Claustro is an abstract two player game, with super simple rules (goal, movement, capture) like many others, but it has a twist on the capture mechanism that makes it engaging, thoughtful and fresh.
Captured pieces are not removed from the board but must be placed back on the board by the player that captured it.
This simple twist make the game hard to master and engaging.
The game is free to be crafted at home and needs just two sets of different color pawns and a 5 by 5 grid (as you can see in the pictures).
Setup
take a five by five grid and place it diagonally oriented between the players, the two corners closest to the players are each other players' respective goals to reach with one of four pawns, the other two corners are non-occupiable squares.
Each player stars with the 4 pawns on the four squares to the left and right border of their closest corner.
Gameplay and Win
Players alternatively take turns moving one square orthogonally towards the goal or capture opponent's pawn diagonally (in all four directions), a captured piece must be immediately placed back on the board on any unoccupied square by the capturing player before passing the turn. The first player that walks a pawn in the goal wins the game.
—description from the designer