Show HN: Tiao, A two-player turn-based board game

(playtiao.com)

59 points | by trebeljahr a day ago ago

28 comments

  • rytill a day ago

    Hey! I played against a bot and it was pretty fun.

    Small suggestion: too many queues can make it very difficult to build up a network of players at first. I'd suggest, for now, lowering the amount of available time control queues so that two players who happen to be on at the same time are more likely to actually find a game.

    • trebeljahr a day ago

      That is such a good idea.

      I just looked at lichess and copied their time controls queue screen/options. But you're so right! I'm thinking which time control would be best for the beginning... 10 mins maybe?

  • simplify a day ago

    Cool concept! I play Go, and it's extremely unnerving that all the good shapes you play in Go are essentially the worst shapes you can play in Tiao :D

  • Rendello a day ago

    Cool! I've tried (and I guess failed) to build two of my favourite combinatorial games: the ancient "Konane" and the modern "Shōbu". At least the latter's project taught me property-based testing in Erlang.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dnane

    https://boardgamegeek.com/video/482389/shobu/how-to-play-sho...

    • trebeljahr a day ago

      I've never heard of either before but they look like a lot of fun :)

      I like the video introduction on the board game geek site, maybe I should film something like this with my friend for Tiao and also put a page up there? :D

  • tajd a day ago

    I loved this.

    A shameless plug for myself and my own investigations into the world of old strategy games - https://tom-dickson.com/blog/trias-game-investigation/ - was where I did an investigation into the game called Trias/ternii lapilli which is like an old version of tic tac toe.

  • scythmic_waves a day ago

    It's fun! I play some chess but I am not a natural at this game. I think I need an AI easier than easy haha

  • yashwi_ 14 hours ago

    Nice implementation. Out of curiosity, how are you handling multiplayer state sync?

    For a board game like this I’d imagine sending move events and letting clients recompute the board locally rather than syncing the whole board every turn. Curious what approach you took.

  • mylifeandtimes 11 hours ago

    would be great to have a 'learner' mode where I could take back a move after the computer jumps 5 of my pieces :)

    I'd also appreciate if illegal moves highlighed in a slightly less intense color, so we could see they were illegal. At the moment, when I'm hovering over the board, I don't know if a move is legal or not until I click-- and then it is too late!

    • gurjeet 10 hours ago

      > ... 'learner' mode where I could take back a move after the computer ...

      The 'Undo move' button does exactly that.

  • smlavine 16 hours ago

    Finally won a game against the Easy bot on the 9x9 board after around 10 tries.

    Seems like if you want to force a win, you have to think about how to put your opponent in "Zugzwang" (to borrow a Chess term).

  • smlavine 17 hours ago

    Very fun game! Has this been released before? This is the only place I can find that mentions it.

  • ymaws a day ago

    I can't beat easy, incredibly addictive game :)

  • WillMorr a day ago

    Clever! I really appreciate how well done the tutorial is, it's just about the easiest game intro I've ever experienced.

    • trebeljahr a day ago

      Thanks :)

      • trebeljahr a day ago

        I put a lot of work trying to make it as smooth as possible. But there's still some rough edges I think, have to play test it more with friends, just the amount of different assumptions that people bring to a tutorial and trying to handle all of them without being overwhelming is such a tricky balance to get right haha

  • homeonthemtn a day ago

    I appreciate the tutorial. I thought it was well done. I'd love to see something like that in some board games I've played.

  • zem a day ago

    great game and very nice implementation!

  • gammalost a day ago

    Now I am interested in playing a board game that is not turn-based

    • oniony a day ago

      Yeah, I play a lot of board games and was confused by the explicit statement that it was turned based, as most board games are turned based and realtime boardgames are pretty exceptional.

      Anyhow, off the top of my head:

      * Galaxy Trucker

      * Pendulum

      * Captain Sonar

      * Sidereal Confluence

      * Kitchen Rush

      • trebeljahr a day ago

        Oh true haha :)

        I guess I just added this "turn based" phrase because it's online and for me felt somehow more descriptive of what it is, but you're absolutely right.

        And now I also wonder what would a non-turn based board game look like?

        I'll have to try one of those you recommended and find out :)

    • bdsa 21 hours ago

      Magic Maze

      Bananagrams

      probably others from my shelves

  • mock-possum a day ago

    Oh wow I am terrible at this

    Nice implementation though, plays pretty well in n my little bitty mobile screen