3OFF: The tic-tac-toe inspired game with a paradoxical twist

3OFF is an abstract strategy board game created by me, Tony Jeremiah, a first time board game designer.

First, A Little About Me

I have no background in board game designing. However, I do have BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees in psychology, focused particularly on the interaction between cognition and education. I completely believe that board games, particularly abstract strategy games, (which emphasize pure cognitive processes) are an excellent application of my background. If 3OFF isn't the game that does it, I am particularly interested in designing a simple game that slows down age-related cognitive decline such as what is evidenced in Alzheimer's disease. Although I have started late (I am 52 and started working on 3OFF in my late 40s), better late than never is what I say when it comes to thinking and learning.

And Now, More about 3OFF

3OFF is grounded in, yet improves upon a series of classic, ancient abstracts. Some of these games are well known (Tic Tac Toe and the Men's Morris series) and one is relatively obscure (a Nigerian game called Dara). In fact, 3OFF has the essence of an award winning, modern abstract called GIPF, created by known designer of modern abstracts, Kris Burm. When you play 3OFF, you should find it arguably improves on GIPF and the aforementioned classics, because it was designed to utilize their strengths and address their weaknesses as will be discussed below.

If you do not care to read about the history behind 3OFF's development, skip to the section concerning 3OFF. There, you will find temporary access to an online version of the game that you can play against another human or against an AI.

Tic-Tac-Toe

Invented around 1300 BC, this well known 3-in-a-row game is usually played with pencil and paper. One player chooses to play as 'X', the other 'O'. The first player to line up 3 X's or 3 O's either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally on a 3x3 game board wins. If played with X and O tokens on a 3x3 game board (instead of pencil and paper), tic tac toe consists of a drop phase, whereby players take turns "dropping" an X or O token on any empty space of the board until all 9 spaces are filled. After this drop phase, if no one achieves 3 X or 3 O tokens in-a-row (which is often the case if both players play optimally), the game is a draw.

Play tic tac toe: Tic-Tac-Toe - Play retro Tic-Tac-Toe online for free
 

3 Men's Morris

 

Although older than tic tac toe, 3 men's morris (invented in 1400 BC) seems to be an improvement on tic tac toe as it concerns the inevitable draws. If played with the red and blue pawns depicted in the above picture, 3 men's morris consists of a drop phase involving 3 red pawns for one player and 3 blue pawns for the other player, dropped on a 9 point game board. After the drop phase, a movement phase occurs in which players move their tokens along lines connecting the points. As is the objective of tic tac toe, a player moves his tokens until s/he achieves 3-in-a-row, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally to win.

Draws are possible if the standard 3 men's morris game involves stricter movement (accomplished with a game board having no diagonal lines). So a possible criticism of the game (and indeed, other Morris games) is how specifically lines connecting the points of the game board restrict possible movements. In fact, in a 3 men's morris variant that allows for more movement (accomplished with a board having diagonal lines), draws seem impossible as evidenced by the game you can play online: 

Play 3 Men's Morris (board with diagonal lines): Three Men's Morris | Novel Games

6, 9, and Twelve Men's Morris
 

6 and 9 men's morris (also developed around 1400 BC) and 12 men's morris (developed between 476 and 1450 AD) differ from 3 men's morris in terms of the number of men (i.e., 6,9, and 12) per player in the drop phase. 6 men's morris differs from 9 men's morris in terms of the number of men in the drop phase and the number of lines connecting points on the game board (more connection lines on the board for 9 men's morris). 9 men's morris differs from 12 men's morris (shown in the picture above) in terms of the number of men in the drop phase, and the number of connected points on the board--24--for 12 men's morris. 12 men's morris thus offers the greatest movement freedom during game play (although see the comment about board composition below concerning its weakness).

The objective in 6,9, and 12 men's morris is slightly different from tic tac toe and 3 men's morris. Specifically, rather than winning by achieving 3-in-a-row in the latter games, the objective is to reduce your opponent's men by continuously achieving 3-in-a-row for 6,9, and 12 men's morris. That is, every time you line up your tokens 3-in-a-row in either the drop phase or movement phase, you are allowed to remove one of your opponent's men. When your opponent is reduced to two men so that they cannot form 3-in-a-row, you win.

Again, although a strength of the 6,9, and 12 men's morris games is the novel objective, perhaps one of the great drawbacks of the games is the restricted movements due to the points-connected-by-lines makeup of the game board. One consequence of this, is the need for another rule when a player is reduced to 3 men. The so called "fly" rule allows your men to move to any location on the game board when a player has 3 remaining--disregarding the general rule that you have to move your men along the lines connecting the points. Furthermore, due to this lines-connecting-the-points composition of the game board, it is possible that one player (likely the first) can run away with the game at an early stage by creating a continuous 3-in-a-row situation at isolated sections of the board (e.g., you can move 1 man between two isolated lines-connecting-points sections of the board that already have 2 men lined up).

Play 12 Men's Morris: Twelve Men's Morris | Novel Games

Dara
 

Dara, a Nigerian game, is probably a relative of 12 men's morris. In fact, 12 men's morris (also called Morabaraba) is an African game that gained popularity in Europe. Invented in 1800, Dara is the same as 12 men's morris in terms of the number of men in the drop phase (i.e., 12), and differs from 12 men's morris in terms of the game being played on the spaces (rather than the points) of a 5x6 game board. Its objective is the same as 6,9, and 12 men's morris--to reduce your opponent's men to two by achieving 3-in-a-row continuously. Despite playing on the spaces of a game board, Dara still may suffer the runaway scenario that plagues the men's morris games because of its movement rules of allowing only one-space, vertical and horizontal (i.e., orthogonal) movements during the game's movement phase.

Watch Dara being played: Dara: Abstract strategy game from Nigeria - YouTube

GIPF

Although a relatively more contemporary game (developed in 1996), GIPF has the same objective as 6,9, and 12 men's morris and Dara, with only a slight variation on how you can remove your opponent's tokens. Specifically, a player can win a GIPF game by eliminating any opponent tokens that exist along a 4-in-a-row line formed by you. While an opponent's tokens are removed permanently when this happens, your tokens that formed the 4-in-a-row line are recycled to a reserve stack. Essentially, a player who can recycle their own tokens while dwindling their opponent's tokens to nothing, will win a GIPF game. 

 Watch GIPF being played: GIPF Board Game | Playthrough

 Recycling your own tokens, while attempting to satisfy the paradoxical objective of eliminating them entirely from play before your opponent does the same, is the essence of 3OFF.

3OFF

 

3OFF can be thought of as an extension of Dara and GIPF, specifically in terms of the game being played on the spaces of a game board for the former, and the innovative mechanism of recycling tokens during play for the latter. 

Each player has 8 tokens for 3OFF's drop phase. 3 and 4-in-a-rows can be achieved during this phase. Players have further action options after this (i.e., removal of your own tokens, removing an opponent’s tokens, moving your own tokens, and dropping any of your removed tokens back onto the board), with the primary aim of these actions being the eventual removal of all 8 of your tokens from play before your opponent does the same.

Although one token (i.e., the unmarked tokens which are the tokens not marked with an X or O) allows you to temporarily remove opponent tokens (one at a time) for strategical and tactical reasons, generally, the objective of the morris, dara, and GIPF games (to remove your opponent's tokens permanently), has been changed to the objective of removing your own tokens permanently when you achieve 3 or 4-in-a-row in 3OFF. This objective change reduces the potential runaway situation described for the morris, dara and possibly, GIPF games. Perhaps needless to say, achieving continuous 3-in-a-row situations throughout a 3OFF game (like the other games) will require highly intricate (and fun!) maneuvering, assisted especially by rules allowing your tokens to be played with greater movement freedom on the spaces of the game board. 

3OFF RULES

The rules for 3OFF consist of a 5 step process, indicated by the following:

 1. With White (O) moving first, players take turns adding their unmarked and marked tokens to the board until all 16 squares are filled

 2. White must then either remove 3 of their tokens lined up vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, or, via their unmarked token, remove a black token via a one-space diagonal movement and return it to the person playing black. Inability to perform 1 of these 2 actions results in an automatic loss for White.

 3. Black (X) should then have the following options: remove 3 of their lined up tokens; remove via a one-space, diagonal movement, 1 of white's tokens with their unmarked token (give this token back to white after doing so); or, move their unmarked token or a marked token already on the board, to an empty space. A marked token can move to an empty space in a straight line in any direction, as long as the space moved to is empty and not blocked by a token belonging to either player (i.e., marked tokens cannot jump over tokens to reach an empty space). The unmarked token can move to any empty space in a straight line in any direction, and, can jump over any tokens to reach that space.

 4. After Black's turn, White and Black, on subsequent turns, must now do 1 of 4 things: (i) remove 3 of their lined up tokens (consisting of marked tokens only or a combination of marked and unmarked tokens); (ii) remove an opponent's token with their unmarked token via a one-space, diagonal movement (return token to opponent upon removal); (iii) move their unmarked token or a marked token to any empty space according to the rules stipulated in step 3; or, (iv) if any tokens have been removed by a player or opponent, add their unmarked token or a marked token back to any empty space

  5 a. The first player to remove their last 3 remaining lined up tokens on their turn wins

     b. A player who removes an opponent's token with their unmarked token, loses the game if it is the opponent's last remaining token on the board  

     c. A player who is unable to perform any of the actions in step 4 at any point during the game, loses the game

3OFF PRICING

I am keeping this campaign as simple for me and you as possible—it is all about buying 1 or more physical copies of 3OFF.

For this campaign, you can buy 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 100, or 500 physical copies of 3OFF. The total cost for you to purchase 1 or more 3OFF copies is listed in the right hand column of the table below. As indicated by the table, if you buy more than 1 3OFF game, the cost per game decreases by $5 (CAD) as you increase the number you buy:

Included in your total donation cost price (i.e., the amount you pledge) is shipping cost. Not included, are your countries taxes and tariff costs. These costs (along with your mailing address) will be collected by the PLEDGE MANAGER  at the end of the campaign.

 EXPERIENCING 3OFF PRIOR TO PURCHASE

 If you wish to play 3OFF prior to purchasing the official game, it can be played by supplying your own materials. I suggest 7 white and 7 black checkers along with 1 different colored [or different sized] token for each player (representing the unmarked tokens), and sectioning off a 4x4 playing area on a standard chess board, and following the game rules on this Kickstarter page.

OR, Play 3OFF Online Against an AI or Another Human:

https://phaser.io/agent/play/h5wAoQLddQq

Notes: 

-The online link above does not seem to work on devices with small screens (e.g., smart phones) so try playing on a laptop, desktop, or Ipad sized device if it does not work on your smart phone               

- The AI has four levels (Novice, Intermediary, Expert, and Learning). I programmed the Learning AI myself to simulate a few game play tactics I've learned over the years of playing 3OFF, instead of relying on the standard AI algorithms that are part of the Novice, Intermediary, and Expert AI levels. I found those algorithms cannot beat me at 3OFF. And suprisingly, neither can the Learning AI. I look forward to seeing if there's an AI that can beat an experienced 3OFF player.

-I recommend the 2 Player game, where you can play another human if you find the AI does not challenge you. For the time being, the 2 Player mode only allows for 2 people playing on the same device (i.e. you must sit side-by-side to play). In a future version, I anticipate 2 player mode will allow play between two persons on different devices.