Jingle Jangle (2010)

Designed for the 2010 Christmas Print and Play Game Design Contest, Jingle Jangle is a domino-like placement game which scores points for arranging tiles into the appropriate patterns.

Jingle Jangle uses a special set of 30 tiles with two bells on them called jangles. The game can be played by two, three or four players and the size of the hand varies with the number of players.
• Two players get 14 jangles each, with two jangles left over.
• Three players get 9 jangles each, with three jangles left over.
• Four players get 7 jangles each, with two jangles left over.
In the case of three left over jangles, one is put away out of the game and not exposed, to leave two jangles in the starter. The starter is the pair of left over jangles. These are turned face up and put side by side to make a square in the middle of the table.

Jangles are placed on the table, vertically or horizontally, played out from the starter square. The idea is to build a “crossword puzzle” grid of repeated color patterns in the rows and columns.

Any set of two or more adjacent jangles ending in a row or column is called a group. The jangles must be played so that the bells in each group form a (repeating) pattern. The possible patterns are:

• a single color repeated, example: red, red, red or
• two colors alternating, example: red, blue, red, blue, red, blue or
• three colors in a repeating cycle, example: red, blue, yellow, red, blue, yellow, red, blue, yellow or
• four colors in a repeating cycle, example: red, blue, yellow, green, red, blue, yellow, green or
• or all five colors in a repeating cycle, example: red, blue, yellow, green, purple, red, blue, yellow, green, purple
As soon as a group has a repeated color in it, or contains all five colors, the pattern for that group is fixed, and future jangles that extend the group must conform to the established pattern. As the layout grows, it is possible for a row or column to contain two or more groups, separated by spaces.

Each jangle must be placed so that it correctly extends two or more groups, but you are not allowed to create a set of four jangles side by side in the layout, touching along their long sides.

If a player thinks he cannot play, he exposes his hand. The other players can then (if they wish) point out any plays he might not have seen. In this case the player must play a tile. If more than one possible play is pointed out, the player has the option of picking the one he likes. If no play is pointed out, then the player scores zero and places no jangle. He is not out of the game, but has to wait for his next turn to see if he can then find a play.

The game ends one of two ways: 1) When one player places all his jangles. The other players who started after him get to place one more jangle, however. 2) When no player can place a jangle.

Scores are counted and added as the jangles are placed. Each bell on a jangle is worth 5 points, The score is the product of the new lengths of all extended groups. If the jangle used to extend the group is a double, then the score is also doubled.

All players lose points for the jangles remaining in their hands when the game is ended. Doubles are -5 points and all other jangles are -25 points.