Spinca (2011)

Spinca is a game that embraces the Shibumi ideal that less is more. It is a 2 or 3-player game and can be played with a Shibumi set. The winning conditions vary slightly for the 2 and 3-player games; however, the game play is the same for both versions. Naturally, team play is also possible.

At game’s end, a pyramid of 29 marbles is created, which resembles an Inca temple. The peak level is not used.

The board starts empty. Players choose a color and take the corresponding marbles. Player turns proceed clockwise. Herein, the order is assumed to be White, Black, and possibly Red.

Starting with White, using the phase order below:
1. A player may move any free marble on the board to any adjacent (orthogonal or diagonal) hole or 2x2 platform which is on the same level as the marble.

A free marble is any marble that does not support two or more marbles in the level above it, and will not cause to move any marble that was moved or placed on the previous player’s turn. This includes tumble-downs. And,

Any marble that was relocated, tumbled down or was placed is temporarily locked for the following player’s turn. The virtual Shibumi Sandbox implementation at igGameCenter at http://www.iggamecenter.com/, has moved marbles marked with a plus sign. Nice and convenient. For physical game board play, players will have to keep tract of their last moves by recording them.

When the Inca temple is completed, each player sums the sizes of the smallest of his or her connected groups on each of the four faces of the pyramid. Each of the four faces will yield only one number. For example, if on one face of the temple, a player had group sizes of 1, 1 and 3, the player would only score 1 for that face. The marbles on the pyramid’s rising edges are considered part of both of the adjacent faces making them strategically important because they are potentially counted twice!. However, an isolated edge marble can ruin a player’s score.

For a 3-player game, the player with the highest sum wins. If there is a two-way tie, the player with the lowest sum wins. If there is a three way tie, remove the outer faces to reveal the inner pyramid. Players score the inner pyramid by counting all their visible marbles once each. The player with the highest inner total wins. If there is a two-way tie for the inner totals, the player with the lowest total wins.