Zoe - A New Gemini Game
Happy Friday. I wrote a game. It may be the first 3D game on Gemini. I'm not trying to be hyperbolic. I just want you to click the link. You'll need a client certificate and your wits to emerge victorious. Do you have what it takes?
There's a gemlog on the same site with the epic backstory behind the game. Bug reports and enhancement requests welcome.
Apr 25 ยท 6 months ago ยท ๐ freezr, aRubes, cthulhu, clseibold
13 Comments โ
๐ stack ยท Apr 26 at 00:13:
It beat me pretty quickly...
Great job!
โ freezr ยท Apr 26 at 03:23:
i liked the retro style... is it like a multidimensional connect 4?
๐ lucas ยท Apr 26 at 11:07:
What's the difference between levels? The AI is really good at blocking, even on level 1...
๐ mbays ยท Apr 26 at 12:42:
Nice, and surprisingly difficult. Since you ask for requests: I'd prefer to input XYZ co-ordinates directly, and to have output which can fit on my 24-line terminal; I actually favour just 4 4x4 blocks side-by-side, each containing a character from ".oxOX" (I'm not sure what fancy unicode character you're using for the last moves, but my console font doesn't have it)
๐ฆ bluesman [OP] ยท Apr 26 at 13:55:
@mbays Yeah. I thought about square blocks but didn't consider side by side. That would make a nice option. I also tried ox and OX to differentiate recent moves and display the winning four. The problem is that I couldn't easily differentiate those characters but maybe this is another option. I went through a lot of character combinations but only tested in Lagrange and my own Alhena. Back to the drawing board as they say. I'm guessing emoji or ansi color is out as my experiments revealed complexity I wasn't sure was worth the effort.
๐ฆ bluesman [OP] ยท Apr 26 at 14:12:
@lucas I wrote the logic engine a long time ago so the exact details are vague. All I can tell you is that the "think depth" increases with each level. If you know its "weakness", the first two levels are easy to beat - particularly if you go first. I'm pretty sure level six is impossible to beat if the computer goes first. I've spent more time than I care to admit pitting this code against other people's versions over the years. I even had this game on my Atari 2600 way back in the day. I forgot to include that in my gemlog entry about this whole affair.
๐ stack ยท Apr 26 at 14:19:
I was just about to ask if it's pissible to win... I think you can prove that first player can always win or tie.
I lose every time by being distracted.
๐ฆ bluesman [OP] ยท Apr 26 at 14:38:
@stack I think that's right. There's a definite advantage to going first. I want to say Zoe level 3 or 4 playing X can beat Zoe level 6 playing O.
๐ gritty ยท Apr 26 at 17:10:
neat, I played a version of this on a 486 in DOS, although I think it only had three levels.
Not to burst your bubble, but there's a 3D dungeon game somewhere here in Gemini. I don't have the link handy.
๐ mbays ยท Apr 26 at 19:09:
Why is it called Zoe?
@gritty is probably thinking of Maze of Murders
There's also 3d majority on SGGS, which uses the kind of display and input I was suggesting
๐ฆ bluesman [OP] ยท Apr 26 at 19:33:
@mbays I named the original version (written for a Handspring PDA) Zoe because Zoe is like Toe (from 3D Tic Tac Toe) and the Z in the font I used looked a bit like a "3" (from 3D). True story.
๐ฆ bluesman [OP] ยท Apr 26 at 19:37:
@gritty Ha. Oh well. Bubble burst.
๐ฆ bluesman [OP] ยท Apr 27 at 06:09:
@mbays You can now enter moves in one of three ways. With x,y,z or level,square (so 4,16 for example) or the original square number (1-64). I also changed to capital X and Y for the most recent moves and wins. It took me a bit to get used to it but it makes sense considering not all clients have these other characters. Thanks for the suggestions.
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