PLAYING THE GAME
Goal
In Swatches, you're trying to create the biggest swatch that you can. A swatch is a field of color that you build up by placing colored tiles next to each other.
The Basics
You start the game with a hand of seven colored tiles. On each turn, you can put one of your tiles into the play area, after which the next player plays a tile, and so on. Your hand represents the tiles you can play during a round. At the end of each round, you get new tiles before starting the next round.
During each round, you have one chance to "score a swatch." Scoring a swatch means earning points by closing off a field of only one color. The bigger the field, the more points you get. The game ends when the virtual "bag" of tiles runs out. Whoever has the most points at the end is the winner.
Tiles
Your hand consists of up to seven colored tiles. Each tile is divided into four triangular sections. Each section contains a color: Black, Blue, Red or Yellow. Here are examples of some of the tiles:
On your turn, you can place one of your tiles into the play area. You must place the tile adjacent to previously-placed tiles (unless it's the very first tile of the game). The color on each side of the tile must match the colors of its neighbors. You can rotate the tile into any of its four orientations to make it fit.
There are 69 different unique tiles. In a two- or three-player game, the bag contains these 69 tiles. For four or more players, the bag contains two copies of each tile, for a total of 138 tiles.
 In the 1st diagram, the 3rd tile from the left is selected. There is only one space in which the tile can be placed without having non-matching colors touch.
 In the 2nd diagram, the same tile is rotated 90° to the left, making 4 spaces available.
Swatches
The point of putting tiles in the play area is to create swatches. A swatch is a single field of all the same color. A swatch is closed when all of the edges of the swatch are surrounded by other colors (and not blank space).
 For example, in this diagram there is a closed blue swatch of 6 boxes. There is also a yellow swatch of 3½ boxes, which is not closed because it has an edge touching empty space (the half-box, circled).
Scoring
When you close a swatch, you have the option to score it. The swatch is worth one point for each box that it contains. In the diagram above, the big blue swatch has 6 boxes, so it would score 6 points. Once you score a swatch, you are not allowed to place any more tiles until a new round starts. It might therefore be a good idea not to score a small swatch, to allow you to capitalize on a bigger opportunity later in the round.
Controls
Your display contains the play area, your hand of tiles, and boxes showing your current score and the number of tiles left in the "bag".
Select a Tile
To select a tile on your turn, left click on it in your hand area. The selected tile is now highlighted. The play area will show you all of the legal spaces in which you can play the tile.
Rotate a Tile
You can rotate the selected tile by pressing the right or left arrows. Every time you rotate the tile, it changes the legal spaces into which the tile can go. The play area will highlight the new legal spaces for each new orientation of the tile.
Place a Tile
Click on a highlighted space in the play area. Your selected tile will disappear from your hand and appear in the space you clicked.
Pan Screen
You can pan the displayed area by clicking in a blank region. This will push the display away from the direction in which you clicked. So if you want to see what's off of the left side of the display, click in an empty space on that side. This will slide the scene to the right.
Discard or Draw Tiles
After you've scored a swatch in a round, you're not allowed to place any more tiles until the next round. You do keep taking turns in the current round, though. On each turn, you have the option to discard one of the tiles in your hand. You will see a prompt that asks if you wish to discard a tile. If you click yes, you can then click one tile in your hand. It is discarded back into the bag.
You will then see a prompt asking if you wish to draw a tile. If you click yes, you will receive a new tile randomly chosen from the tiles remaining in the bag. If you already have seven tiles in your hand, you may not draw more and won't see the prompt for drawing.
End of Round
A round ends when every player has either scored a swatch, or has run out of places in which he/she can legally place tiles. This might happen because the player has no more tiles in hand, or because none of the player's remaining tiles can be rotated in a way that makes a legal placement available. When the round ends, each player receives new tiles randomly chosen from the bag, up to seven tiles in hand. If you already have seven tiles in your hand by the end of a round, you won't receive any new tiles.
End of Game
Between rounds, the computer deals out new tiles to each player. If the bag runs out of tiles during this process, the game immediately ends. The player with the most points at this time is the winner.
Gameplay Tips
You can only play one tile at a time. If you start building a really attractive swatch, you might be allowing another player to score it before your next turn. One way to reduce the chances of this is to constrain the placement of the tile that closes the swatch. Every tile adjacent to the swatch-closing space decreases the options for placing tiles in that space.
For example, if there is one space left to close a swatch, and that space is surrounded by four tiles, then there is only one specific tile that will be able to close the swatch (or two copies of this same tile, in games with four or more players). Try to engineer the placement of the surrounding tiles to maximize the odds that you're the only one who has the last tile required to close the swatch.
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