8Bit Box: Pixoid Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Game Components
  • Console Components
  • Game Elements
• Overview and Object of the Game
• Game Setup
• Gameplay
  • Phase 1: Secret Programming
  • Phase 2: Movement
  • Phase 3: Scoring
• Bonus Neutral Cubes
• End of the Round
• End of the Game
• Short Game Variant
• 3 Player Variant

Components

Game Components

• 4 Circuit Board tiles
• 8 Screen Edge tiles
• 6 Character tiles (Pixoid on the front, a Bug on the back)

Console Components

• 1 controller per player
• 2 cubes per player (the same colors as the controllers)
• 16 neutral cubes

Game Elements

Circuit Board Tiles. The Circuit Board tiles represent the maze that the players will move through. Here you'll find two things: Pix and walls. Pix are the little white dots (sometimes red). They represent the spaces where the players can move. The Bonus cube Pix show where the Bonus cubes will be placed, and the red Pix are the possible player starting spaces. Walls cannot be crossed.

Screen Edge Tiles. Screen Edge tiles serve as the border for the Circuit Board tiles. A victory point track runs along these tiles, allowing players to keep score.

Neutral Cubes. Neutral cubes represent the number of turns that the player playing as Pixoid has survived. 4 Bonus neutral cubes are also placed on the Circuit Board at the beginning of the game.

Colored Cubes. Every player has two cubes of their color. One is for keeping score on the victory point track, the other is for showing their position on the Circuit Board.

Character Tiles. These tiles are used to show which player is playing Pixoid and which players are playing Bugs in a given round.

Overview and Object of the Game

Move around the Circuit Board using your controller. Playing as Pixoid? Try to escape the Bugs for as long as you can! Playing as a Bug? Do your best to coordinate your moves with the other Bugs to catch Pixoid as fast as possible!

Each round, Pixoid is played by a different player. Once each player has played as Pixoid, whoever has the most victory points wins.

Game Setup

Attention: This setup is for a 4 player game. For the 3 player setup, go to page 11. (See the 3 Player Variant below.)

1. Put the Screen Edge tiles together as shown in the picture, making sure that the numbers are in order.
2. Place the 4 Circuit Board tiles together to form a square. Be sure to orient them to form a continuous blue border around the 4 tiles.
   • Note: These tiles are double-sided, allowing for many different game configurations.
   • Note: Set up the game board so that each player is facing an edge of the board.
3. Place 1 neutral cube on each of the Bonus cube Pix.
4. Place the 12 remaining neutral cubes near the Circuit Board. This will be the reserve.
5. Each player chooses a color, and takes the corresponding controller and colored cubes.
6. The oldest player plays as Pixoid for the first round. The other players play the Bugs. Each player takes their color's Character tile and places it in front of them with the correct role showing.
7. Each player places one of their colored cubes onto the 0 space on the victory point track.
8. Pixoid places his second cube on the Starting Pix of his choice. Then, one after another in clockwise order, the Bugs place their second cubes on any empty Starting Pix.

Gameplay

The following rules (pages 6 to 10) describe how to play a standard game. For a shorter version of the game, go to page 10. Each player will play the role of Pixoid for one round. Therefore, a standard game has as many rounds as it has players.

Each round is played over a maximum of 12 turns.

Each turn is divided into 3 phases:

1. Secret Programming
2. Movement
3. Scoring

Note: Pixoid must flee and the Bugs must chase him. They are always moving. That is why you can't choose the number 0 on the central wheel. You can't either select a direction of a wall you are already next to.

Note: The right-hand wheel isn't used in this game.

The Bugs are not allowed to communicate with each other to coordinate their movement. They must stay silent.

Phase 1: Secret Programming

On their controller, each player secretly selects the direction that they wish to move as well as the distance in that direction that they wish to move.

• Use the left-hand wheel to select the direction you will move (up, down, left, or right). The arrow that you leave showing indicates the direction you will move this turn.
• Use the central wheel to select the number of Pix that you will move.

Now move on to the Movement phase.

Phase 2: Movement

When all of the players have finished programming their moves, reveal your controller by placing it along your side of the game board. Each player moves their colored player cube according to what they programmed.

Example: Pixoid moves 3 Pix in this direction.

Pixoid always moves first, completing the entirety of his movement if possible. Next, the Bugs move simultaneously, completing the entirety of their movement if possible. If a wall prevents a player from completing the entirety of their movement, the player stops their cube on the Pix next to the wall.

• If Pixoid moves onto or over a Pix with a Bug on it, move on to the End of the Round.
• If a Bug moves onto or over the Pix with Pixoid on it, move on to the End of the Round.
• If multiple Bugs end their movement on the same Pix, stack those Bugs on top of each other on that Pix.

Phase 3: Scoring

• Once all players have finished their movement, if Pixoid has not been caught, he takes a neutral cube from the reserve. If he takes the last neutral cube from the reserve (the 12th one), move on to the End of the Round.
• If Pixoid has not yet been caught and the neutral cube reserve is not empty, a new turn begins. Pick up your controllers and begin a new Secret Programming phase.

Bonus Neutral Cubes

As their name suggests, the Bonus neutral cubes on the Circuit Board are cubes that give a bonus. Only Pixoid can pick them up. When Pixoid picks up a Bonus neutral cube, he immediately adds it to the cubes he collected on previous turns.

To get a Bonus neutral cube, Pixoid must move over or onto the Pix that the cube is on. He then picks up the cube and puts it in front of him. Moving over this Pix again won't provide another bonus, since the cube has already been picked up.

The Bugs can move over or onto a Pix with a Bonus neutral cube on it. If this happens, just leave the Bonus neutral cube in place. If a Bug finishes their movement on another cube, just stack the cubes.

End of the Round

There are two conditions that end the round:

1. Pixoid picks up the 12th neutral cube from the reserve.
   • Pixoid scores 12 points, plus one point for each Bonus neutral cube picked up.
   • The Bugs score 0 points.
2. A Bug succeeds in catching Pixoid.
   • Pixoid scores 1 point per neutral cube that he took from the reserve during the round, plus one point for each Bonus neutral cube picked up.
   • The Bugs each score points equal to the number of neutral cubes left in the reserve.

Example: Pixoid is caught after having collected 9 cubes from the reserve and 1 Bonus cube. Therefore, he scores 10 points and the Bugs each score 3 (12 - 9).

Advance your cube on the victory point track the number of points you scored during the round. The Pixoid player becomes a Bug, and the player to his left becomes the next Pixoid. Those players turn their Character tiles over to change their roles. Return the 4 Bonus neutral cubes to the Bonus cube Pix and the rest of the neutral cubes to the reserve. Every player takes back their colored cube from the maze. Now, re-do Step 8 of Game Setup (page 5).

At the end of 4 rounds (for 4 players) or 3 rounds (for 3 players), each player has played as Pixoid once. Move on to the End of the Game.

End of the Game

The game ends once each player has played as Pixoid one time. The player with the most victory points wins. If there is a tie for first place between one or more players, those players share the victory.

Short Game Variant

In a short game, you only play one round. Use the standard rules (pages 6 to 10) with the following modifications:

• During Game Setup, ignore Step 7. Put the cube in question back into the box. The victory point track will not be used.
• The game ends at the end of the first round, and only one player plays as Pixoid during the game: Pixoid must succeed in collecting 12 neutral cubes, either by picking up Bonus neutral cubes or from the reserve at the end of each turn. If he manages to get his 12th neutral cube, he wins immediately. The Bugs have lost.
• If a Bug catches Pixoid before he gets his 12th neutral cube, the Bugs win all together.

3 Player Variant

To play a 3 player game, play with the standard rules (pages 6 to 10), with the following modifications:

During game set up, include the following step:

9. The player to the left of Pixoid takes a second controller from the unused ones, as well as a cube of the matching color. That player places the cube on the last available Starting Pix.

During the Secret Programming phase, take into account the following changes:

1. The player who has two controllers programs the movements of two Bugs on their corresponding controllers.
2. The Movement phase is played just as in the standard rules.
3. At the end of the Scoring phase, the player who has two controllers passes their second one to the other Bug player.
4. On the next turn, that player will be the one to control the Bug that matches the color of the controller. And so, each turn the third Bug will be controlled by one of the two players playing as Bugs, in alternating fashion.