South Island strategy game inventor Mike McManaway has come up with a successrt to his hugely popular Tantrix.

Suitable for one to five players, Palago, which hit New Zealand stores last week, consists of 48 tiles and two custom made dice.

McManaway, who lives in Mahana, teamed up with Australian mathematician Cameron Browne and Argentine artist Franco Giuliani to create the new game. McManaway and Browne collaborated via email for a year, before meeting in the French Alps in May to test out their invention.

In its simplest form, competitors go head-to-head to create a closed group (or creature), in their colour. A version of the game can be played online (at boardspace.net)

Tantrix is now sold in more than 30 countries and more than 50 million tiles have been sold worldwide in the two decades since it was invented.

Coming up with the idea while sitting in a tent nursing a broken collar bone during a failed climbing mission in South America, McManaway painted the first 100,000 (as Tantrix was then called) tiles at his home in Heathcote, Christchurch.

“It was not a company in the beginning, it was my hobby.” He puts the success of Tantrix do to it being a family and strategy game, which also requires some luck to win.

“Luck is where the addiction comes in. An eight-year-old could do rather well. They will usually lose to you, but they can win and that’s what keeps them interested.”

Despite being on sale here, Palago won’t be officially launched internationally until next Friday.