The game is played on a hex board. 120 equally sized pieces, each consisting of two joined hexes come with the game. There are symbols on each hex that makes up the piece, some pieces have two identical symbols, some have two different symbols. The pieces go into a cloth bag so that they get drawn randomly. Each player receives six pieces to start the game, which are placed onto a rack and visible to them alone. The goal of the game is, through clever placement, to obtain points in the different symbol colours. Points are claimed by placing a piece such that the symbols on it lie next to already-placed pieces with the same symbol. Pieces are placed onto any open spaces. So, for example, if a player places a piece with a purple circle on it such that it sits next to an unbroken line of four other purple circles already on the board, then the player scores four purple points. A newly placed symbol can lie next to at most five individual rows of symbols. Each player uses a scoring track to keep track of his points, one track for each colour going from 1 to 18. If a player reaches the 18th space with any colour, then he gets to call out Ingenius and take another turn. At the end of their turn, players draw as many tiles out of the bag as required to bring their rack back up to six. The game ends when no more tiles can be placed onto the board. Now each player looks to see how many points they scored in the colour they scored the least in. Whoever has the most points in their least scored colour is the winner. Simple. The author of the game has also come up with solitaire and team play, in which two teams of two play with each player not being able to see his partners tiles.

Deutscher SpielePreis 5th Place 2004

International Gamers Awards Best Strategy Game Nominee 2004

Spiel Des Jahres Nominee 2004

GAMES Magazine Abstract Strategy Game Nominee 2005

MENSA Best Mind Game 2005