Game Review: Triangulations

Sometimes game design involves taking ideas from other games and using them in ways unseen before. It would be too much to ask for game concepts built from the ground up all the time, but just as how two cooks can make two different dishes out of the same set of ingredients the key to this sort of synthesis is in how to bring the themes together. The less likely the concepts look like they go well together the more striking it is if the end result works beyond expectation.

In simple terms, Triangulations combines manipulation rummy games with strategic resource collecting based on grid geometry.  You start with a hand, a grid and two pawns, the goal is to have all the right cards to lay off in sets and runs. You have two options and both end with your hand growing, get used to this as the game ends once the supply runs out. The options are moving a pawn the same number of spaces as the card value underneath then drawing a card from the supply(you start the game with a delay of two jokers before you start drawing); and taking both cards from the opposite corners of the rectangle the two pawns make(the delay jokers are reset).

This is a game filled to the brim with long-term considerations: Every move you make has a consequence you will have to deal with. The freedom of movement given by high-value cards is rather deceptive; the possible landing spots are already based on whether the starting card is even or not. If you have a specific card in mind do note that you will have to take another one if it's on the grid, and now you have to consider both pawn tactics and foresight when it comes to the extra cards; it might not be until the game ends that a card will prove itself useful.

On their own, manipulation rummy and using corner coordinates on a board can't possibly mix but the main idea in play here is the latter, the former a result of putting a purpose to the mechanism. The mix works well with no part feeling out of place; rummy is rarely this strategic.

The basic card grid is 5 cards by 5 cards but other grids are possible and designers John and Liam Kean even give a few ideas.