Gridopolis creator Dave Schultze loves 3-D designs. While teaching industrial design and 3-D visualization at OTIS College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, he also authored nine courses on the subject for lynda.com.
It’s Schultze’s love of design that inspired him to create Gridopolis, a build-and-play game in 3-D. The game is an intriguing mashup of LEGOs and Chinese checkers, with a touch of modern board gaming rules thrown in the mix.
When you first encounter Gridopolis on the tabletop you’ll wonder if you’ve traveled to the future, watching a game that looks like it was created for your favorite sci-fi series. You may conjure up images of the tri-dimensional chess game that Kirk and Spock used to play on the original Star Trek.
How the Game Works
The basic game is similar to Chinese checkers in that you’re trying to get your pieces to the opposite side of the board. Take one of your pawns and move it one space. If your opponent’s pawn is in front of you, you can jump over and capture it. Which removes it from the game. If you reach your opponent’s home row. Flip your pawn over and it becomes a king, which is allowed two moves per turn.
Be the last player standing and you win the game. You also have the option of playing a timed game, with the player with the most points winning the game. Your pieces on the board and the pieces you’ve captured score different amounts of points).
Included in the game are several additional pieces such as the hyper-pad, which allows you teleport from one hyper-pad to another, the blocker box, which eliminates a space on the board, and the add-a-pad, which gives you the option of adding a space to the board. The game evolves as you see fit.
Where You Can Play and Buy It
Gridopolis features bright, beautiful, and sturdy pieces. This is all attached to a multi-level board that can be reconfigured to any level of gamer. The best part is that the rules are easy to learn and pick up. And with its three-dimensional game play and customizable options, veteran gamers will find new challenges laid out by Gridopolis.
This is, in fact, the best feature of Gridopolis: it’s a box full of possibilities. You can take everything apart and rebuild it any way you want. . The instruction manual is brief but contains suggestions for setups and how to play. The rules won’t constrain your gameplay experience though. It’s not just a game. It’s a building set that the whole family can enjoy.
The Gridopolis Kickstarter has already met its funding goal and the campaign ends August 22, 2019. For your own copy, visit the campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gridopolis/gridopolis
Thanks to Gridopolis Games for providing a review copy of Gridopolis.
Ruel Gaviola is a regular contributor to Geek & Sundry, The Five By, iSlaytheDragon, and other sites. His name rhymes with Superman’s Kryptonian name. You can find him talking about board games on Twitter or Instagram.
Read more about our reviews of table-top games here at That Hashtag Show.
