Claim the board two squares at a time, and adapt as gravity slides every domino downward each turn.
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How to play
Domineering is an old and very pure game: one player places dominoes on two vertically adjacent empty squares, the other on two horizontally adjacent ones, and whoever cannot place loses. This version adds one rule that changes everything — at the start of every turn, before the player to move places anything, gravity pulls every domino on the board down by one square.
You place vertically; your opponent places horizontally. Neither of you can use the other's orientation.
The last player able to make a legal placement wins — there is no score to accumulate.
The drift happens before your move, not after, so the board you are looking at while you think is not the board you will place on.
Because pieces fall, gaps open near the top and close near the bottom as the game goes on.
Controls
Desktop: click a highlighted anchor cell to place your domino
Phone & tablet: full touch support, tap to place
Game modes
Versus computer, Easy, Medium, or Hard
Two-player hotseat on one device
Online multiplayer
Tips & strategy
Plan for the board after the drift, not the one in front of you. Every shape you are looking at is about to move down one square.
Vertical pieces survive the fall better than horizontal ones — a vertical domino keeps its shape as it drops, while a horizontal pair can land on uneven support and split the space beneath it.
Height is temporary. Space you create at the top will be underneath something within a couple of turns, so a territory you fence off high on the board is not yours for long.
Count moves rather than squares. The winner is whoever still has a legal placement, so denying your opponent one slot is worth more than occupying three.
Origins
Domineering is one of the purest games in combinatorial theory: one player lays dominoes vertically, the other horizontally, and whoever cannot place loses.
The original rule is gravity. At the start of every turn, every domino on the board falls one square.
That single addition destroys the parent's mathematics. Domineering is analysable because the board only ever fills — positions decompose into independent regions whose values add. Make the board move between turns and nothing decomposes, because a region's shape depends on what fell into it.
About Domineering Drift
Domineering Drift adds falling-piece gravity to a classic domino-claiming strategy game. It is an original free browser game built in-house for PlayPendium.
A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.
