Mar 21, 2005

A Quoridor variant

FOUR-WAY WALLS
==============
* One player has stones n s e w, the other N S E W.
* Each stone must try to cross the boundary furthest in its name-direction.
* With 13444 equalizer, in each turn each of a player's stones, (move order at the mover's discretion), must move one orthogonal step; then a wall is played (but not on the boundary); all as in Corridor.
* If any stones are adjacent to the moving stone in its chosen direction, it may jump them to the next vacant cell. If a wall blocks this direction part-way through such a jump, either unblocked right-angle may be turned.
* The winner is the first player to get three stones off the board.


  A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K
a + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +
  :                                       :
b :   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   :
  :             s                         :
c :   +   +   +   +-------+-------+   +   :
  :                     W                 :
d :   +   +   +-------+   +   +   +   +   :
  :         S |     e |                   :
e :   +   +   +   +   |   +   +   +   +   :
  :         E |       |                   :
f :   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   :
  :       |                 N |           :
g :   +   +   +   +   +   +   |   +   +   :
  :       |         n         |           :
h :   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   :
  :                             w         :
i :   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   :
  :                   |                   :
j :   +   +-------+   |   +   +   +   +   :
  :                   |                   :
k + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +

   N E S W    wall    n e s w    WALL
   """""""""""""""""""""""""""""
1. - - - W    CEj     e e s -    Fik
2. N E S W    GIc     n e w w    Cfh
3. N N S W    EGc     n e w w    DFd
4. N N W W    Hhf     n e w s    Ddf  
5. N E S N    Fdf


This is a very fun game. Both player must, at each turn, decide which enemy player they want to delay, while advancing their own as far as possible.

Mar 8, 2005

Trabsact Sagme Diaries

Let complexity emerge - do not seek it out. [T.Sagme, Proverbs 2, 14].

Mar 4, 2005

Self-limitation

We, email game inventors (not many I know), tend to create (and play) games that are ascii-friendly. The same happened with the appearance of Zillions. Many new games are Zillions-friendly, especially Chess Variants submitted at CVP's contests (there are nearly one thousand CV's for Zillions). I'm not saying it is bad, but it is always important to notice our self-imposed limitations.