Patchwork rules - a new patch

Tetris for two players, or is it?

On my first play of patchwork it was clear that this was a refreshing addition to my collection. Here was a light weight Tetris-like game for two player, unlike any I've seen before.

...but playing it again, I felt each of us was playing his own Tetris, with little interaction. Evaluating the options was a bit confusing too, with all the different scores.

Could I make it simpler AND more engaging?

Re-writing the Rules:

Basically all stays the same, except...

1. Less rules - No "button money"

• At the end of the game, you get no "button points", so the goal is only to fill up your board as much as you can.

• When you choose to move forward, you don't get any buttons for it.

• Ignore the special 7x7 button tile. It's not needed.

• Ignore also the button cost symbols on the tiles. Use only the hourglass cost.

2. New interaction - When taking a new tile, you take as many buttons as drawn on the tile. But, you place them immediately on your opponent's board:

• You must place them next to one of opponent's tiles (Except on the first turn, when there are no tiles, then you can place them on the perimeter of the board).

• You may not place buttons in a way that splits a block of empty spaces into two or more blocks

Examples below,

Enjoy :)

Examples:

• Example 1: When placing the tile on the right, take 2 buttons, and place them on opponents board. Try to place them in ways that make the board challenging to fill up.

• Example 2: If opponent has just one line of empty spaces, you can only place the buttons at either end of that line, because any other place will split the empty area.