Unsurprisingly, these games have some common features that make them easy to classify. The usual way of classifying is by mechanic and goal, but these are not the only notable features in a game.
When looking for games, I also look at the material needed to be able to play the games. One of these aspects is the playing surface where pieces can be played on, generally called the board. Practically this is represented with a flat surface an either has a regular tessellation on its board or an irregular shape.
Even with boards that are theoretically three-dimensional, the geometry used for planes is still planar. Easily emulated are cubes and other rectangular prisms, cylinders and toruses. Antipod uses two boards to emulate a spherical surface, while ConHex uses a geometry similar to a stack of cannonballs, as pointed out by Cameron Browne.
That doesn't stop anyone from actually creating special three-dimensional boards or avenues to enable three-dimensional play without the need to visualize it using a bunch of two-dimensional surfaces. There have been rulesets for playing three-dimensional chess from Star Trek, and the Shibumi game system facilitates stacking, a key feature of the system.
While physical features might give depth to some games, this does not mean the game itself is in a 3D board. Connect Four can be played on a flat board if you keep in mind that the pieces have to be placed on the bottom most empty space.
This kind of board can have its shape already set or be freely formed. Set boards are those which shapes and layouts are preset and cannot be violated, such as a checkerboard or Go board. Malleable shapes are set randomly or arbitrarily, and can either be set shape and malleable layout, (Proteus) or both shape and layout are changeable (Limit). Most abstract strategy games suggest playing with the shape of the board, because why not?
But why bother with a board? There are some games that don't need a board, not counting some card games or party games. Technically this means that the board is infinite in size, but practically the board goes as far as the table or floor goes.
This can also mean that the board is simply fluid, with some games setting a border limit, usually in units, this means that while there is no board, as the game progresses, the borders are slowly being drawn.
Boardless games are usually tile games, or use tiles for the gameplay, which can also be along the lines of the malleable boards mentioned earlier. But not having a board implies free terrain goodness, placing anything on a space and going crazy. Some wargames do have that, but for abstract games having such a feature means removing any spatial factors when playing.
Whether a board is a factor for your game choice is totally up to you, the only limit in board games is yourself.
When looking for games, I also look at the material needed to be able to play the games. One of these aspects is the playing surface where pieces can be played on, generally called the board. Practically this is represented with a flat surface an either has a regular tessellation on its board or an irregular shape.
Even with boards that are theoretically three-dimensional, the geometry used for planes is still planar. Easily emulated are cubes and other rectangular prisms, cylinders and toruses. Antipod uses two boards to emulate a spherical surface, while ConHex uses a geometry similar to a stack of cannonballs, as pointed out by Cameron Browne.
That doesn't stop anyone from actually creating special three-dimensional boards or avenues to enable three-dimensional play without the need to visualize it using a bunch of two-dimensional surfaces. There have been rulesets for playing three-dimensional chess from Star Trek, and the Shibumi game system facilitates stacking, a key feature of the system.
While physical features might give depth to some games, this does not mean the game itself is in a 3D board. Connect Four can be played on a flat board if you keep in mind that the pieces have to be placed on the bottom most empty space.
This kind of board can have its shape already set or be freely formed. Set boards are those which shapes and layouts are preset and cannot be violated, such as a checkerboard or Go board. Malleable shapes are set randomly or arbitrarily, and can either be set shape and malleable layout, (Proteus) or both shape and layout are changeable (Limit). Most abstract strategy games suggest playing with the shape of the board, because why not?
But why bother with a board? There are some games that don't need a board, not counting some card games or party games. Technically this means that the board is infinite in size, but practically the board goes as far as the table or floor goes.
This can also mean that the board is simply fluid, with some games setting a border limit, usually in units, this means that while there is no board, as the game progresses, the borders are slowly being drawn.
Boardless games are usually tile games, or use tiles for the gameplay, which can also be along the lines of the malleable boards mentioned earlier. But not having a board implies free terrain goodness, placing anything on a space and going crazy. Some wargames do have that, but for abstract games having such a feature means removing any spatial factors when playing.
Whether a board is a factor for your game choice is totally up to you, the only limit in board games is yourself.
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