Coloration is played on a 17x17 grid of squares. Some squares are marked with a circle in one of eight colors; these squares form diagonal lines crossing the board from corner to corner and side to side. The board's central square is marked with a red diamond. The game includes 154 square tiles: 15 red, 25 orange, 35 yellow, 35 green, 25 blue, 15 violet, and 4 "stopper" tiles, which are half black and half color. Racks are included for each player. The tiles are placed face down in a "pool." Each player draws seven tiles to make his "hand," and will continuously draw again to maintain a hand of seven. Players begin placing their tiles on the board, attempting to make "sequences" of colors. The rules provide for a number of these, including a rainbow sequence, a hot spectrum sequence, a cold spectrum sequence, and more. These sequences incorporate the existing colors of the board and are governed by still more rules. Different levels of points are scored for each sequence as players complete their turns. Play continues until no more sequences are possible; the player with the most points wins the game.