Bontago

[Pater Alf]

Very interesting strategy game, where you have to use blocks to build structures and expand your territory that way. The higher the structures are, the more territory you will get. Player who is able to conquer all white flags first wins.

Developer's description:

"Developed by Juniors at DigiPen Institute of Technology, Bontãgo is an intense single or multiplayer 3d real-time strategy game. Players begin with flags (one color for each player) spaced evenly around the edge of a large disk, called the field, balanced on a fulcrum in the center. Around each flag is a circle representing that player's controlled area. Every few seconds a block appears on each player's cursor. The players must place the blocks somewhere in their controlled areas. Players can place the block at any moment in the allotted time, or can hold it until time is up and the block will fall on its own and be replaced by the next block.

The goal of the game is to encompass all of the world flags in the controlled area. To expand the controlled area, the player must build upwards and outwards. The radius of the controlled area (and thus the area the player may place blocks in) is determined using the height of the player's structures perpendicular to the disk. If controlled areas of opposing players meet, a hole is formed in the disk in the overlapping region. The first player to possess a continuous area containing the world flags wins.

Blocks are given randomly to players and come in a variety of semi-random shapes. The base block unit is a cube. Several types of blocks are made as a combination of base units.

Specialty blocks can be attained by extending the controlled area around gift boxes randomly dropped on the map during the game. The next block the player receives after encircling the crate will be a specialty block. These include volcano, earthquake, rocket, and other blocks. Smashing a specialty block in any obvious way will activate it.

Bontãgo uses realistic Tokamak powered physics, and the disk can tilt on its fulcrum if certain special blocks are activated. Towers will fall, blocks will slide off the game world, and specialty blocks will wreak havoc on opponents. Although the rules are simple, strategic thinking, quick reflexes, and a bit of luck is required to win this game."

Game can be played in singleplayer or multiplayer mode (with up to 8 players). It is designed to be be played with a 3-button scroll mouse (and will work best that way). But if you don't own one, you can easily reconfigure the control keys, so that it can be played anyway.

Developer: Tristan Hall, Justin Kinchen, Eric Anderson, Jason Bolton

Download: http://bontago.com/

Download size: 23 MB (full version) or 4.1 MB (lite version)

Year: 2004

Status: Another DigiPen game; but there is an official homepage and the developers can be contacted, so we might be able to get permission to host it...

I was unable to take screenshots, so please click here to see some...

[Pater Alf]

It seems the official homepage is gone, so here's another download link:

http://www.chip.de/downloads/Bontago_21856274.html