Tabletop Dots and Boxes is gametable's third game. Dots and Boxes is a fun and simple classic pen-and-paper game for 2 or more players. The game starts with an empty grid of dots. The grid can be any size and Gametable's Dots and Boxes has a handful of board sizes to choose from.

Players take turns connecting 2 unjoined horizontally or vertically adjacent dots. A player who completes the fourth side of a 1x1 box earns one point and must take another turn.

The game ends when all lines are drawn and boxes are claimed. The player with the most points wins. If more than one player has the same high score, the game is a tie.

Features:

• Up to 4 players
• 4 computer difficulties to challenge
• Different board sizes to choose from
• A number of fun game board themes
• Automatic game saves so you can come back anytime

Neato Programming Notes

• Creating a challenging AI for this game was... hard. It turns out that a simple Minimax or Negamax based solver doesn't work well as an AI for more than 2 players. We had to do quite a bit of research to find an AI approach that would work well. We stumbled upon a little known algorithm, Hypermax, that did the trick. Additionally, the game state tree for even a fairly small dots and boxes board is absolutely massive and pretty much unapproachable for real time AI. We spent the majority of coding time on this project figuring out how to reduce the search space with intelligent move generation, ordering, and culling. The AI turned out pretty great and is extremely challenging even in two player mode. We're extremely proud of this technical achievement.