Neonimo

Available here: Neonimo App

Twitter: @PlayNeonimo

Mailing List : Link

Ben Costrell - Design & Programming

Chris WIlliams - Design & Programming

Edanur Kuntman - Art

Jack Schlesinger - Audio Design & Programming

Neonimo is a geometric real-time strategy game for iOS devices. Players build a path using Tetris-like pieces in order to connect from their home base to their opponent's to win. Claim neutral tech buildings for bonus effects, form special patterns to build buildings with economic benefits, and disrupt the opponent's plans by destroying their opponent's path. 

Our goal with Neonimo was to make a deep but digestible competitive game that would combine the strategic nuances of RTS games like Starcraft with the inherent aesthetic pleasure of forming shapes in abstract games such as Tetris. We were inspired by the game Blokus, a tabletop abstract geometric territory claiming game. In Blokus, players also place Tetris-like pieces (polyominoes) in a connected fashion in order to traverse the board. There are very few rules in Blokus - primarily just the placement restriction: each piece must touch one of your previous pieces on the corner, but not on any edge. This rule ends up creating a lot of interesting considerations. Each piece is imbued with strategic meaning based on its geometry. Long reaching pieces can be seen as "aggressive", helping to expand quickly into new territory. Irregularly shaped pieces can be thought of as "economic", providing lots of corner space to play off of.  We wanted to double down on this idea of geometrically embedded meaning, while expanding the strategic depth by incorporating economic gameplay elements inspired by RTS games.

In Neonimo, there are tradeoffs embedded into every play. There is a tradeoff between extending your reach and building up at your current location. Extending your reach allows you to claim structures, territory, and advance towards victory. Building up lets you form the shapes needed to place buildings, which improve your economy. You can also choose to extend your reach towards the different neutral structures, straight towards the opponent's base, in a manner that threatens to disrupt the opposing road, or circumvent it entirely. You can choose to save up attack resource for disruptive or defensive play.

The rule of connection in Neonimo is that every newly placed piece must connect back to that player's home base. This allows for players to cut each other off, creating the possibility of big swings that make for dramatic moments. But getting cut off isn't the end - your pieces remain on the board, and if you reconnect to them, you reactivate them and turn the tides right back.