Seed Pits: Mancala Games of the World

Seed Pits brings back the seed-pit games people have played for centuries on carved wooden boards, on the floor at grandma's house, or in holes scooped in the sand. Play against the computer or pass the device to a friend.

Three games, three traditions

• Pallanguzhi (Tamil Nadu and Kerala, India; close cousin of Ali Guli Mane in Karnataka): 14 pits, 5 seeds each. Keep sowing until you hit an empty pit, then capture the pit after it. Any pit that reaches four seeds is pasu and goes to its owner.
• Oware (Ghana and West Africa, Abapa rules): the tournament mancala. Capture by turning your opponent's pits into 2s and 3s, but never take everything (the grand slam rule) and always leave them something to play.
• Kalah: the version most people know as "mancala". Land your last seed in your store to play again; land in an empty pit to capture.

Features

• Computer opponent with three levels (Easy, Medium, Hard)
• Two players on one device
• Animated sowing so you can follow every seed, with a fast mode
• Undo, full rules for each game, and light and dark themes
• Works on phones, tablets and desktops; the board turns upright on a phone
• No ads, no accounts, no tracking

About the rules

Traditional games have many local variations. Pallanguzhi here uses single-round rules; a multi-round version with closed pits may follow. If your family played differently, leave a comment and tell us how.

Play on the table too

Prefer real seeds? Get the free printable Pallanguzhi board and rules, or the Family & Classroom Pack with Oware, Congkak and Kalah boards, a short history, counting puzzles and a family sheet.

Made by Maveleaf Labs. Also playable at maveleaf.com/games/seed-pits.

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