The creativity of toddlers with board games

Slowly but surely, I am continuing to expose our son to board games. At this point, it's concentration level still pretty much keeps us in the category of dexterity games, matching games and simple versions of Slap Jack. Ah, to be one of those parents whose children have mastered Carcassonne with the farmer scoring at six months and out trade their parents in Catan at a year and a half :D

Still, at this point, when I introduce him to a lot of games, the pieces are just toys to him. Games are just a category of toys to him. (Wait a second! Games really are just a category of toys! He's further along than I thought!)

With that in mind, the way that he plays with them as toys can be close to how they are played as games. Katamino, which is basically a set of three-dimensional pentaminos, has long been something I've let him play with. However, in the last couple months, he has started to try and fit them on the wooden board like a puzzle, which is literally one of the ways to play Katamino. (Seriously, it's a great game if you like puzzling things out)

Also, with a heavy heart full of fear, I let him at Blokus Trigon, which is my favorite version of the game (I've gotten rid of the original version awhile ago) After he realized that the pieces will fit into the slots on the board, he began trying to fill the board with the pieces, which is the solitaire variant of the game. I'm now thinking of getting him a used copy of the original game to mess around with. 

It is interesting watching him play with different kinds of games. Quite frankly, with all the different games that you can play with Looney Pyramids, I wouldn't be surprised if he's actually played some by accident. And watching him play with Piece Pack has made me wonder if I could make a version of That's Life with the pieces. Of course, I don't need to since I own it but it was an interesting thought exercise.

My favorite Blokuses

In earlier blog, I wrote that I consider Blokus to be an important game. It's a simple abstract with deep choices that's had real mainstream success. I think it's a game that will still be played twenty years from now. However, I also wrote that I prefer Blokus Trigon and Travel Blokus to the original. So much that they are still in my collection and the original is not.

In the original game, each color starts out in the corners and work their way towards the center. It takes a few turns for any kind of conflict to get going. And you have to use all four colors. Otherwise, there will be too much open space. In two players games, each player uses two colors. With three players, you take turns playing with the neutral color. Or, better yet, don't play three players.

Travel Blokus or Blokus Duo solves these issues by being strictly for two players and having the starting positions near the center of the board. Instead of a leisurely series of opening moves, you get a knife fight from the start. And the smaller board makes that knife fight happen in the proverbial phone booth. It's a much tighter, more ruthless game than its parent.

When I first saw Blokus Trigon with its hexagonal board and pieces made of triangles instead of squares, I thought it was just a gimick. It took me literally one play to completely revise that opinion.

Like Travel Blokus, the starting positions are close to the center, allowing conflict right at the start. And there are multiple starting positions, adding to replay values. 

The triangular shapes create more porous barriers than the square shapes in the other Blokus games. This makes blocking harder but it also makes for more interesting plays.

But the real treat of Blokus Trigon is that it is a really strong three-player game. With three players, you don't use the outer ring of spaces. That's all it takes to create a claustrophobic playing area. Blokus Trigon doesn't just play three players. It is the one of the strongest three-player abstracts I have found.

I think that, for the world in general, Blokus is important for being a modern classic. But for folks like me who already liked a abstracts, it's important for being creating a model that helped create even better games.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16395/blokus-duo

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21550/blokus-trigon