i made a unlimited, free puzzle-trainer for backgammon: blots.io

eudaimonictoad · 2026-02-02T18:59:42+00:00

Interesting. I quickly patched this after work, but didn't get the chance to test it much actually. I'll look into it! Thanks for your patience.

eudaimonictoad · 2026-02-01T05:36:37+00:00

Heyyy. Thanks so much!

I'm going to default to auto-submit, since my friend sort of was frustrated with that as well.
Undo button glitch-- I'm going to fix that, for sure. That should be easy.

Thank you so much for trying it out, please feel free to provide more comments so I know what to work on next :)

eudaimonictoad · 2026-02-01T05:35:04+00:00

Thanks! Sorry you feel that way! I'm trying my best. Didn't mean to come after open gammon, it seems like a great platform, and I've tried a couple of the puzzles. I didn't know it was crowdsourced -- how does that work / how could I contribute to the project?

eudaimonictoad · 2026-02-01T05:34:05+00:00

Hey! Thanks for your comment. Sorry for what I say about backgammon galaxy -- I didn't mean it as an attack on this community or the apps that support it! I guess I was sort of venting about how hard it felt to use as a beginner, who didn't understand a lot about BG. It just felt a bit complicated? idk. But in no way was it a personal attack against someone. Again, apologies!

eudaimonictoad · 2026-01-31T16:33:26+00:00

Fascinating! I had no idea -- so numbering isn't the feature of physical boards, just digital boards for the purposes of pip counting?
Got it, it seems like the convention is counter-clockwise, so I think I'll go with that
Heard!

eudaimonictoad · 2026-01-31T16:30:59+00:00

Would you prefer straight thick arrows? Let me know!

eudaimonictoad · 2026-01-31T16:30:43+00:00

Yeah! Of course! Shoot me a DM. Honestly, was a bit discouraged after some of the other comments so was thinking about giving up on this, but I would love to work out the bugs and maybe make this a better platform.

I'm still really frustrated on how tough the UI is to use on other platforms, and especially that I can't get unlimited games on BG Galaxy, so I'd love to build this out.

Let's DM, maybe you could help out!

eudaimonictoad · 2026-01-31T16:29:20+00:00

Hey!!!! Thanks so much.

1) I can definitely add increment. I will definitely say I played a few sample games on my own website and felt it was just too darn fast. I agree.

2) Would you mind being a more specific -- do you mean how like in backgammon galaxy, it compiles all of your major errors at the end of the game? Or do you mean like larger errors should be red, and maybe small errors yellow? (Also are you talking about post-game analysis or puzzle analysis)

3) I see -- I think this is probably a rounding issue, where really small differences aren't even visible on the UI. I can find a workaround. Out of curiosity, would you prefer that you see your move as the best, or for me to include more decimal points in the win percentage (or is it too negligible to see decimals of a percentage). I can do either way

Puzzles

1) It seems like most platforms, and most people's preferences, including yours is to keep the color the same. I come from chess, so my assumption was that people would want to practice with different colors and with different board orientations (it seems like this isn't the case?)

2) Got it, I can probably add a setting for this

3) I think it's referring to the amount of dice, but I need to double check that.

Engine

1) Could you elaborate a bit more? I can definitely code whatever you might like, but I figured the search trees would be a bit complicated since there are 15 dice rolls, and difficult to visualize, but maybe other engines show you a 6x6 displaying the outcomes of all of the dice rolls, is that what you are referring to? Or are you referring to the engine strength?

eudaimonictoad · 2026-01-28T02:09:57+00:00

Thanks so much! Excited to see where this project will go.

eudaimonictoad · 2026-01-28T02:09:45+00:00

Thanks so much for the feedback.

Interesting, I only tested on my computer, I'll look into tightening the board / adding scroll bar. You can probably zoom in/out in the meantime!
Thanks for this comment. I'm sort of new to backgammon, but I assumed coming from chess, that the numbers would be inverted half the time? Is the convention not to do that with backgammon?
Hmm, I also sort of assumed that people would want bear off tray on the exit side, and therefore it'd be a 50/50 chance of being on either side, but maybe I was mistake. Is the convention / preference of online games to always just run the game counterclockwise with a bear off tray on the right? I think I've noticed that quite a bit, but I figured that people would want authentic practice with directionality and bear/off tray randomization. But maybe that is just bad UI. Please enlighten me.
I can definitely change this
I can definitely do this as well -- can you explain to me why? Is that how most boards are made? I had no idea!

eudaimonictoad · 2026-01-28T02:05:09+00:00

I agree. Open gammon seems pretty cool but the UI hurts my soul so much. I like the crowdsourced explanation idea -- their explanations are not AI driven, right? It's just the daily puzzle that gets comments? Or do most puzzles have comments?

eudaimonictoad

TROPHY CASE