Hive

With no setting up to do, the game begins when the first piece is placed down. As the subsequent pieces are placed this forms a pattern that becomes the playing surface (the pieces themselves become the board). Unlike other such games, the pieces are never eliminated and not all have to be played. The object of the game is to totally surround your opponent's queen, while at the same time trying to block your opponent from doing likewise to your queen. The player to totally surround his opponent's queen wins the game.

Pylos

A simple design, but a good strategy game. Be the player that places the final ball at the top of the pyramid. Sounds simple enough, right?

Elk Fest

Players attempt to help their moose across a river by flicking wooden disks into position so as to create 'stepping stones' from one end of the table to the other. If you flick well, you'll be able to move your moose quicker than your opponent. But you must be careful not to make the gap too large, as the miniature wooden moose can only span a relatively small distance.

Rumis

Rumis Game, the Exciting Game of Three-Dimensional Strategy - Inspired by the architecture of the Inca, Rumis sharpens spatial awareness and critical thinking skills as players strategize to outwit their opponents while reconstructing historical Inca monuments of a pyramid, tower, stairs and wall. The player with the most stones showing from above wins!

Blokus

 is an abstract strategy game with transparent, Tetris-shaped, colored pieces that players are trying to play onto the board. The only caveat to placing a piece is that it may not lie adjacent to your other pieces, but instead must be placed touching at least one corner of your pieces already on the board.

Quoridor

This abstract strategy is surprisingly deep for its simple rules. The object of the game is to advance your pawn to the opposite edge of the board. On your turn you may either move your pawn, or place a wall. You may hinder your opponent with wall placement, but not completely block him off. Meanwhile he is trying to do the same to you. First pawn to reach the opposite side wins.

Ubongo Duel

Each player receives 21 puzzle tiles and a stack of puzzle sheets. Both players lay the puzzle tiles down in front of them. Rolling the 20 sided die determines which of the tiles are used in the specific rounds. The players then try to solve every puzzle sheet as quickly as possible by laying the appropriate tiles on it. The faster player to do this yells 'Ubongo!'. He/she moves his pawn one step forward on the scoring track. The first player to win five Ubongo duels wins the game.

Ingenious

The goal of the game is, through clever placement, to obtain points in the different symbol colours. Points are claimed by placing a piece into any open space such that the symbols on it lie next to already-placed pieces with the same symbol. So, for example, if a player places a piece with a purple circle on it such that it sits next to an unbroken line of four other purple circles already on the board, then the player scores four purple points. A newly placed symbol can lie next to at most five individual rows of symbols.

Make n Break

Building blocks for adults? In this fast-paced game, players must uncover and copy building plans of various difficulty, each showing 10 colored blocks in a particular arrangement, before the timer runs out. An advanced variant allows player to pass undesirable plans to their neighbor and take the one they would have drawn.

FITS

FITS (Fill In The Spaces) is essentially a multi-player Tetris. Each player has an inclined board on which they place different polyominoes, with three, four, or five squares. Cards are drawn from a pile to tell the players which piece to take. The pieces may be rotated and reversed before they slide down the inclined area to dock to other gaming pieces, but unlike Tetris cannot be slid horizontally once dropped. Scoring is based on quantity and configuration of squares left uncovered.

Batik

Each player has a set of wooden pieces in various shapes. The playing area is formed from two sheets of parallel Plexiglas. Players take turns dropping pieces into the gap until a piece cannot be wholly inserted. The owner of that piece loses the round, and forfeits the offending piece. A new round begins, with the winner of the previous round playing first. Play continues until one player has no pieces when it is their turn to move; they lose the game.

Magnet

An abstract game where players try to get their king to the middle of the board. Each player has 12 blocks, 11 of which can be promoted 1, 2, or 3 times, thus increasing their movement capability (the king cannot be promoted so don't promote all your other pieces, or you will give away your king's location). A "magnet", a black pawn, is placed on a gridded point and affects all of a player's pieces on lines radiating out from that point, moving them closer to the magnet. You can capture other pieces in this way, removing them from the board.

Ponte del Diavolo

In this tactical 2-player placement game players place wooden squares to build "islands" and then attempt to connect them with bridges. Sounds simple, but it's not. With strict rules governing island size and bridge placement, Ponte del Diavolo becomes a tight game of positioning.

Quarto!

has a 4x4 board and 16 pieces. Each piece has four dichotomous attributes: color, height, shape and consistency. So each piece is either black or white, tall or short, square or round, and hollow or solid. The object is to place the fourth piece in a row where all four pieces have at least one attribute in common. The twist is your opponent gets to choose the piece you place on the board every turn.

Quads

is a tile placement game for two players. The tiles have different combinations of colors (either black or silver) or lines (parallel or perpendicular to the tile edge) at each of their four edges. Players take turns placing a tile so that the colors or lines on each edge match that of adjacent tiles. The player who stops his or her opponent from being able to place a tile wins.

Khet

Khet (aka Deflexion) is a chess-like board game that has two built in lasers and movable Egyptian-themed game pieces that have embedded mirrors which can be positioned to bounce the laser light around the board and hit opponent pieces.

To play, players alternate moving their pieces around the board. Some pieces have mirrors and some do not. Bounding the board is a raised frame into which are built two low-power lasers, one for each player. The game pieces include a "pharaoh", obelisks, and pyramids with mirrors. After each move, a player must press the button on his/her laser. The beam bounces from mirror to mirror around the playing field. The challenge is to protect one's own pharaoh while maneuvering to "light up" the opposing player's pharaoh.

GIPF

GIPF is a strategic game for two players based on a classic concept: in turns, players introduce one piece into play until achieving four-in a-row. Players then remove their row and capture any of their opponent's pieces which extend that row. This principle of capturing pieces creates each time again completely changed situations on the board. The purpose is to form successive rows of at least 4 pieces, until the opponent has no piece left to bring into play.

Chess

Chess is a two-player, abstract strategy board game that represents medieval warfare on an 8x8 board with alternating light and dark squares. Opposing pieces, traditionally designated White and Black, are initially lined up on either side. Each type of piece has a unique form of movement and capturing occurs when a piece, via its movement, occupies the square of an opposing piece. Players take turns moving one of their pieces in an attempt to capture, attack, defend, or develop their positions. Chess games can end in checkmate, resignation, or one of several types of draws.

Checkers

Abstract strategy game where players move disc-shaped pieces across an 8 by 8 cross-hatched ("checker") board.
Pieces only move diagonally, and only one space at a time. If a player can move one of his pieces so that it "jumps" over an adjacent piece of their opponent and into an empty space, that player captures the opponent's disc. Jumping moves must be taken when possible, thereby creating a strategy game where players offer up jumps in exchange for setting up the board so that they jump even more pieces on their turn. A player wins by removing all of his opponent's pieces from the board or by blocking the opponent so that he has no more moves.

Tic Tac Toe

A very old game where each player attempts to place three of their markers (usually an X or an O) in a line on a 3x3 grid.

Abalone

This beautiful and functional board has room for two teams of large marbles. Players take turns pushing the marbles around the board, with the goal of pushing six of the opposing player's marbles off the board. The central idea is that a column of marbles has weight given by the number of marbles in line. Someone will need to push with a heavier group of marbles in order to push the column along that axis. However, with six possible directions, it's difficult to defend yourself perfectly.

Tzaar

TZAAR is a game about making choices. Both players have 30 pieces, divided in three types: 6 Tzaars, 9 Tzarras and 15 Totts. The 3 types of pieces form a trinity: They cannot exist without each other. The aim is either to make the opponent run out of one of the three types of pieces or to put him in a position in which he cannot capture anymore. The tricky question the players will have to ask themselves on each of their turns is: Shall I make myself stronger or my opponent weaker? Meaning: Will you capture an opponent’s piece and make him weaker, or will you jump on top of one of your own pieces and make yourself stronger? If you choose to jump on top of your own pieces too often, you will probably leave your opponent with too many pieces on the board. On the other hand, if you capture too often, you may end up with pieces that are not strong enough at the end of the game. What to do? Up to you to decide!

Punct

PUNCT, the fifth released game by design in project GIPF, is a connection game.
The goal is to connect two opposite sides of the board. A player's turn consists of either bringing a new piece into play or moving one already on the board.

Dvonn

DVONN is played on an elongated hexagonal board, with 23 white, 23 black and 3 red DVONN-pieces. In the beginning the board is empty. The players first place the DVONN-pieces on the board and next their own pieces. Then they start stacking pieces on top of each other. A single piece may be moved 1 space in any direction, a stack of two pieces may moved two spaces, etc. A stack must always be moved as a whole and a move must always end on top of another piece or stack. If pieces or stacks lose contact with the DVONN-pieces, they must be removed from the board. The game ends when no more moves can be made. The players put the stacks they control on top of each other and the one with the highest stack is the winner.