Tedoku is a roll/flip-and-write game that is decadently simple and I will never get tired of playing it
Breathe in, breathe out, roll the die and fill in another shape. Tedoku is the pinnacle of “chill” gameplay. Presumably the designers couldn’t decide if they wanted to make a roll-and-write or a flip-and-write, so decided to do both. But they did it without making it at all too complicated. 
How to play Tedoku
Tedoku is a roll/flip-and-write game that is decadently simple. Each turn, a die is rolled to determine which of five tetrominoes (a shape made up of four blocks) needs to be drawn onto a grid, before a card is flipped from the deck to point players to a specific row, column or 3×3 box the shape needs to intersect with. Players earn one point for every row or column they complete, and three points for each 3×3 box. That’s it, that’s the whole game. It ends when the deck runs out and 20 of the 27 potential cards have been revealed and it takes less than 60 seconds to add up your score.
If that sounds too simple to critique, let me make this very clear: Tedoku is excellent and I will never get tired of playing it. Whether as a meditative activity with a small group and a cup of tea, or as a bigger party experience where the table cheers for an “L” block to be rolled so they can fill in two boxes at once, it’s flexible enough for any meetup. We’d love to see how it works at that 99-player upper limit, though!
Between two sources of randomness, the deck and the dice, there is of course plenty of variance in the game, but it afflicts every player equally, so Tedoku is secretly a clever game about risk management and calculated gambles. Not every card in the deck is used, so you can never guarantee that any given zone on the grid will be filled. Sometimes it’s safe to use early pieces to block off a given line, hoping that the card for it just doesn’t come up; sometimes this causes you a heap of cascading problems. Ultimately, the game is so short, that if you do crash and burn, you can just play again in 10 minutes’ time and take a different approach.
Not to be overlooked is the visual appeal of the game. The minimal use of colour and simple icons evocative of Japanese culture look fantastic. It’s not so much a theme, more a skin layered over an abstract puzzle, but the allusions to Sudoku puzzles (commonly understood to be popularised in Japan) and the use of lotus flowers makes for a charming small box on the shelf, sat next to gigantic boxes adorned with spaceships and castles.
In summary, Tedoku is really good. It’s quick to play, accommodating of every player count, attractive, tactical and relaxing. It works as a filler between bigger ventures or a short travel distraction thanks to its small form factor and easy to pick up rules.
Review by Dan York
PLAY IT?
There’s so little to it, but what’s here is all gold.
What’s in the box?
9 Row cards
9 Column cards
9 Sector cards
Tedoku die
6 Pencils
Pad
Rulebook
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Molehill Meadows
Another simple, pretty and relaxed game – all great things for a roll-and-write.
Buy your copy of Tedoku online at Zatu