Show HN: Tic Tac Flip – A new strategic game based on Tic Tac Toe
tic-tac-flip.web.appThe biggest problem with Tic-Tac-Toe is that it almost always ends in a draw. Tic Tac Flip tries to fix that!
Learn the rules in Learning Mode or below:
- Winning Criteria: 3 Ghosts (Flipped O or X, which can be a mixture). It's not just 3 Os or 3 Xs anymore!
- Flipping Mechanic: When one or more lines having only O and X are formed, the minority of either all Os or all Xs get flipped to a Ghost, and the majority gets removed from the board. E.g., A line of 2 Os and 1 X leads to 1 X ghost and the removal of 2 Os.
- Active Flip: You can actively flip your O/X to a Ghost (or flip a ghost back) once per game.
- Placing Ghost Directly: You can place a "Ghost" piece directly as a final winning move (only once, and only when there are two existing ghosts in a line).
I'm looking for feedback on the game balance and learning curve. Specifically: - Is the "Ghost" and "Flip" mechanic intuitive? - Is the Learning Mode helpful? - Is the game fair? Any rule adjustments needed? - Any bugs or issues?
Any suggestions or comments would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance!
There's an assured win combo in this game, at least against the Hard AI. The combo is as follows:
Take the top left corner. It takes the center. Take the bottom left corner. It flips it's center piece every time. Take either right corner. It takes the remaining corner. Take the center right. Flip one of your left corner pieces to form a diagonal ghost line
If the AI doesn't take the center and waste its flip, then it can definitely be countered.
As for feedback, I'd say i had a few moments where i was confused as to why a whole cluster of pieces flipped to ghosts. Honestly if that was described in a tutorial better it'd probably be a non-issue.
Thank you for the feedback! You are so smart to find the "always win" strategy! I don't even think about it. As for "a whole cluster", do you mean more than 1 line? Did you try the Learning Mode? I can add the more than 1 line example into the Learning Mode to clarify it.