| 12:32:39 PM - Tue, Feb 22nd 2022 |
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Tic-tac-toe is a bit of a joke, but I can't seem to stop myself from playing a new version of the game on my phone.
Developed by Hidden Variable Studios, Tic Tactics takes the globally recognized rules of the game tic-tac-toe and completely screws them up using deep strategic thought and sleek design to create a whole new experience. As of right now, the asynchronous head-to-head puzzler is accessible as a free download on both Android and iOS devices.
Tic Tactics has already received more than 100,000 downloads on Android, which is astounding for a game that is based on something so easy that most people give it up as soon as they learn to tie their own shoelaces. The reality is that Tic Tactics is the chess to tic-tac-checkers, toe's and Hidden Variable has worked hard to make its game more user-friendly for mobile devices as well as players.
Charley Price, cofounder of Hidden Variable, said to GamesBeat that "tic-tac-toe has this connotation of being a stalemate-fest." "Everyone is familiar with it and becomes a master of it by the time they are five years old, but after that, interest in it dwindles."
So, how does Tic Tactics differ from the rest? Instead of playing on a single 3-by-3 grid, matches are played on a "megaboard," which is made up of nine distinct tic-tac-toe games that are played simultaneously. The players must get three in a row on three successive boards in order to win. On top of that, every move a player makes determines where the opponent can move next, thus it is important to plan ahead.
According to Price, "If I were to go through and make a move in the center square of the lower-right board, then my opponent would have to make a move on their turn in the center square of the lower-right board."
This opens the door to a variety of new methods that players might employ. It is possible for players to constrict and funnel their opponents onto previously won boards, or to coerce them into planting an X in one board as part of a larger strategy.
The issue with the rules of Tic Tactics is that they aren't entirely innovative. Hidden Variable was given to the creators by a friend, and they immediately fell in love with it after playing it on a whiteboard in their studio on the spur of the moment. When the studio chose to make Tic Tactics a mobile application, the firm was able to put its design and development experience to work in order to make the game a viable smartphone gaming product.
"We were thinking about making this an asynchronous multiplayer game, but we needed to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of doing so," Price explained. To illustrate, there are certain early movements that players may exploit and the game is quite sluggish to play tic tac toe ramp up, so we introduced a few more rules in Tic Tactics where you must make your first nine plays to begin a battle," explains the developer.
Players are unable to claim a board during this phase, but it allows matches to go much more swiftly into the deeper strategy.
"This implies that with your first move, you already have a board that has been naturally populated," Ahrens said. "This keeps the gameplay engaging from the beginning, which is clearly very crucial when dealing with the fickle and impatient mobile-gaming audience," says the author.
Creating a game that has the ability to maintain a player's interest on a constant basis
Hidden Variable designed Tic Tactics with casual, mobile gamers in mind, and that includes the game's interface. The studio understands that most people who play games on their smartphones only have 30 seconds here and there to spend playing games, and they will not squander those precious seconds with clumsy games that don't respect their time.
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