Griddly Games continues their evolution from a sports board game company to a general game company with Oversight, a variant on an m,n,k-game [1].

In Oversight’s case, m,n,k is 7,7,4. In a classic m,n,k game, four in a row is an automatic win for the first player. In Oversight, the game is for 2 to 4 players. Players may slide a row or column one space instead of taking their usual turn. As you can see from the above picture, only some of the rows and columns slide; some of the “pieces” on the board are fixed in place. You start the game by randomly laying out the colored tiles to form the rest of the board.

You may wonder, as I did, about the significance of the colored tiles, if your job is simply to get four of your own circular pieces in a row (your pieces rest on top of the tiles). According to the designer:

The tiles of the board are the same colour as the playing pieces on purpose – this creates a visual distraction which increases the level of difficulty.

If you prefer, you may flip the tiles over and play with monochromatic pieces. The attached pieces then clearly indicate which rows and columns do not shift.

[1] A two-player game played on a board sized m by n, where players alternate placing pieces in an attempt to form a line of k pieces of their color in any direction.