Game with players competing for points and avoiding obstacles

Abstract

Game apparatus including tiles, movers, and/or player boards, and methods of game play suitable for use with the same. Some embodiments have a plurality of tiles that are adapted to be placed into a plurality of stacks. Some tiles may optionally include layer indicia adapted to indicate a starting location for each tile in the tile stacks.

1 . An apparatus for playing a game, comprising: 
 a plurality of tiles, each tile having a first face that includes layer indicia, each tile also having a second face,    the tiles being adapted to be placed in tile stacks within a plurality of spaces in a playing area, such that tiles having common layer indicia are placed into a common location in each tile stack and in a predefined order.    
   
   
       2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the tiles are adapted to be individually moved among: 
 a hidden state in which the first face is disposed face-up atop a tile stack;    a revealed state in which the second face is disposed face-up atop a tile stack; and    a removed state in which the tile is removed from the tile stack.    
   
   
       3 . The apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein the second face includes one of a plurality of game indicia.  
   
   
       4 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein the game indicia includes a plurality of gem indicia and wherein, in the removed state, tiles having gem indicia are adapted to be placed in one of a plurality of player holding areas.  
   
   
       5 . The apparatus of  claim 4 , further comprising a player board for each player, the player boards each being adapted to receive one or more tiles, wherein the player holding areas include the player boards.  
   
   
       6 . The apparatus of  claim 5 , wherein the player boards each include a plurality of spaces that are each adapted to receive one or more tiles.  
   
   
       7 . The apparatus of  claim 6 , wherein the spaces are arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns on each player board.  
   
   
       8 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein an equal number of tiles include each layer indicia.  
   
   
       9 . A method of playing a game, comprising: 
 providing a plurality of tiles, each tile having game indicia that include a plurality of gem indicia;    providing a plurality of player boards that are each adapted to receive one or more tiles;    placing a plurality of first tiles on a first player board;    placing a plurality of second tiles on a second player board; and    incrementing a score associated with a player board by an amount corresponding to a number of first tiles that have a designated gem indicia and corresponding to a number of second tiles that have the designated gem indicia.    
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 9 , 
 wherein each player board includes a plurality of spaces that are arranged to define a plurality of rows and columns of spaces, each space being adapted to receive one or more tiles;    wherein placing a plurality of first tiles includes placing a plurality of first tiles in a plurality of corresponding first spaces that are each disposed in a first row on the first player board;    where placing a plurality of second tiles includes placing a plurality of second tiles in a plurality of corresponding second spaces that are each disposed in a second row on the second player board.    
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein a location of the first row on the first player board has a predetermined relationship with a location of the-second row on the second player board.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the location of the first row on the first player board is the same as the location of the second row on the second player board.  
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein placing a plurality of first tiles includes placing a first tile in every space of the first row.  
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein incrementing includes adding a predetermined number of points to the score, wherein the predetermined number increases as the number of first tiles that have the designated gem indicia increases, and wherein the predetermined number of points is decreased by the number of second tiles that have the designated gem indicia.  
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising: 
 providing a scoreboard having a plurality of scoring spaces that include sequentially increasing numeric indicia and a score marker corresponding to each player board; and    wherein incrementing includes moving the score marker corresponding to the player board by a number of scoring spaces corresponding to the amount.    
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein placing a plurality of second tiles includes placing a plurality of second tiles on a plurality of second player boards.  
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising removing the first tiles from the first player board and placing each of the first tiles in a discard area.  
   
   
       18 . A method of playing a game comprising 
 providing a plurality of tiles that are each adapted to be moved between a hidden state, in which a first face is face-up, and a revealed state, in which a second face is face-up;    providing a plurality of spaces that are each adapted to receive at least one of the plurality of tiles;    placing tiles in each space;    removing at least one tile from each of one or more of the plurality of spaces;    inverting the state of first tile is disposed in a first space; and    inverting the state of a second tile that is disposed in a second space that has a predetermined location relationship with the first space and that has a predetermined quantity relationship with the first space.    
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein placing includes placing an equal number of tiles in each space.  
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein placing includes moving all tiles to the hidden state.  
   
   
       21 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein removing includes removing at least one tile that is in the revealed state.  
   
   
       22 . The method of  claim 18 , 
 wherein inverting the state of a first tile includes moving a first tile from the hidden state to the revealed state; and    wherein inverting the state of a second tile includes moving a second tile from the hidden state to the revealed state.    
   
   
       23 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the second space is adjacent to the first space.  
   
   
       24 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the second space has a greater number of tiles than the first space.  
   
   
       25 . The method of  claim 24 , 
 wherein placing includes forming a stack of more than one tile in each space;    wherein inverting the state of a first tile includes moving a top-most tile in a first stack disposed in the first space from the hidden state to the revealed state; and    wherein inverting the state of a second tile includes moving a top-most tile in a second stack disposed in the second space from the hidden state to the revealed state.    
   
   
       26 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the first face of each tile includes layer indicia, and wherein placing includes stacking tiles in each space in a predetermined order as indicated by the layer indicia of each tile, with tiles having a common layer indicia occupying the same location in each stack.