History †
Honey Donut was invented by Masahiro Nakajima, the Curator of 'The Museum of Abstract Strategy Games', in 2011.
Background of the Game Design †
Masahiro was trying to create a new game with "push-out" motif, such as abalone, TRABOULET ／ KUBA ／ AKIBA, Siam, Oshi, Glass Pearl Game at someone's request. He first came up with a very unique shaped board: A hex board which has a hole in the center. It is a torus structure board composed of honeycomb cells. He named the board Honey Donut, and decided to call the first game using this board the same.
Honey Donut board has very unique characteristics as a game board. Masahiro is planning to create a series of Honey Donut games.
BOARD & PIECES †
3 pieces including one King, which is marked in the middle for red, and the same 3 for blue and 12 white pieces are initially placed on a Honey Donut board as in the right.
Players choose red or blue. Red will start the game.
Players move their pieces in their turn following the rules below:
- Move a whole "straight line" of pieces which includes his/her piece(s) one square in either direction along the line. (fig. Available Move) "Straight lines" are composed of either 2, 3 or 4 pieces. All the pieces in one "straight line" need to be moved always together.
- With the move, one piece is pushed out from the board. The pushed out piece is placed in the square in which no piece is placed after the move. The King pieces cannot be placed back on the board as it is the end of the game when they are pushed out of the board.
- Moving the line backward right after the opponent's turn
is not allowed.
- This is a simpler regulation to settle for the more strict rules with which we can avoid draws caused by repetition of moves: We could prohibit the movements to create exactly the same aspects (In that case, it is ignored which one of two regular pieces of blue and red was originally on the right or left of the King.) but then we need to record all the aspects for proper judgment.
- No pass is allowed.
Available Move: King are not allowed to move out from the board. 
| Examples of Game |
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GOAL †
The player who pushed opponent's King out of the board (falling into the hole in the center counts!) wins.
As in the more strict rules, when the same aspect appears in the same player's turns, the player needs to change the move.
NOTE †
Copyright © Masahiro Nakajima 2011, www.nakajim.net 2011, All rights reserved.
- We CAN play without white pieces, but "pushing-the-line" feeling can hardly be achieved without them...
- More Honey Donut games and puzzles are coming soon. Look out for them!
Special Thanks †
We would like to express our thanks to Satoshi Shimpuku at Irvine Systems, Inc. who has devoted much time on test play and balance adjustment of the game.
Download †
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Paper Board
honeydonuts_board.pdf
Printable Honey Donut board is available here. Coins can be used for pieces for example with the board.