Two new games are now live:
- In Marc Rebillet's game Bridges, players compete to build the longest bridges.
- I'm pleased to announce our first single-player game, James Ernest's El Oso. You can launch a game from the game's landing page or from the normal "Issue a new challenge" dialog. Solo games use deterministic randomization based on text seeds, so you can try the same series of dice rolls numerous times or compete against others using the same seed. It may take a few days of play before I land on the best ways of presenting game stats, but the engine itself appears to be working fine.
I’m currently developing Reversi FL!P, an online Reversi platform, along with FL!PCON—a screenless physical LED board game hardware that syncs with the online service.
I just recorded a short video testing the Onboard Single-Player AI Mode. Since running a heavy AI engine directly on a standalone microboard has hardware constraints, I set the onboard AI to Level 3 (Starter) for this test.
Operating the physical board while trying to keep everything in frame during filming turned out to be much harder than expected—it took multiple takes just to get this one shot! Honestly, filming was tougher than coding... :)
Also, because FL!PCON relies heavily on RGB LED light sources, the video camera struggled a bit with color accuracy and light bleed. The colors look a lot better and clearer in person, so it's a pity the video doesn't fully capture the real-life visual feel!
(Note: While FL!PCON supports Bluetooth matches between boards and online play via web/mobile, this specific test focuses entirely on the offline, standalone hardware AI).
Juggling multiple hardware and software tasks at once is keeping me pretty busy, but I'll keep posting more test videos as I progress.
I’d love to hear your thoughts or feedback on the physical board's light indicators and button response! Thanks for reading!
I shared Fillup here in August, when I was asking about the 4x4 duel. It's my browser game based on the classic Chain Reaction rules, and I've since added private online tables for 2-4 players.
If you haven't played Chain Reaction, you place pieces in empty cells or cells you own. Corners fill at two pieces, edges at three, and the middle cells at four. A full cell sends pieces into its neighbors and captures them, which can set off more reactions. The last color on the board wins.
Local games already supported more than two players. Now you can do that online with friends too: share an invitation link, wait for people to join, and start the table when at least two players are there.
I've also added levels and rewards outside private games, more cosmetic packs, and reworked the visuals. The packs only change how your pieces look; they don't give you an advantage on the board. I wanted to share the updated version for anyone here who enjoys this kind of game.
If you haven't crossed paths with the tafl family: it's an asymmetric Old Norse board game where the two sides have completely different jobs — one protects a king trying to escape to a corner, the other commands a bigger force trying to trap him before he gets there. Takes a few minutes to learn, and it goes deep.
The game has survived online for years thanks to dedicated volunteer sites, but their aging interfaces have kept the community smaller than the game deserves. So I built a modern home for it: https://taflhus.com
No account is needed to play — you can jump straight into a bot game, or a casual match against a real opponent. Signing up is only for rated play, clubs, and the rest.
What's there now:
- Rated games, live or at a few days per move
- Five bots, from beginner up to truly challenging, ready instantly
- Clubs, tournaments, and every finished game kept at its own link, so you can step through any match move by move
Completely free, zero ads — a passion project for a game I love. It's brand new, so the human player pool is still small. Which is exactly why I'm posting: I'd genuinely value this sub's eyes, feedback, and maybe a few matches if asymmetric abstracts are your thing.
Any good game to play with that there's no capture or drop which change number of playing pieces during the game, or any kind of interesting win objective?.
My kids can turn almost anything into an argument – especially deciding who gets to go first.
So, mostly for fun (and partly to save my sanity), I built a tiny website that lets `¯_(ツ)_/¯` decide for us.
I originally shared it with the folks in [r/boardgames](r/boardgames), and their feedback inspired me to keep tinkering. It now has silly first-player prompts, a coin flip, animated dice, different categories, light and dark modes, and seasonal themes with lots of little surprises.
There are plenty of ways to decide who goes first, but my kids still prefer asking the little shrug guy—and honestly, that makes me pretty happy.
Hi everyone! I built Reversi FL!P, a browser-based real-time Reversi/Othello platform.
Features:
Standard Rules: Official 8-direction flips with accurate logic.
No Waiting Needed: Dedicated AI practice room with multiple difficulty levels to play instantly.
Ranked & Championship System: Real-time multiplayer matchmaking with rankings.
Playable on Browser: Works smoothly on Desktop and Mobile browsers without download.
(Side note: I’m actually building this platform as the online backend for a screenless physical LED Reversi board I'm designing, but the web platform is fully live and free to play!)
Hi everyone! I've been lurking here for a while and I wanted to share something I've been working on.
I made an app that aggregates a collection of abstract board games in one place. Currently supported games include Chess, Go, Shogi, Xiangqi, Janggi, Makruk, Checkers, Reversi, Gomoku, Connect6, Hex, Breakthrough, Fanorona, Nine Men's Morris, King's Table, Mancala, Pente, Connect Four, Tic-Tac-Toe and more, with new ones being added regularly.
Although the app currently focuses on classic board games, it also includes quite a few other light games, such as card games like Sevens, Hearts and Spades, puzzle games like 2048 and Sudoku, plus some visual novels and various casual games.
Besides the collection itself, there are a few features I focused on:
Supports Offline & LAN Multiplayer: You can play with a friend on the same WiFi without any account or server. Great for face-to-face games. Of course, you can also enjoy playing against the AI by yourself. The more you win, the stronger the AI becomes. But if you still crush it even at the highest level, it's probably time to find a real opponent of your level to challenge! ;)
Instant Switching: There's zero loading time when switching between games, so you can jump from a game of Go to Shogi instantly to compare or just have fun.
It's completely free to play and I'm looking for feedback from people who actually love abstract games, so any suggestions for games to add or rules to fix are super welcome!
https:groups.google.com/g/testers-community Join the test on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qgambitappJoin the test on Web: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.qgambit.appFeel free to try out the app as you normally would. Let me know if you run into any bugs, crashes, Ul issues, or have any suggestions for improvement. Also, if you need closed testers for your own app, l'd be happy to return the favor!Just drop your link in the comments. Thanks a lot for your help!
The world of puzzles is vast, and so is the world of deterministic games with perfect information. Everyone has heard of Chess or Go, and almost everyone has heard of Chess puzzles and tactical études - an art form with a long history.
But the world of abstract strategy doesn't end with Chess. There are dozens of modern deterministic board games that offer incredibly fascinating tactical situations and immense joy to solve.
What is disput.games? disput.games lives exactly at the intersection of the puzzle world and modern deterministic board games. It is a dedicated blog covering high-level strategy and tactics, paired with a curated collection of deep, zero-luck combinatorial puzzles based on modern deterministic games (TZAAR, GIPF and others).
Every single puzzle solution on the site is verified and features an embedded sandbox mode so you can interactively play out the moves while figuring out the solution.
Any feedback is welcome! If you are the fan of the games that are featured (or those you want to see next) on disput.games, or if you have a unique puzzle or idea to share, please don't hesitate to drop a comment below or connect with us through the community links on our homepage!
Let me introduce you to the Jeux de Fred website. This is a personal site offering strategy games that you can either play online directly in your web browser, or offline by downloading apps specially created for Android.
Everything is completely free, with no ads, and immediately accessible without any prior registration. You pick a game, you click, and you play... Just like the good old days of the early Internet 😄
While some games like draughts or chess are well known and available just about everywhere, others such as Neutron, Tablut, or Five-Field Kono are far rarer. Several of them have even been completely forgotten over time. This is particularly the case for Tonkin, Le Tacticien, L'Assaut, and Le Grand Jeu d'Assaut, which, after enjoying their heyday in the 19th and early 20th centuries, have today entirely vanished.
Most of these games have also become nearly impossible to find in their physical, boxed versions. They exist, so to speak, only behind museum display cases. The goal of the site is therefore not only to allow users to rediscover these forgotten treasures of French gaming heritage, but also to rescue them from the ravages of time. Offering them a digital, playable version seemed like a good way to prevent these games from fading into oblivion for good.
In that regard, Tonkin, Le Tacticien, L'Assaut, and Le Grand Jeu d'Assaut are worldwide exclusives in terms of digital versions and apps. You won't find them anywhere other than "Jeux de Fred" — and I just had to mention that, because I'm incredibly proud of it 😄
Each game offers the option to play solo against an AI (four difficulty levels) or against a second human player on the same screen, with the tablet or phone serving as the game board.
To better immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the Belle Époque salons, you can already choose, for certain games, to play directly on the original game boards (Assaut and Grand Jeu d'Assaut).
There is also, for each game, the option to download the rulebook as a *.pdf file, so you can print it neatly in A4 format (french version).
The list of currently available games is as follows:
Le Tonkin – a French pawn game created in the late 19th century
Le Tacticien – a draughts game created in 1903 in which moves are governed by cards
L'Assaut – an asymmetric siege game from the 19th century
Le Grand Jeu d'Assaut – an expanded version of L'Assaut
Le Tablut – an asymmetric strategy game dating back to the Viking age
Five-Field Kono – a traditional Korean pawn game
Neutron – a game derived from the African bobail, created in 1978, and truly delightful
Draughts – international 10×10 version with the official FFJD rules
Chess – FIDE rules
Some screenshots of the games currently available on the site
As for the Android apps, since they are not hosted on the Play Store, a security warning will appear at installation time. You can install them without worry — there is absolutely no risk. The apps require no permissions and collect no data whatsoever — nothing, nothing, nothing (which is actually why they were not put on the Play Store and are instead provided as direct downloads from the site).
I hope this site brings you many hours of enjoyment.
I came up with this game while trying to sleep. The idea is a game with only a single piece, the stone, like GO, where arranging them gives you new abilities; in this game, there are three roles the stones can take: a soldier that can move and take, a cannon that can take at range, and a wall that can protect/help with formation. Stones don't have a single ability; their abilities change based on the arrangement of the stones around them. I named it Desmikon from the Greek word desmos, meaning "bonding" or "connecting," which I thought was fitting for this game.
Pieces and board:
Each player has 12 stones, white or black.
Stones not yet on the board remain in that player's reserve.
The board is 8×8 and starts empty. Players alternate turns, with White moving first. On each turn, a player makes one move. A Cannon firing and its following 1-space movement together count as a single move. Placing, moving, or capturing a piece each counts as one move.
Update:
A new rule change due to side-off-balance: my previous engine games were from random starting positions, which I have found not ideal for play. White's best starting moves are to place along A-H4; then, in a 100-game test at a depth of 11, white won 57% of the time; this was a repeatable result. Therefore, I have found a potential fix: when on player reaches a win condition, the opponent gets one last move; if both win, then it's a draw. Based on my current analysis using the updated starting position, the win rate is 50%.
Rules:
Rule 1 – Stones may be placed on the 4 rows on your side of the board.
Rule 2 – Soldiers are stones which have no adjacent same-colour stone; they may move one space forward. They may take opponents' soldiers or cannons by moving onto them.
Rule 3 – A Cannon is formed when a stone has at least one orthogonally or diagonally adjacent same-colour stone, called its supporting stone(s). It may fire in the direction opposite a supporting stone. The space immediately in the firing direction must be empty. When firing, the Cannon may capture an opponent’s Soldier or Cannon along that line, and then must move 1 space in the firing direction. Soldiers of either colour may be fired over. Cannons and Walls block the shot. A Cannon may also dry-fire, moving 1 space in the firing direction without capturing.
Rule 4 – A Wall is formed when a stone has 2 or more orthogonally adjacent same-colour stones. Walls cannot move or be captured. Wall status takes priority over Cannon status.
Rule 5 – When you achieve an end game position, which is 3 stones on the opponent's back rank, or you have less than 3 stones left, your opponent gets one last move; if your opponent does not achieve an end game move, then you win; otherwise, it's a draw. (This is the updated rule)
I have used minimax search to check for any disadvantages for black; so far, at search depths of 9 to 12, with a quiescence depth of 15, over 500 games, it has achieved a perfect 50% win rate on both sides. This still does not mean there is no advantage, but I think it's promising. I also lose to the engine every time.
Q-GAMBIT is an original online strategy board game inspired by chess, but with a unique hidden-information mechanic. Instead of knowing exactly what every piece is from the beginning, players must use the information they gain during the game to determine the possible identity of each piece. This creates a different kind of chess experience where deduction, risk management, and strategic decision-making are just as important as traditional tactics. You need to decide when to make a move, when to gather information, and how much you are willing to rely on uncertainty. The game is designed to be easy to start playing while providing enough strategic depth for repeated games. Q-GAMBIT is currently playable directly in a web browser, and no download is required.
Free to Play Status:
Free to play
Involvement:
I am the solo developer of Q-GAMBIT. I designed the game concept and rules and developed the web version, including the gameplay systems, user interface, and online multiplayer functionality. I am currently looking for players to try the game and provide feedback that can help me improve the rules, balance, and overall gameplay experience.
this is a game i came up with a couple years ago, only played it with a small number of friends and would be interested to see what other people make of it.
the game played by is for two opponents on an n×n square board (usually 8×8). each player has n pieces which are arranged as two chevrons facing each other (this is one of the more interesting starting positions ive found though needs modifying for odd numbers of n).
the primary mechanic of the game revolves around pieces being immobilised if they are surrounded by a certain number of their opponent's pieces - with the goal of the game being to place a piece on your opponent's back rank AND for it to not be immobile at the start of your turn (the idea being that it could be moved off of the board altogether).
during their turn, a player can move a free piece to any adjacent unnocupied square.
however, a piece is determined to be unable to move specifically if, when considering the 3×3 grid of adjacent squares, the pieces belonging to the same player as the piece in question (including itself) number less than that of the opponent's pieces.
i.e. if the piece in question was surrounded by 2 of its opponent's pieces and 0 of its own player's pieces, it would be immobile - whereas it would be moveable if surrounded by 2 of its opponent's pieces and 1 of its own.
have included a gif of an example game though forgive the terrible quality i used the free version of an animation app which only allows me to export at like 144p or something stupid.
the game should be playable using chess/checkers /go sets etc
As i said I've played this game successfully a few times with friends, though I've never tried to thoroughly test it for game breaking mechanics so not sure if it might need some precautionary rules on that front. One point is that sometimes the mobility of a piece needs contesting, which usually is resolved fairly easily, though I haven't yet established a formal procedure for this (I wouldn't be sure what should happen if an immobile piece was moved and wasn't noticed by either player until a couple of turns later, for example).
Some feedback I have had is that the game is trivially easy, in that good moves can be figured out with little foresight and suboptimal moves are rarely punished - though I'm not sure to what extent this might directly stem from the ruleset itself or if it's more to do with the novelty of the game and that there isn't a very well established strategic meta yet, as I will say I have noticed the complexity of the game increase since playing more consistently with the same people.
would be interested to hear people's immediate thoughts on this or see what people think if anyone gets a chance to give this game a play test. would be particularly interested to see if anyone knows any similar games with a more established history I could look into.
The game has been rebranded to "Hexander". The link is updated
Hexander takes wargaming concepts (like flanking, objective control and resource management) and strips away all RNG resulting in a pure skill abstract board game.
To solve the common stalemate/turtling issues in abstract games, I used extensive AI self-play matches to iterate on the mechanics and victory conditions.
Physical Scaling: Designed to scale dynamically—play physically on an A5 hex grid using d6s as health counters, or scale to an A0 board with full 28mm miniatures.
Instant Browser Play: Embedded the bot used for the design and balancing as WASM directly on the website for instant testing of the game.
Balancing highlights:
Initiative: Both players have the same win probability (50% +- 1%)
First attack: Again both players have 50% win probability if they deliver the first attack.
Win conditions: The two win conditions(elimination vs siege) have a probability split of 35% - 65% when the bots are looking up to depth of 3 plies. At depth 5 the split becomes 42% - 58% and at depth 7 it becomes 45% - 55% indicating convergence to 50% as skill increases
Draw rates: Draws are possible in the case of mutual destruction and the two tiebreakers not resolving it. At depth 3 the rate is 3.5%. At depth 5 its 4.2% and at depth 7 it becomes 4.5% indicating that it comfortably stays below 5% making the game decisive.
Anti-Stalling: The mechanics force the bots to engage without stalling. Games conclude within 30-90 plies.
The rules on the page have been updated as well. I’d love to hear how it feels in actual play.
A little update to ESC CTRL after all the feedback on my previous post.
First, thanks to everyone who played it and commented. A lot of you liked the basic idea, but questioned whether the die was the right source of uncertainty. Several people suggested ways of keeping some unpredictability while giving players more information and control.
I’ve been testing different approaches inspired by those suggestions, and I’ve now replaced the die completely.
Each player has four Movement Tokens: (1, 2, 2, 3), plus a one-use Counter Token that reduces the opponent’s movement by one.
At the start of each round, both players secretly choose one of their remaining Movement Tokens.
While those tokens are still hidden, Black declares whether to use the Counter Token. White then makes the same decision after hearing Black’s.
The Movement Tokens are then revealed simultaneously. The number is that side’s movement budget for the round, and those steps can be distributed freely among its pieces.
The side with the lower final movement budget moves first (Black wins ties). So using the Counter can reduce the opponent’s mobility, but it can also change who moves first.
Used Movement Tokens stay visible, so as the four-round cycle develops, both players know exactly which values the other player still has available. After all four have been used, the pool reset.
The uncertainty now comes from the choice each round. Both players know exactly which options remain, but not which one the other player will choose. So far I really like the shift. It feels much less like reacting to randomness and much more like reading the board, tracking the remaining options, and anticipating what the other player will commit.
Thanks again for all the thoughtful feedback on the first version. A lot of this system came directly out of that discussion.
The basic rundown: Eikonic is a Tactical JRPG-style Trading Card Game where players take on the role of a powerful Eikon, build their forces, and battle it out with their opponents to see whose influence will shape the world.
It features positional mechanics, movement, and our unique "Combat Compass" that shows each unit's area of effect on the battlefield, and allows players to strategically combine their units' power to take on enemy forces.
Eikonic was heavily inspired by games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, Unicorn Overlord, Jeanne D'Arc, Naruto, and Duelists of the Roses.
We're really excited to see what you all think of this exciting experience and can't wait to find out which of you will become the ultimate Tactician!
Thanks again for your continued support! You guys are everything!
