Game Site Surge

There's been a surge in game sites adding their first Mark Steere games so far in 2008. Most recently Vying.org added Cephalopod; GoogleGameCenter.com added Cephalopod, Rush and a number of others; and Igfip.com added Tanbo and Rush. Two more game sites will be adding their first Mark Steere games in the near future. Also, sites which already have my games will be adding more of them.

My games are now on most of the game sites that have non-standard abstract games. There are still a couple of holdouts which I hope to bring on board eventually.

A physics professor recently contacted me asking my permission to program Atoll and other Mark Steere games as part of a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation. He wanted to use my games anonymously in a nation wide program where students would not be told the names of my games or the rules, but would try to figure out the rules by playing the games against a computer. They couldn't be told the names of my games since that would make it easy to cheat by just looking up the rules online.

My requirements of programmers, as explained on all of my rule sheets are: Don't change the names of my games, Don't change the rules, and Attribute the games to me, Mark Steere. This professor's proposal seriously fell short of that.

I told said physics professor that his proposal, while essentially a good, interesting concept was also flawed. It was extremely vulnerable to cheating. Even if the students were not told the name of Atoll for example, there's a three page article on Atoll in the current issue of Games Magazine which is in all of the major bookstores in the country. Atoll is already played on one game site with the certainty of more to come. If you google "hex variant" Atoll shows up on page 5 of the results, and Atoll is still only three months old. As the months pass, Atoll will become ridiculously easy to find using search engines. There' s about 1 degree of separation between students and their friends who are already well aware of Atoll.

Regrettably I had to deny the professor's request. There were just a lot more minuses than pluses. I have to protect my trademarks and copyrights, and this professor didn't seem to be taking my best interests into consideration.

Hex and Y Generalized

I have now discovered the generalized form of Y as well as the generalized form of Hex.

Atoll (generalized form of Hex):
http://www.marksteeregames.com/Atoll_rules.pdf

Begird: (generalized form of Y):
http://www.marksteeregames.com/Begird_rules.pdf

Atoll - A Newly Discovered Principle

Atoll is more than just my latest game. It's a geometric principle of historic proportions. The famous game of Hex is merely a special case of Atoll with four perimeter segments.

Atoll rule sheet:
http://www.marksteeregames.com/Atoll_rules.pdf

Dipole Opening Setup Change

On September 27, 2007 I changed the opening setup in Dipole from an asymmetric one to a symmetric one. In the months following the release of Dipole in May, 2007 a number of people complained about the asymmetric setup. There was a reason for designing it like that, but as I gained more experience with Dipole's gameplay, that reason seemed less and less valid. So I complied with the consensus and changed the opening setup accordingly. It's still exactly the same game, with only the initial arrangement of checkers changed. Now the setup could be described as follows: The board is oriented so that from each player's perspective the lower left square is a dark square. One player starts with a stack of 12 white checkers in his near row and the other player starts with a stack of 12 black checkers in his near row. From each player's perspective their initial twelve stack is on the dark square just left of center.

This change to Dipole's opening setup is a complete and permanent change, not an option or a variant. The rule sheet has been changed to show the new setup and there is no mention of the old setup. It's as if the old, asymmetric setup never existed. Some live play game sites had already programmed Dipole with the original, asymmetric setup and I didn't insist that they change to the new, symmetric setup. Of course I welcomed them to make the change but I didn't insist on it. Jijbent.nl made the change immediately and permanently and so did most of the other game sites that have Dipole. It was a simple matter of notifying the proprietors of the change and within minutes they implemented the change. One particular game site generally finds it difficult to make changes to a game program it has already released and may never change their Dipole program to have the new setup. I actually don't even know what their stance is on the matter. I notified the proprietor of said game site of the change on September 27 along with everyone else and now on October 9 I still haven't received a response. All I know is that their Dipole program remains unchanged, still using the old, asymmetric setup and that, for all I know, they may continue to use the old, asymmetric setup indefinitely.

What I'm getting at is that you may come across the old, asymmetric Dipole setup on a live play game site someday. In the old, asymmetric setup both the initial white stack and the initial black stack are left of center from one player's perspective, and both stacks are right of center from the other player's perspective. Should you encounter the old, asymmetric setup there's no cause for alarm. The new setup is mainly just a cosmetic change and really doesn't impact the game dramatically in my opinion. Some players disagree though, insisting that Dipole is a much better game now with the new, symmetric setup.

Jijbent.nl - Wow!

Dipole just came online at the Dutch game site Jijbent.nl this morning. The response was immediate and overwhelming. People are starting games and moving in those games so fast I can hardly keep up. These are intelligent players. They aren't making the usual "I have no idea what I'm doing" and "Who better to teach me than the designer" statements. They already read the rules, they know how to play, and they're playing well. Really a refreshing change from what I'm accustomed to. The magnitude of the response to Dipole and the sophistication of the response are unprecedented and unrivaled.

I've always wanted to have a game in the Netherlands, and now my instincts are proving to be well founded. If I had the choice of having one game at one game site, it would be Dipole at Jijbent. Bram, the proprietor, is a great programmer and a great guy.

2007 - Year of the Games

2007 has been an amazing year for my abstract game designs. For 15 years things were relatively quiet and then suddenly in 2007 everything just exploded.

First off there was a big surge in my design output. I designed five games, an unusually high number. One of those games was Dipole, a very well thought of game. As usual, most people don't understand it. But of those who do understand it everyone likes it. Before 2007 my average output was one game about every two years.

Games magazine published two of my puzzles and three of my games. The World Puzzle Federation - Team USA used my maze in their competition.

ItsYourTurn.com added Tanbo, GoldToken.com added Dipole, and Jijbent.ne added Dipole. BoardSpace.net, a real time game site, added Dipole. SuperDuperGames.org and Gamerz.net have added almost all 13 of my games.