With its very simple concept, this game of strategy gives each player a group of six pirates and the objective is to have all six escape through the tortuous underground passage that connects the fortress to the port, where a sloop is waiting for them.

The game board and its pieces were designed by Leo Colovini and drawn by artists Christoph Clasen, Claus Stephan, Didier Guiserix, Martin Hoffmann, and Studio Tapiro.

The board itself is made up of six double-sided sections, each of which has a different permutation of the same six pictures: daggers, pirate hats, pistols, bottles of rum, skulls, and skeleton keys.

Colour choices include brown, red, yellow, green, and blue.

Jamaica games tend to be fast-paced (30–45 minutes), and involve both skill and luck.

Cartagena: Die Goldinsel was released in 2008 by a different designer, Rüdiger Dorn and published only by Winning Moves Germany.

The saga of Cartagena continues with the first signs of a mutiny emerging after a long calm.

It is much shorter and simpler than Hare and Tortoise, which is often considered the exemplar of race games.

However, it is much more complicated and requires much more skill (even in the Jamaica variant) than children's race games like Snakes and Ladders.

The fact that each player has six pieces and three moves per turn makes the strategy somewhat different from most other games.