In Mudiwoga, players take turns forming words on a crossword-like grid. The grid is variable, created by placing black tiles on the board before the game.
Each letter tile has 3-5 letters on each side (in the players' colors), only one of which is used when forming a word. Once a tile is placed, any of the letters can be used in forming a crossing word. Some of the letters (marked with dots) cause the tile to go to the opposing player (and cost points) - otherwise all tiles in the word played are turned to the player's side.
It is a requirement to play in the row or column (that has at least one empty space) with the greatest number of tiles. It is not required to form words in the other direction, as it is in Scrabble, but it is possible to do so to capture more tiles.
The object is mainly to have the most tiles on the board in your color at the end of the game, although points can be scored in other ways (negative for using dotted letters, positive for placing identical tiles next to each other).
While the rules say that the game can be played by more than two players, in teams, no guidance is provided on how to do so.