Game Review: Actiles

How much depth can you cram in the smallest game space? Abstract gamers have dabbled in the idea of a simple game that hides a lot of complexity within. Simple can mean easy rules such as Go, Chess or Hex; or in materials, e.g. Arimaa(which can be played with a chess set), the games of the Shibumi game system, and other games that you can print and play.

It's a daunting task to shrink the space and still have depth, so with just four tiles, it's interesting how Cameron Browne and Stephen Taverner could make it work with Actiles.

From the get go, trying to explain how the game plays out is already a headache, so we'll start with the general concept of both versions before tackling them individually. 

Actiles consists of four square tiles, with each edge containing a shape and a color, a condition and an action. At the start of a turn a player can either move a tile without rotating or rotate a tile without moving (provided the tile is at a different orientation at the end of a move).

The action should keep the four tiles in a single connected shape. Once an action is done, the tile that moved or rotated, called the active tile, has created some new conditions with the tile/s next to it. You continue the turn with the available choices made on the side/s of the active tile, if the condition is fulfilled.

E.g. you can only rotate 90 degrees clockwise if the condition of the tile is "rotate 90 deg clockwise if same shape" and the touching shapes are similar, disregarding color. For a better explanation check this post.

The two versions are Actiles 20 and Actiles Loops. Loops simply has a goal of completing a closed square or circle, of course, players choose which shape they'll go for. It's not necessary to connect the colors, but if you want it hard, go for it.

20 on the other hand comes from the goal score, 20. Scoring actions are included on the tiles. To be able to play the next action, you need to score enough points, starting at 1 point and increasing by one as subsequent actions are played. These are just quick descriptions of the games, going any deeper will be a pain.

At least they did create a complex game with only four tiles. Having all information open and being able to calculate all possible moves makes this a great example of what an abstract game can do.

Limiting moves that one can do creates some interesting situations that can make or break your chance of winning. In these kinds of games, any advantages disappear as quickly as they appear, as chains form chains that can tip the scales so many times.

Sadly, this is a game that is not fit for beginners; the sheer complexity of the rules might take a while to understand, even in practice. If you're up to the challenge, go for it, this small beast of a game can be tamed.

Four tiles may not look much, but this game stretched what they can do to their limit, this microgame is anything but micro.