Ever wondered how a simple game of Tic-Tac-Toe has evolved to come to be known as not only a strategy game but become a patent?
After watching the game of 3 dimensional chess in The Big Bang Theory (How to Play Star Trek 3D Chess - YouTube), I started wondering if such upper dimensional adaptation can result in increased complexity and opportunity for intriguing strategizing in other simpler games. Naturally, the simplistic game of tic-tac-toe (here onwards referred as ttt) came to my mind. What was unnatural was the evolution this game has seen in dimensional and multiplayer scaling to even exist as a 4D 5X5 board patent. Multiple research papers regarding strategy with probability of winning also exist for higher dimensional ttt sets.
The aspect that I have considered for re-designing the game is stated as follows:
Avoiding the drawback of edge-middle tile
The center place holds 4 possibilities for occurring in a winning arrangement whereas the corner places have 3. However, the places at middle of each edge have only 2 possible winning combinations. In order to add parity to the game winning places, let’s assume that the possible combinations for the win can be entertained:
Does these possibilities come out as making winning too easy? Is there another way in which we can make the middle tiles movable with dimensional scaling? Here’s the idea:
I’m re-designing the game in 3D but with second layer being a movable tile line for edge-middle pieces only. Certain rules such as
a. The tile can be moved only by 1 step in L-R-F manner and same movement will be blocked for the game.
b. One can move the tile and play their next move but the consecutive steps must not lead to an immediate victory.
c. Once all the tiles on the board are filled rule 2 gets evoked (? TBD)
I tried playing by the abovementioned rules. However, the game becomes either too easy or inconclusive.
Rule mitigation to avoid deadlocks and moderate the ease of winning, suggestions are welcome!
The game can be a nice tool to learn probability, strategy based gaming.
I shall upload a video soon of the game being played.
Let’s pool out what other rules need to be defined to make the simple game of ttt UN-DRAWABLE YET DIFFICULT.