Tonbo

Tonbo (勝虫) is the Japanese word for ‘dragonfly’ and the name of an extraordinary craft you can pilot in this absorbing solo board game of exploration and trading at the edge of civilisation. The controls are very simple:

Single Tap to Move
You can move as far as you like around the parts of the map you've explored, but you can only move hexagonally. The ship uses green crystals to move.

Double Tap to Explore New Areas
Who knows what's out there? You'll need to chart any new areas of the map.

Long Press to Interact with Features
Some of the features in landscape can be targeted, which will cause Tonbo to act appropriately.
Outposts: Tonbo will land there and you’ll be able to buy and sell crystals to make your fortune
Thunderclouds: targeting thunderclouds uses a green crystal, but produces a more valuable blue crystal, that can be sold or used to target a volcano.
Volcanoes: targeting volcanoes uses a blue crystal, but produces a more valuable red crystal.

There’s a fortune to be made along the frontiers beyond the safety of trading posts, but the mountainous and volcanic world is different every time you play. No-one knows what’s out there, and to travel safely, you’ll have to create your own map!

As you explore each new landscape, you’ll discover geological features that limit the travel of your flying machine and create an ever-growing maze you must navigate around. You earn money by exploiting the features you discover, such as volcanoes and thunder clouds, and create precious gems which are worth a fortune to traders at the outposts!

It’s up to you to decide how to spend your money, but if you run out of money and can’t buy any more fuel, you won’t get a second chance and you’ll have to start all over again in a new landscape - so fly carefully and spend wisely!

Tonbo is a collaboration between Tokyo-based software engineer Lachlan Scott, Finnish concept artist Niklas Laine, and sound synthesist Stephen Berkowitz. We hope you find the game absorbing to play, and enjoy its relaxing soundtrack. We have many plans for future content in upcoming versions!