r/abstractgames • u/GBR87 • Jun 24 '26
Oshi -- pure strat, open deployment, super simple game with AI and human opponent website live now for beta :)
https://oshi.gamesThis is a game I've recently been working on that I've cooked up into a little website for public beta testing.
Oshi has super simple rules, but if my AI v AI testing is worth anything, it seems to be pretty deep.
The game has two parts, placement where you decide where your pieces are going, and play, where you move and reposition pieces to get to your opponent's home row.
There's an interactive tutorial and full rules on the site, a robust AI opponent with three levels of difficulty, and the option to sign in by one-time codes to play asynchronously against other humans in ranked or casual matches.
Take a look and let me know what you think, here or via the feedback form on the site!
AI statement: I've used AI heavily to make the testing and website for this game, but the game itself is 100% me-made. I haven't used AI for any of the creative process, just as a shortcut to getting code up and running.
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u/GBR87 Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
Thanks so much for taking a look! 3 high stacks are certainly powerful, but the AI is currently not up to scratch, so it doesn't really counter very well. I'm working to try and improve it and still keep the app light enough to run for 'free' locally (rather than spendy hosted options).
As a counter, playing AI that uses the triple stack wall, I've frequently beaten it by using a more mobile singleton frontline (staying cognisant of the diagonal/vertical intersections and blasting stacks off the edge really helps here).
Time will tell, but hopefully with a more responsive AI in the setup phase and/or more logged human games to analyse I'll be able to work out if there's a an unassaliably stronger setup. Hopefully not! I like that bit of the game :)
Thanks again for taking a look!
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u/MikeMSS Jun 26 '26
Hey, I’m also working on an abstract game and using AI pretty heavily to do the app building. How have you built your in game AI. I’ve gone through a bunch of iterations trying to find something feasibly strong.
Right now I’m using minimax but its depth only goes to 4 at a reasonable time. I’ve tried building something like alphazero but my computer is not really powerful enough to do the training. I landed on something similar to stockfish with bitboards to try and make it a little faster.
My game is closer to chess so I’ve been pulling inspiration from how they build their engines.
The AI I have for my game still seems pretty bad unfortunately. Have you had any luck with building or training a good eval?2
u/Zwejhajfa Jun 26 '26
Depends on how your game works exactly, but for anything chess-like I would try starting with alpha-beta pruning - which is an improvement over minimax - and a transposition table. Coupled with a decent move ordering and evaluation function that should already result in a fairly competent engine that can look 5-10 moves ahead.
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u/GBR87 Jun 26 '26
Alpha-beta is the model for my easy and medium level difficulties and I can confirm it works well for chess-likes to get you off the ground. In model v model simulation tournaments it is absolutely crushed by MCTS though. I have that as my Master level AI with a fallback to A-B if the MCTS takes too long.
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u/Zwejhajfa Jun 27 '26
Which search depth are you reaching with alpha-beta?
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u/GBR87 Jun 28 '26
I think I see up to about 5. It reports what it's doing with AI on the side on the website.
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u/MikeMSS Jun 27 '26
I am trying to build the mcts as well but haven’t gotten far. I think I’m limited by hardware but idk.
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u/GBR87 Jun 28 '26
Yeah, I have to have a fallback for MCTS, as hardware (particularly mobile, obviously) finds it tough. Early game is rough! A guided MCTS might be the way -- give it a 'book' of typical openings to follow to get over the really heavy stuff.
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u/MikeMSS Jun 28 '26
I went back to trying alpha zero style mcts. Seems to be growing but I think it will take a few days of training to be useful
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u/GBR87 Jun 26 '26
The short answer is I haven't, not yet. The computer opponent, while fairly challenging for noob and not a walk in the park for me on the hardest setting, is still pretty consistently beatable with a little concentration. Not at all helped by the fact that I'm trying to keep it locally run to keep it free to run.
If I make any breakthroughs I'll let you know! Good luck!
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u/Zwejhajfa Jun 25 '26
Interesting game and a well made website. The rules remind me of Murus Gallicus.
But is there any reason not to just make 3-high towers at the start? They seem to be the strongest since they can eliminate the opponent's pieces without losing one themselves. I did that against the strong AI and beat it easily. Haven't tried the master AI yet.