Each player tries to position his spheres as accurately as possible. During each game round, six task cards are revealed. These cards indicate conditions you must follow when placing the spheres - for example, which spheres must not be on top of other spheres or must not touch each other.

If you complete the tasks correctly, you receive points, and if you have the most points at the end of the game, you win.

Components

• 4 Player trays
• 12 Self-adhesive feet for the underside of the player trays
• 60 Spheres (orange, blue, green, black, and white; 12 of each color)
• 60 Task cards
• 90 Point tokens
• 30 Bonus tokens
• 4 Overview tiles

Setup

• Each player takes a player tray and places it in front of himself or herself.

• Each player takes 15 spheres. Place three spheres of each color (orange, blue, green, black, and white) in the five slots in your tray. Do not fill the round holes yet. (In a game with fewer than four players, the remaining spheres remain in the box; they are not required).

• Each player receives an overview tile and places it beside his or her tray. The overview tiles contain a brief explanation of the task cards.

• Each player receives point tokens worth a total of ten points (one five-point token and five one-point tokens).

• Sort the remaining point tokens by value and place them to the side along with the bonus tokens as the general supply.

• Shuffle the task cards and arrange them face down in a stack.

• Place the hourglass so that it is clearly visible to all players.

Game Play

This is what happens during a game round:

1. Draw the top six task cards and place them face up in the center so that they are clearly visible to all players. Each card indicates how to position the spheres on the player trays.

   When playing the game for the first time, you should discuss the meaning of the task cards with your opponents.

2. Flip the hourglass.

3. While the hourglass runs down, all players try to complete the tasks and position the spheres correctly on their own trays.

   You may stack the spheres - one sphere fits on top of exactly three spheres below it. Hence, you can accommodate a total of 11 spheres on three levels.

   
   
   

4. As soon as all of the sand has passed through the hourglass, the players may no longer add, remove, or move spheres.

5. Receiving or discarding point tokens.

   Each player receives one point for each sphere on his or her tray and places the point tokens earned in front of himself or herself.

   For example, if you placed eight spheres on your tray, you receive eight points, and if you placed n spheres, you receive 11points.

   +1 Point For Each Sphere On Your Own Tray

   One of the players reads the tasks of the cards aloud, one by one - for example, "Black and blue must touch each other". Each player checks his or her tray and answers "yes" if he or she has completed the corresponding task (he or she doesn't receive any additional points) or "no" if he or she hasn't completed the task. For each task indicated on a task card that a player did not complete, he or she must discard point tokens worth a total of two points.

   For example, if you failed to complete a task indicated on one of the six task cards, you must discard two one-point tokens. If you failed to complete five tasks, you must discard point tokens worth a total often points.

   -2 Points For Each Task That Isn't Completed

   Note: You can exchange tokens with the general supply pile at any time - e.g., five one- point tokens for one five-point token.

6. Receiving a bonus token

   

   If you have completed all of the tasks indicated on the six task cards correctly and if you have used all five sphere colors on your tray, then you receive one bonus token.

   The number of bonus tokens you collect can determine victory or defeat - see the bonus token overview under "End of the Game".

   For using all five colors of spheres: You receive one bonus token if you have placed at least one sphere of each of the five colors on your tray.

   +bonus Token For All Five Colors

End Of The Round

Put the six task cards from this round aside.

Put the spheres back into the slots in the player trays. The next round starts by revealing six new task cards. A total of six rounds are played.

End of the Game

After six rounds, the players receive point tokens for their bonus tokens - see the following table.

The player with the most points wins the game. If there is a tie, the tied player who collected more bonus tokens wins. If there is a tie in this case, the tied players share the win.

How to convert the number of bonus tokens into points:

Example

In the example pictured above, this is what the players' bottom levels look like:

Receiving point tokens:

• Player A placed n spheres on his tray and receives n points.
• Player B receives 10 points for her 10 spheres.
• Player C receives n points.

Discarding point tokens:

• Player A has completed all tasks indicated on the cards, except for the task "The combined total number of spheres in both colors (orange and white) must be exactly four". He discards two point tokens. Since he didn't complete all tasks indicated on the six task cards correctly, he cannot receive a bonus token.

• Player B has completed all tasks indicated on the cards, except for the task "There must be exactly this many (orange) spheres". She discards two point tokens. Since she didn't complete all tasks indicated on the six task cards correctly, she cannot receive a bonus token.

• Player C has completed all tasks indicated on the cards and doesn't have to discard any point tokens.

  Since player C completed all tasks indicated on the task cards correctly and also used five colors, he receives one bonus token.

Game Variants

• If you prefer a more difficult game, reveal eight task cards instead of only six.

• If you want fewer task cards that contradict each other (or none at all), when revealing the task cards you may return a card to the bottom of the stack if it contradicts one of the already revealed cards and reveal a new card instead.

  For example, "White and orange must touch each other" and "White and orange must not touch each other".

• As another option to reduce the number of contradicting task cards, you can exclude the following cards:

  • Card Type 1: The "exactly this many" cards
  • Card Type 6 and 7: The "more than" cards and the "combined total" cards

Solo Game

You can also play Dimension by yourself. Play the game as described above. At the end, add up your points and compare your score with previous solo games.

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