, may only connect to a color once.
- Players play tiles no matter what color, even if they are not their own.
Rule 3: Encircle another player's branch
- Networks of tiles that are all the same color are called ‘branches’.
- If a ‘branch’ cannot grow, for instance if it has been encircled, it dies.
- If a ‘branch’ grows too large, if it reaches seven tiles, it dies.
- A dead ‘branch’ is left on the table, but cannot be expanded.
Rule 4: Play buds to restart a branch
- When a player’s branch dies, that player must immediately play one of their ‘buds’.
- A player’s ‘bud’ can only be played when one of that player’s ‘branches’ dies.
- A ‘bud’ can connect to a tile of any color.
- After a bud has been played, the normal turn rotation is resumed.
Rule 5: Player with lasting buds wins!
- If a player’s ‘branch’ dies and they have run out of ‘buds’, they are out of the game.
- Tiles of a player’s color who has lost may still be drawn and played by other players.
- If there are no other players, the remaining player is declared the ‘winner’.
NOTES :
There are forty-eight tiles of each color, and twenty-four blank tiles.
To play a longer or larger game, increase the number of buds and size of branches.