''Ubongo'' is a

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

developed by

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

-born

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

game designer Grzegorz Rejchtman.Game rules
at Kosmos It originally appeared as ''Pyramidens Portar'' by the Swedish publisher

Kärnan Kärnan (, literally ''The Core'') is a medieval tower in Helsingborg, Scania, in southern Sweden. It is the only part remaining of a larger Danish fortress which, along with the fortress Kronborg on the opposite bank of the Øresund, controlled ...

and won the Swedish '' Årets spel'' prize in 2003.Pyramidens Portar
at

BoardGameGeek BoardGameGeek (BGG) is an online forum for board gaming hobbyists and a game database that holds reviews, images and videos for over 125,600 different tabletop games, including European-style board games, wargames, and card games. In addition t ...

Winners of the ''Årets spel'' prize
The game was later released in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in 2005 as ''Ubongo'' by the publisher

Kosmos Cosmos generally refers to an orderly or harmonious system. Cosmos or Kosmos may also refer to: Space * ''Cosmos 1'', a privately funded solar sail spacecraft project * Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS), a Hubble Space Telescope Treasury Project ...

and got 4th place at the German board game competition and was among the finalists in the

International Gamers Award The International Gamers Awards (IGAs) is an award for strategy board games and historical simulation games. The IGAs "were created to recognize outstanding games and designers, as well as the companies that publish them. The awards are truly i ...

. The game is for 2 to 4 players of ages 8 and above, and takes about 20 to 30 minutes. ''Ubongo'' is an abstract

puzzle A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to find the solution of the puzzle. There are differe ...

game, based on a pentamino variant, reminiscent of a combination of

Tangram The tangram () is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat polygons, called ''tans'', which are put together to form shapes. The objective is to replicate a pattern (given only an outline) generally found in a puzzle book using all seven pi ...

and ''

Tetris ''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...

''. The game includes a simplified version with fewer pieces, for children and beginners. ''Ubongo'' is well suited for a game for the whole family, because its mechanics entertain both children and adults. Solving puzzles is entertaining by itself and provides excitement when combined with competition with other players. The word "ubongo" means "brain" in

Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language officially used in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes. * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa. * Swahili culture, the culture of the Swahili p ...

, a language spoken in

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and

Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...

Theme

The

cardboard Cardboard is a generic term for heavy paper-based products. Their construction can range from a thick paper known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard, made of multiple plies of material. Natural cardboards can range from grey to light brown ...

player boards and the main board with the

jewels A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, semiprecious stone, or simply gem) is a piece of mineral crystal which, when cut or polished, is used to make jewellery, jewelry or other adornments. Certain Rock (geology), rocks (such ...

are coloured in strong earthy colours, on a black and red background, with the simple, clear motives themed after

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n or

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n Aborigine culture, featuring animals found in the

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

and on the

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

. Jewels made of translucent, colourful

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...

are used as prizes. File:Ubongo-board.svg, An example of a player board File:Ubongo-tiles.jpg, Playing pieces File:Ubongo-diamonds.jpg, Jewels

Rules

The game includes 36 cardboard pieces, of which four have to be used to completely cover the shape on the player board. On the other side of the player board is a simpler version, which has only to be covered with three pieces. Each player receives a player board, and a throw of a die decides which four pieces have to be used to cover the shape. The player must then use the pieces to completely cover up the shape without overlapping the pieces. An

hourglass An hourglass (or sandglass, sand timer, or sand clock) is a device used to measure the passage of time. It comprises two glass bulbs connected vertically by a narrow neck that allows a regulated flow of a substance (historically sand) from the ...

is used to limit the time to cover the shape. Each player to manage to cover up the shape in time receives the right to take jewels from the main board. Where the player can take jewels from depends on his/her rank among the players to complete their shape. Then the player cards are redistributed for the next turn. At the end of the game, the player who has the most jewels of a specific single colour wins the game.

References

The Finnish version of Ubongo
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224192316/http://www.competo.fi/product_details.php?p=91 , date=2016-12-24 at Competo Board games introduced in 2003

Theme

Rules

References

External links