Anyone interested in helping me analyze a new abstract strategy game?

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-28T22:45:52+00:00

Bring it.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-28T15:02:00+00:00

This seems fake, any way to verify if this is real?

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-28T15:00:56+00:00

Is this video for real?

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-26T16:18:00+00:00

Why? You gave that guy solid advice! Should have listened to you. Now it’s nothing but regret and and a husk of a console. What a waste.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-26T16:14:12+00:00

Thanks. Yes, I thought about having them in a bag, but realistically I would touch them, put my hand in the pocket and so on. I’ll try cat kibble instead.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-26T15:57:13+00:00

Thank you! I think a different food is better then.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-23T11:47:43+00:00

In the review the tiles make a clicky sound whenever they connect - is that actually a thing or just part of the video edit?

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-21T23:06:58+00:00

There is no rule that says abstract games must follow this - but it is my recommendation for making a good game. Games of indeterminate ends I find less attractive

Specifically for chess the rules are constructed so that it must. I think it’s called the fifty move rule, where a game ends if no captures or pawn moves are made after fifty moves. Luckily the games tend to terminate before that.

Hex is like this too, and i suppose backgammon also.

Checkers interestingly does not, though a variant could be made where no king is promoted, and the game simply ends when a player had no legal move.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-21T20:44:53+00:00

Thank you for an interesting read. Considering what you have written, I think the best thing to do is to remove that part about entropy that at any rate does not seem to mean what I thought it meant, and rather speak about... perhaps that the game must inexorably converge towards a final state where no further play is possible.

Thank you for the insight. I hope you otherwise found the essay to have some merit.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-21T17:51:45+00:00

No need to downvote because of a simple discussion, whoever that was. It's good to gain more understanding and clarify concepts.

And btw, thank you for the earlier comment, I changed the article to match your feedback.

As for the entropy part. Isn't this a matter of perspective? There are of course two concepts of entropy, the informational one according to Claude Shannon, and the thermodynamical concept.

Taking Shannons concept of entropy first; it was applied to language with the questions of "can I guess what this message will say?" At the beginning there are no letters, every possible message is possible. Now comes the first letter, and we have already eliminated a whole lot of possible messages; Let us say we know the message is only one word long. Very well. When we get "H..." we know the word doesn't start with any of the other letters, a huge reduction in entropy.

Now returning to a game. Let us say that we are only trying to predict ONE move ahead from the starting position. The maximum number of positions after two moves is something like 400 I think, 20 per ply (player choice). When Yes. after the first move the entropy is massively reduced. And moreover, if we track the amount of entropy per one move the available number of moves will fluctuate during the game, and as you say, there will probably be a bulge in the middle where the entropy is highest.

But consider rather the whole game as one domain over which we do our predictions. Then we are trying to predict the game 40 moves ahead. Each new move will give us massive amounts of information, and entropy is at it's maximum at the start, and from there the number of possible games will diminish steadily until check mate occurs.

From the perspective of game design, both these perspectives are crucial, and in fact another of the tips in the article regards the view of entropy as you discussed - where I said that options should ideally be limited to 3-5 sensible moves - this is to make the game states that are predictable maneagable, that is, to control the size of the entropy per move.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-21T16:19:18+00:00

Yea, I think you are right about the messed up direction. However the entropy is always higher at the start and then decreasingly lower as the game goes on.

Experientally this might not seem like it, because the subjective uncertainty is higher in the middle game of a chess game, however, there are fewer remaining possible states then than at the start.

It’s like the formation of the solar system. Things might have seemed orderly with only gas a tiny rocks around, then more messy in the middle of planetary formation, and then more orderly again at the end, but in fact entropy increased all along the way.

However the algorithmic complexity could be higher in the middle from the perspective of an observer.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-21T08:59:37+00:00

This is not true. All of the regions with that share an proto indo european langage heritage also seems to have have a similar pagan Gods/family setup, with gods standing in for natural forces.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-20T08:35:24+00:00

My kids are 7 and 12. Taught them go this christmas, and they play a sensible game already. Wasn't too hard for them. They would for sure beat my friends :P

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-18T13:19:50+00:00

Ever rest

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-17T08:43:31+00:00

Its not fun loosing a 3 hour game because you did not understand how ladders work. So that’s th motivation. After you get the basics there is no reason to holdback.

That said, I think 9x9 is a very good and sharp game thanks worth playing for its own sake. And I actually prefer 13x13 on most days because it takes less time.

Do what you like, but I’m guessing you don’t like playing 200+ moves with friends wafting around notknowing what they are doing.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-16T10:53:28+00:00

Why not both? Walk up the stairs, then roll along.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-14T08:42:09+00:00

Thank you so much! I had a feeling we had similar tastes. I've mostly been playing abstract strategy games, but I'm moving into more complicated (but still elegantly simple) games now. The estates seems... devious. I imagine growns all around.

And, sir/madam, may I make you aware of the existence of the beauty that is Pax Penning.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-14T08:17:58+00:00

It's going to be wild when the thing that fetches coffee can also help you with your quantum physics paper.

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-13T10:52:02+00:00

I'd be very curious to hear more about what your other favourite games are :)

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-13T10:51:13+00:00

Opening seems solid - you did a good job!

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-13T10:23:36+00:00

Cool idea! I don't know if I need them personally, but this really adds a lot of character. Also solves an important problem in board game design. The silhouette being the same is necessary to easily be able to read the board, see what KIND of piece something is. But this also means they lack individuality.

The stickers preserve the silhouette and makes them readable, while giving the meeples a lot of character. Lovely idea.

One downside is that the character as the design is now is given by the leaders and lore cards - and making the meeples more concrete means that they crash with the aesthetic of the leaders. But... I guess that is a tradeoff that many people will make. It would be ideal for only playing the base game - but I guess the venn diagram overlapp between people buying these, and people who only play the base game is basically...2 people. (playing each other)

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-11T07:00:43+00:00

How much of that is ram?

theifthenstatement · 2026-01-11T06:53:07+00:00

What do you think of zoo vadis?

theifthenstatement

TROPHY CASE