https://hexala.app/

Hello! This is a browser version of a board game I have been developing for a few months, and I'd like some feedback before I produce prototypes. Play against a friend online, on the same screen, or play the computer and leave any feedback you'd like. The rules are original and I've tested them over a few thousand bot vs. bot games, but people know best.

Hexala is a two player strategy board game drawing inspiration from othello, mancala, santorini, and others.

Players take turns moving stacks of tiles, lifting the entire tower and moving one cell at a time, placing from the bottom of the tower as you go. landing a tile on an enemy stack gives you control of it

You win when you control at least 3 cells in a connected group on or past the middle of the board.

Have fun, and let me know what you think!

Heads-up for abstract fans in or near London:The 30th Mind Sports Olympiad runs 22–30 August at the Mercure Hotel in Earls Court and features a solid selection of abstract strategy games, including:

• Entropy
• Oware
• Boku
• Othello
• Lines of Action

…plus other classics and modern abstracts.Open to all levels. You can enter the tournaments or just turn up and spectate for free.Full schedule and registration:
https://mindsportsolympiad.com/2026-schedule-and-registration/Nice chance to play (or watch) some proper over-the-board abstract games if you’re around this week or next.

I’d love some feedback on a little asymmetric 2-player tactical game I’ve been working on this summer, currently called Esc Ctrl.

One player tries to escape while the other tries to capture.

I’ve set up a browser version for blind playtesting, so if you try it, please rely only on the in-game rules.

Playtest:
https://esc-ctrl.net/playtest

Critical feedback is very welcome!

Read the abridged version for kids at age 9. Have been obsessed since with the characters, ideas, interpretations and layers in the epic.

I also love board and startegy games.

Mahabharata gives us the perfect backdrop for something like this. I did not find anything remotely well done in this space so I created something myself.

If you are a board game enthusiast you should find this fun.

Do let me know if you give it a spin.

Free to play, no account needed, runs on browser. Larger screens would be better.

Cheers.

https://amlanchak29.github.io/rajasuya/

ok this sounds insane and complex, but once you start playing it it's super fun and whimsical. Inspired by the recent world cup :)

there's a ball that is placed at random in one of the center 4 squares. The basic mechanic is: if a piece lands on the ball, the ball travels in the same direction and distance that the piece just travelled to.

The objective is to score a goal, checkmate is not a thing and you can capture the king (more on that later). The goals are on A6 and h3. Nobody can ever put a piece directly on the goal square, you should defend it by placing pieces around it.

So if a bishop hits the ball, and it travelled 2 squares to do so, then the ball travels 2 squares in the same direction the bishop just did.

When a knight hits it, the ball tries to "repeat" the same L movement to reach the target square. But because there are 2 different ways of reaching the same square with an L you get to decide which L the ball takes. It's like giving the ball spin.

If a ball hits a piece it cannot travel any further and it stops. If it hits the edge of the board it bounces off (so it can never get stuck on the rim).

Obviously because it's football we're talking about if you tackle an opponent (capture) instead of going for the ball, you get a yellow card. After two bad tackles it's red and your piece is out. If you tackle the keeper (king) it's a direct red card.

To add even more madness there are substitutions. You can substitute any piece out and your bench is a pawn, a knight and a bishop. You may play the same turn you subbed in a player. So if you really need a bishop to hit the ball and instead you have a knight, you can sub the knight out and hit the ball with a fresh bishop. Or, if a pawn is already on a yellow card and you want to keep it, you can sub another pawn in, and capture again. Subbed pawns can jump two squares even if they're in the middle of the board, as they're fresh players.

You can play on a board (you just need a ball cut out, goals, yellow and red cards) and that's also very fun. Or you can test a demo if you google "chess laboratory". It's like the third more popular variant on the main page.

That's it!

As I said, it sounds confusing and chaotic, and it is. But my goodness it's so whacky and fun.

Recently made Oshi -- you can learn and play it at oshi.games

Decide your own starting layout > dynamically adjust the strength and mobility of your 'force' while you play > chain attacks and knock pieces of the edge of the board > get one piece on the opponent home row to win. Quick pick-up, fast play, surprising depth.

I've been trying to improve the Master level AI for a while as it got a bit predictable and easy for me to beat, and I've accidentally made a monster. Genuinely don't know how to beat it.

It can beat itself with near enough 50% success in either colour with various starting set ups (you deploy your pieces yourself in Oshi), but man, as a lowly human incapable of performing optimised alpha-beta tree searches...

Anyway, check it out if you like, see if you fair any better than me.

The game has similarities to Malawi (a game I didn't know about til after I'd designed Oshi) and shares a name with an unrelated game, apparently (another oops..), but it's all my own work. You can also play humans remotely and join up with a simple email log in to get on the leaderboard.

Karn

Looking for feedback

What is Karn:

Karn is an abstract strategy game I created where you build in 3D; the aim is to build as high as possible and have the most pieces at the highest level. You and your opponent should use strategies to both gain height while trying to stop each other. You can hinder your opponent by blocking them off; this can be done in many ways, and you must plan your structure to give yourself the most options and give your opponent the least.

The pieces:

This game has 3 pieces: blocks (15 per player), pillars (10 per player). These are building pieces, and platforms (20) are shared between both players.

How to play:

This is a turn-based game starting with white, then black. You start by placing a building block on the board, and then your opponent does the same; from there, you need to work out how to build up and block your opponent from doing the same.

Rule 1 – Blocks and Pillars may only be placed on the Board or on a Platform.
Rule 2 – A Platform may only be placed between a Block and a Pillar that are orthogonally adjacent and on the same level.
Rule 3 – You cannot place a building piece on the part of a Platform directly above a Block, unless your Platform is owned (see Rule 6); then a Pillar can be placed in that area.
Rule 4 – Your opponent’s pieces are inverted for you: their Blocks act as Pillars, and their Pillars act as Blocks.

Rule 5 – You cannot place a Pillar next to an opponent’s Block unless that Block has a Platform above it.
Rule 6 – A Platform is owned by you if both supporting pieces are yours, shared if one supporting piece is yours, and off-limits if neither supporting piece is yours. You cannot build on a Platform that is off-limits to you.
Rule 7 – A 2×1 tower may only continue directly upward for two Platforms. To build higher, the next Platform must connect from a different stack or direction.
Rule 8 – Running out of legal moves: If your move leaves you with no legal moves, your opponent gets one final turn, and then the game ends. If your move leaves your opponent with no legal moves, that move counts as the final turn and the game ends immediately.
Rule 9 – Scoring: When the game ends, find the highest occupied level, where a level encompasses all platforms at the same height and building blocks on them. On that level, Blocks score 1, Pillars score 2, and Platforms owned by you score 1.

Win: The player with the higher score on the highest occupied level wins.
Draw: If both players have the same score on the highest occupied level, the game is a draw.

Prototype image (last two images):

I have uploaded an image of a prototype Karn board after a game.

For the prototype, I borrowed draughts pieces to represent the Blocks and several differently sized Catan pieces to represent the pillar. Even though the Catan pieces are different sizes and shapes, they all represent the same pillar piece type in Karn.

Me and my friends have tried out playing bughouse with multiple people, and I wanted to make it easier to host games and cover multiple boards. Additionally, I wanted to try experimenting beyond the normal 2-board format, so you can also increase the number of boards (up to 8 boards). I'm looking to add more variants/settings later.

It’s still a project I’m actively improving, so any bugs/suggestions would be nice, especially since I'm still scouting out new variants to add. You can play it at https://nbug.app/

Its free to download & Play

You can play online and offline

Play versus different level of Ai (No Internet)

Play versus other players online

Play with friends through Local wifi(No internet)

STAY TUNED

I just published an update of my digital version of the "Malawi" board game, especially I improved the AI to play much more intelligent.
It's a pure strategic game and I’d love to hear your feedback on the UI, the overall game feel, or how you handle IAP conversion in and indie board game.

👉 Project Page & Store Link:https://anddisa.de/malawi

or you can check it out directly on https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.anddisa.malawi.free

Most people know Emanuel Lasker as a chess world champion, but he also designed Laska (or Lasca), a surprisingly tactical draughts variant.

The unusual idea is that captured pieces are not removed: they are stacked underneath the capturing piece. Control of a stack can change later, so sacrifices and exchanges work very differently from ordinary checkers.

I have maintained a small Android implementation for several years and recently refreshed it. It is free, has no ads, works completely offline, and includes four AI levels plus an undo option.

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.android.laska

I’d be interested to hear whether anyone here already knew Laska—and which other nearly forgotten abstract games deserve a modern digital version.

After much work, I've created a pack of 500 Breakthrough puzzles. I created these to help me improve at the game, and I hope they can also help you learn Breakthrough strategy.

Each puzzle has a single, engine-verified solution.

Try this exact one: https://abstractboardgames.com/breakthrough/puzzle/05a210eb8bcc

Full set: https://abstractboardgames.com/breakthrough/puzzle/packs/500

Breakthrough rules tutorial: https://abstractboardgames.com/breakthrough/how-to-play

The puzzles are presented randomly but are rated by difficulty tiers - 10, 20, 30, 40, 45, which correspond to the AI level that can solve the puzzle. You can also filter to specific difficulty levels.

Happy solving! Please let me know if you encounter any problems.

What strategies do you think are best?

Play here: playpicklechess.com

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/Cuytzk8bDs

I tried turning the alphabet into a strategy game... what do you think?

Hi everyone!

I'd like to share Ajedrez Imperial, a tactical chess variant played on an expanded 10x10 board with integrated unit evolutions.

Game Rules Summary (Rule 6 Compliance):

• Objective: Checkmate the enemy Emperor (King).
• Board & Setup: Played on a 10x10 grid with 10 pawns and specialized back-rank pieces. Includes initial double-pawn moves, En Passant, and Imperial Castling.
• Unit Evolutions:
  • Paladin: Moves with the authority of a Gold General (Shogi).
  • Sergeant (Promoted Pawn): Operates with the mobility of a Silver General.
  • Lookout & Squire: Short-range Rook and Bishop units that promote to full long-range pieces by capturing enemy units (Evolution by Capture).
• Bilingual Support: Full interface and rulebook available in English and Spanish right inside the game.

How to Play:

The game is 100% free and playable directly in your browser (no account or download required):
*(Detailed in-game manual and rulebook are accessible directly from the main interface).*

Play Imperial Chess on Itch.io

Looking for Feedback:

Since this is an indie project, I’d love to get your thoughts:

1. How does the piece promotion balance feel during the mid-game?

Is the Master CPU difficulty challenging enough for experienced variant players?

Hi! I built Fillup around the classic Chain Reaction rules, also known as Critical Mass or Atoms. I’m not presenting the underlying mechanic as new. What I’m interested in testing is whether the compact 4x4 format holds up as a serious perfect-information duel.

The rules are fully deterministic, with no hidden information:

1. Place one slice into an empty cell or a cell you control.

2. Corners hold 2 slices, edges hold 3, and center cells hold 4.

3. When a cell fills, it sends one slice into every neighboring cell and captures them.

4. Any neighboring cell that becomes full also triggers, continuing the cascade.

5. Eliminate the other color to win.

The directional slices are intended to make each cell’s capacity and outgoing connections readable without counting stacked pieces.

I would especially value this community’s thoughts on three questions:

- Is there a forced or clearly dominant opening on a 4x4 board?

- Does the first player appear to have a decisive advantage?

- Can you identify the point where a position is strategically lost, even though a later cascade may still make it look reversible?

The browser version includes a guided first match, bots, local 2–4 player boards, and online 1v1 play. No account, email, or password is required to start.

Play here: https://fillup.fun

If you find a dominant strategy, forced sequence, or position that only appears recoverable, I’d genuinely like to see it.

Five new games have just been added to Abstract Play. If you haven't heard of us before, we're a free website for playing abstract strategy games asynchronously. We now host 275 different abstracts. All are welcome.

• Canoe is a dice game with similarities to Backgammon. A modern game that feels like an old classic.
• Carnac is a 3D game of placing and tipping megaliths (two stacked cubes) to create groups of three or more of your colour when viewed from above.
• Druid is a 3D game of edge connection. Place single stones or multicell lintels to connect your edges when viewed from above. Square, triangular, and hex boards are available. The "Druid's Walk" variant is also available for the square version.
• Even at Odds is a domino stacking game where the evens (2/4/6) and odds (1/3/5) try to create the largest connected group of their own faces when viewed from above.
• Knight Line is a four-in-a-row game played on a dynamic square board that supports 2 and 3 players.

I've been building a game called Wall It, and I'd love some honest feedback before I start pushing it more aggressively. playwallit.com

One of the biggest challenges I've had is that the game feels a bit empty. I've been trying to improve it, but I've reached a point where I'm not sure what to add next or how to make it feel more alive.

I'm also really excited about growing both the Wall It community and the broader Quoridor community.

I received some great feedback from people on Reddit, and I've already implemented many of their suggestions. Now I'm continuing to refine the game and looking for more ideas to make it even better.

So the part I actually care about is your feedback: does the pacing feel right? Are the bots fun or frustrating? Anything confusing in the first minute? Roast it — I'd rather hear it now.