Pilus

Pilus is a tile-laying game, with each tile being made of four colored squares. One tile is placed on the board at the start of the game, and each player has a hand of three tiles. On a turn, a player lays one tile, either on the bottom level touching at least one tile already in place or on the second (or higher) level as long as at least three squares are supported by tiles underneath and certain color restrictions are met. The player can then place or move his pawn onto this tile; a player can neither cover an opponent's pawn nor score for expanding the region where an opponent's pawn is located. After playing a tile, the player scores points equal to the size of the regions created or expanded (two squares minimum), with the area being multiplied by the height of the tile. Once all tiles have been played, the player with the most points wins. Awards: Winner of the NESTORGAMES continuous abstract game design contest