How to Play Sugoroku Together in BrainDojo Kids

BrainDojo Kids has a board game called Sugoroku Together, played by 2 to 4 people around one iPhone or iPad. Players roll a die, move around the board, and collect stars and coins on the way. This guide goes from setting up a game to the results screen, using the words that appear in the app.

Before You Start

Open the Board tab at the bottom of the screen to reach the Sugoroku Together screen. There are two choices to make.

Game length offers Short (4 turns), Normal (6 turns) and Long (8 turns). The number of turns is per player. The game ends when everyone has rolled that many times.

How many players? offers 2, 3 or 4. The pieces are a dog, a cat, a rabbit and a bear, added in that order as the number goes up, and they appear below the choice. These pieces are separate from the player profiles saved in the app (up to 3), so you only pick a number and play.

Tap Start when you are ready.

Your Turn

The screen shows whose turn it is, for example “Dog’s turn”. That player taps the die, and the piece moves one space at a time for the number rolled. The board is a loop, so the path carries on past Start.

Turns go dog, cat, rabbit, bear. The top of the screen shows which turn the game is on, such as “1 / 6”.

The Spaces

Here is what happens on each kind of space.

• Coin space: you get coins.
• Coin bag space: you get more coins than on a coin space.
• Item space: you get one item.
• Present space: you get either coins or an item.
• Forward space: “Rocket” appears and you move 2 more spaces.
• Back space: “Too bad…” appears and you go back 2 spaces.
• Shop space: you can spend coins on a star or an item.
• Star space: you get one star. There is only one star space on the board.
• Start: “Passed Start” appears and you get a 5-coin lap bonus.

When a forward or back space moves you, the space you end up on counts as well. The size of the board and the order of the spaces change every game.

The Shop and Items

On a shop space, the app shows how many coins the current player has, with two buttons, “Star 25” and “Item 10”. A star costs 25 coins and an item costs 10. A button you cannot afford does not respond. Tap Cancel to leave without buying.

There are four items.

• Dash: move 3 spaces at once.
• Koban: get 10 coins.
• Star Warp: jump to the star space and get a star.
• Present: get coins or an item.

Which item you get from the shop or an item space varies each time.

Items you hold sit next to “Dog’s turn”, to the left of the die. You can use one only on your own turn, before rolling, and only one per turn. Tap an item to see what it does, then choose Use or Cancel. After using it, you roll as usual.

A Challenge After Every Round

Each time everyone has rolled once, a shared mini game starts. There are nine, and the app picks which one comes up.

Four of them include every player.

• Remember Together: pictures appear for a moment and everyone remembers them as a team.
• Team Calligraphy: players take turns, one stroke each, to finish one character.
• Count Together: point at the many things on screen, count them together, and write the answer by hand.
• Pair Memory Battle: take turns flipping two cards to find matching pictures. Find a pair and you flip again.

Five are battles for two players. The two sit facing each other across the tablet and play at the same time on the top and bottom halves of the screen.

• Tracing Battle: trace the same character, and the neater one wins.
• Finger Count Battle: count the fingers, and the first correct number wins.
• Maze Battle: solve the same maze, and the first to the goal wins.
• Memory Spot Battle: remember where the numbers are, and the first to write the hidden number wins.
• Finger Addition Battle: solve an addition shown with fingers, and the first correct answer wins.

With 3 or 4 players, a battle calls two of them by name. The screen before each challenge asks the players to work together and says that helping each other is fine.

After the mini game, every player gets coins, and more when the challenge is cleared. Whoever wins a head-to-head mini game gets extra coins on top.

Who Wins

When everyone has played the chosen number of turns, the results screen appears. The player with the most stars wins. If stars are tied, more coins ranks higher. The winner’s name is shown at the top, with every player’s place, stars and coins listed below. Tap Home to finish.

To stop partway, tap the × at the top left. The app asks “Quit sugoroku?” and says “If you quit now, the results will be lost.” Choose Keep playing or Quit.

About BrainDojo Kids

BrainDojo Kids is an iPhone and iPad app I make for ages 3 to 6, where children write on the screen with a finger or a pen to practice letters and numbers.

Sugoroku Together is free to play. The three daily games in Today’s Training and the four Recommended games are free each day too, and a Premium subscription (monthly or yearly) opens all courses and games. There are no ads and no account to create. The first session is covered in Getting Started with BrainDojo Kids, and waiting for a turn in family games is the subject of Learning to Take Turns.