All possible mechanics of board games have already been exploited, so we had to get inspiration from existing games - but this wasn't an issue because mechanics are not under any copyright.

We based our game on Nine Men's Morris. This is a strategy game constructed for two players that was born in the Roman Empire 2000 years ago. The game is a so called a “solved game”, which means the optimal strategy can be calculated. So with the perfect calculations from both players, the game will end up in a draw. The original game contains nine playing patches but there are other versions with three, six and twelve playing patches.

 
The game board has twenty-four different intersection points were the patches can be placed. Each players starts with nine playing patches (Morris's Men) in two different colors to keep them visually separated. Both players then try to form horizontal or diagonal linear connections with three of their patches. Once a player has formed a linear connected “3-in-a-row” he can eliminate one of the opponents patches from the game. A players wins the game when he reduces his opponents patches to two pieces.

We came up with various layouts and rules, and tested them thoroughly as a group on google slides.

Here is a mood board we created to mentally guide us with the style of the game.

This is the final game, in printable A4 format, consisting of two pages.

A preview of what the game looks like when printed and played.