Gridopolis  Common Ground Games

Gridopolis

Common Ground Games

  • $30.00
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Gridopolis is the world's first 3D strategy game ─ and system.

Gridopolis is an innovative and award-winning 3D strategy game that is ALSO a flexible and extendable game system. The amount it flexes or extends is up to you. 

Use any of our published blueprints (up to three and counting) to build your grid-set and start the game. The same rules apply to any configuration of grid-set. There is nothing else like it!

With two years of research and development so far, the game has already been tested and played by industry professionals, reviewers, parents, gamers, and lots of enthusiastic kids.

Gridopolis is simple and fun to learn. We use rules you probably already know from classic games like checkers, chess, and even tic-tac-toe. Except we are now playing in three dimensions! In those other games, you might have one or two possible moves with each piece. In Gridopolis, you can easily have more than ten places to move!

The system is modular. There are only seven total parts. Just three are needed to build your 3D board, known as the ‘grid-set.’ You then play in three dimensions. This ability is a major innovation in tabletop games.

The game is dynamic. Each player gets extra parts at the beginning of a game. During the game, you can either move or build. That means the grid-set expands (and contracts) during gameplay! The grid-set you start with is not the grid-set you end up with. It's another innovation.

Building your Grid-Set is fast and easy. It takes no more than ten minutes the first time. Future games will take even less time because you can keep most of the parts connected when stored.

Two-player game in progress.

 

THE BASIC GOAL 

In Gridopolis, the objective is to eliminate your opponents' player markers. You do this by jumping over them. Easy! Only now, we are playing in 3D. You can attack from above, below, and at crazy angles. You can also play a timed game by tracking points.

HOW TO PLAY

Every player marker starts out as a pawn and can only move one pad at a time. You can go in any direction as long as it’s away from your starting / home row. So, feel free to move right, left, up, down, and diagonally across multiple levels. In most flat board games, your piece may have only one ─ or two ─ possible moves. Not with Gridopolis!

You can also move with our teleporter, called the hyper-pad. Land on one to teleport to any other hyper-pad ─ all in the same move.

Another Gridopolis innovation is dynamic play. Before a game, each player gets extra building parts. You can use these to build at any time. So, when it’s your turn, you can either move or build. 

The first build move is called the add-a-pad. This expands the grid set, either horizontally or vertically. Each new pad is now a legal place to move. The second build move is called the blocker-box. This shrinks the grid set when you place it on an empty pad. That pad is now out of order for the rest of the game.

Once you know the rules, you can then play on any other grid-set designs. If you are feeling creative or ambitious, go ahead and design your original grid-set design and then test it out! You'll be surprised how flexible the rules are with different designs. 

project video thumbnail

PART REVIEW

Each set comes with 217 total pieces. That’s enough for two, three, or four players. But, there are only seven unique parts in the entire Gridopolis system. This makes things easy to learn ─ and fun to play.  

The box is stuffed with parts! It weighs almost four pounds and measures 17.5 x 10.5 x 3.0 inches.
The box is stuffed with parts! It weighs almost four pounds and measures 17.5 x 10.5 x 3.0 inches.

For building, there are three parts. 

  • The pad ─ where all of the action happens. [63 in the box]
  • The link is for connecting pads → horizontally. [88]
  • The post is for connecting pads → using the link → vertically.  [16]

There are three parts called nodes. These modify how a pad works. 

  • The kingerizer marks your home row. And, allows your opponents to turn their pawn into a king ─ if they make it!  [12 in the box]
  • The hyper-pad is for teleportation. [6]
  • And, the blocker-box is for shrinking the grid-set. [8]

Finally, we have the marker. It’s for moving, jumping, and otherwise playing on the 3D grid-set. [12 in the box]

FLEXIBILITY

One example of flexibility is our new grid-set designs, which we call blueprints. Using the exact same rules, you can play Gridopolis on completely different designs. So far, we have the Matrix, Twisted Tower, and Super-Cube. More are in development. All are available for free on our website download page.

CUSTOMIZATION

Customization may be the ultimate challenge for those interested gamer geeks. If you’re up for it, feel free to experiment in the Gridopolis game design laboratory. Game designer lesson plans coming soon.

All of these designs can be made with the parts in the box
All of these designs can be made with the parts in the box

 Once you’ve developed your own Grid-Set Blueprint, send it to us for review. If your design is selected, we will publish it and give you full designer credit. Check out the website for more details on how to get involved.


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