From the creators of the original board game comes a digital, mobile version called Mandala: A Game of Life, taking the game to the digital realm.
Mandala: A Game of Life, a colorful and challenging board game for one to four players, is a bit unique in that you don’t actually ever move your player. Instead, you move the board around them, clearing paths so that they can make it to the middle realm on the board. You have a large character token, made to look after an element like water, air, earth and fire, as well as a handful of small minions you need to help along this path. I got the chance to see the game at the Big Indie Pitch Digital event, where the developer of both the game and the original board game got to talk about their future plans for Mandala.
As you are trying to move towards the middle, all of the other players are trying to get in your way and make it there first. Across the board, there are a bunch of colored tiles that wrap around the center circle. These colored tiles are moved depending on the die that is rolled at the start of the round. There is a die for each of the colored platforms, determining how much you can move that specific tile. You’ll want to move the tiles out of your way, creating a clear path for your minion and putting blocks in the way of other players’ paths (or knock their minions off the board completely). Your minion will then walk forward, moving closer to the realm if there aren’t any blocks there. When you do get to the realm, you will receive a point. You’ll need to get a set number of points to win the game.
When it comes to finding other players for Mandala, you can either play with online multiplayer, a local multiplayer where you pass the phone around after your turn, or with bots that come in different varieties of challenge. The game itself can also be customized based on how much time you and your friends have to play, from easier modes to longer, more challenging modes which adjust how many colored tiles are between players and the realm.
Mandala: A Game of Life is currently in development, but in the meantime, you can follow its creation on the developer’s Facebook Page.
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