Lajes do Reino: a medieval domino that does not look like domino

The brief was a simple medieval domino, with rats against ever-harder bosses, something like the road-building game Saboteur but without looking like domino. The result is Lajes do Reino: the rats build a road of crest tiles to the gate of the cat bosses’ castle.

The rules

Underneath it is Mexican Train: each side builds its own road, the rats from the bottom to the gate and the boss from the top to the camp. Matching the crest on the tile with the one on the road opens the way. Roads can turn corners, because straight-only roads locked the game. There is rubble that blocks the path, crossings (the double tiles), bumps between roads and a locked board, where whoever is closer to the goal wins.

Bosses and the blacksmith

• +Eight bosses with their own powers: Foreman, Black Cat, Wizard, Frog, Beaver, Bandit, Archer and Skeleton. After the eighth, the sieges are endless.
• +A blacksmith with 6 special tiles, and you take up to 3 of them into each siege.
• +A simple bridge duel mode.

The game was designed first for phones in portrait, with the tile bag at the bottom and forgiving touch (the nearest glowing square counts). On a computer the bag sits on the right. Difficulty is still being validated: a robot that plays like a person wins about 95% on the first siege and about 10% on the eighth, and it still needs testing with real players.

Lajes do ReinogameMedieval domino: the rats build a road of crest tiles to the gate of the cat bosses’ castle.see page →