Topiary: The One In A Row Game 2026

Topiary is the result of a quirky inquiry; what if there was a game where the objective was to have not 5, not 4 and 3 is right out, but instead 1 in a row? The game quickly took form in my mind, players would place blocks of stones down and somehow stones would be removed from these to create smaller less dense formations. Draws are impossible in Topiary (at least at certain sizes). Corey L. Clark designed Topiary in the beginning of 2026

Materials: a square board of at least size 10x10 and an unlimited supply of stones in two colors

Gameplay: Starting with black, players alternately place 3x3 stone "bushes". A bush must be placed such that it overlaps at least one enemy stone or else it must be placed in isolation (having no stones orthogonally adjacent). When making an overlapping move, you can overlap, at most, 4 stones one being the already mentioned enemy stone and 3 other stones of any color. Overlapping stones cancel eachother out resulting in empty cells being generated

Objective: the objective of Topiary is to begin your turn with at least as many instances of exactly 1 stone in a row in either dimension; horizontally or vertically as your opponent has. Note: 0 does not count.

—description from the designer