Every week the EFG staff will be defining a gaming term that is either confusing or ill-defined. Please leave a comment with any terms you are confused by and we will try to include them in future editions!
The gaming definition this week is a term that is applicable to both video games and board games: Polyomino.
A Polyomino is a geometric shape made up of a group of equal squares touching on their edges.
These shapes are very important to the game design world because of all the different ways that they can be pieced together into a bigger puzzle.
The best, and most popular, example is Tetris. In Tetris, five different polyominoes that each contain four equal squares (called tetrominoes) fall from the top of the screen. Players are tasked with interlocking them at the bottom of the screen with as few holes as possible. Any complete rows that the player creates are cleared from the board as a reward.
The shapes in Tetris even have names. There was a meme that flew around in the last year or so that came just short of personifying them, but their names are straightforward.
- Square
- L
- Skew
- T
- Straight
Polyominoes are also quite popular in the board game space. Part of this is because their shapes make great plastic and cardboard components. Their flat surfaces are also a great place to showcase interesting artwork or bright colors. The design reason is simple. The number of different available shapes is relatively small (especially if they are all made of a smaller number of equal squares), and the number of ways that they can be interlocked is vast. This leads to wide variety in game play situations.
Suggested Activities
Polyominoes are a great learning tool and there are all sorts of activities on the web that you can do with your kids.
- This is a sheet you can print out, color, and cut to make a fun polyomino activity,
- Second Chance by Uwe Rosenburg
- Think Fun Brain Fitness Pathwords Game
What do you think? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!
You can also look at our other video game definitions from previous weeks here!
What do you think? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!
Make sure to keep your eyes on Engaged Family Gaming for all of the latest news and reviews you need to Get Your Family Game On!
- Video Games for kids on Xbox One
- Video Games for kids on PS4
- Video Games for kids on Nintendo Switch
- Board Games for kids
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Kelly Allard 
Linda Wrobel 