Locus

Locus is a 1977 uncredited game, published at StatCon.

The game is played on a 12x12 board,

and each player has a set of 41 polyominoes:

 
eighteen 1x1 tile, sixteen 2x1, six L-triominoes, and one 2x2 square

Rules

• On her turn, the player drops a friendly piece either:
• an empty board area.
• over a single enemy tile (or part of it) if two of its opposite sides are completely connected to friendly tiles; however it is illegal to cover the immediately previous dropped tile.
• When a player cannot move, the game ends [my assumption, the official rules do not mention it]
• the player with the largest connected group (called the locus) wins the game.
• note that to connect two pieces, they must share an edge (two diagonal corners is not enough).

The official rules:

The text boasts that Locus is one of the simplest games ever devised. Despite being not completely true -- it is simple, but there are many simpler non-trivial games -- it is not a ridiculous claim (typical of ads for many games of that era). The stacking-tiles ludeme together with the two-opposite edges rule are the elements that seem a bit more arbitrary. I assume that these extra elements provide tactical depth that justify their insertion. It is said that games, like most things really, should be as simple as possible (and not simpler). Perhaps removing these two rules/ludemes would make the game trivially, or boringly, simpler...

 

Scoring games with polyominoes are not that common. There is 1969's Pentomino and, of course, 2000's Blokus (highest number of tiles), but also 1982' Domain (highest total area). But the most common goal is stalemate-oriented, like the original 1953's Pentominoes, 1960's Pan-Kai or, its reiteration, 1966's Universe. Locus adds a new idea (highest largest group) that makes it more territorial. 

 

Overall, I do think this is a really good game, one that deserves more recognition, and a new life.