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Comment by jawslouis | Hacker News Reader

At the end of every turn, each tile influences its neighbors and imparts some of its color. Tiles with a dark border can no longer be selected.

The rules are simple but it takes awhile to master. What is your best score against the Hard AI? I got 27 (me on green) – 23 (AI).

Would you want to see some sort of match-making to play against others online?

See demo gameplay or view the source code at https://github.com/jawslouis/Influence-Game

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Interesting. Instead of just using shades or green and blue, would you consider displaying numerical values too? I was confused about how close the tiles were to flipping to my color.

Side note: I’m working on a game that has some similarities that might interest you: https://simondorfman.com/volcanoes1

Looks like one of the consistent pieces of feedback is for numeric values :) Will think about how to implement that.

Checked out your site too. Looks interesting!

I tried it on Firefox mobile and when I lose in the second difficulty level I can't really see anything but the "game over restart" message.

I'd like to be able to see the score and the layout to analyze the game.

Really nice job, though! Fun concept.

Thanks! Will adjust the layout to make post-game analysis easier

Fun and addictive game - I’m also at 27-23 now :)

Uncertainty regarding piece state is also my number one feedback. Maybe rather than numeric, make that states visibly discrete in some other way?

37-13! Thinking about it a bit, I realize the main uncertainty is which parts are "in danger" - which will switch color or "hardness" next turn with no influence?

Or a tug-of-war like indicator showing the threshold. (Although not a sufferer, blue-green is a common colour blindness)

Update - I've updated the UI to have a clearer visual indicator of how close the tiles were to flipping, using the size of the colored area.

29 (me on gree) - 21 (hard AI). Took me many tries! I think I'm starting to understand though. Might be fun to have a "replay" system like on hateris - https://qntm.org/files/hatetris/hatetris.html

29-21 hard AI playing as green

Fun and interesting game - this has a lot of potential! Great mechanic, I would pay for an iOS app in the future.

Suggestions:

* Visually show which tiles will lock or unlock next turn

* Show a total influence growth per player as a running score - useful to help beginners learn strategies

30-20. My strategy tips:

* first stone is weak, it’s ok to play it near a corner so their response is not in a strong place

* Y-shape to kill and gain territory is much stronger than playing opposite to pincer

* Always be growing passively

* If you are growing passively faster than the opponent, start a fight. If you are not, don’t.

37-13 :-D

And 29-21 as blue. Fun game!

I got 29 vs 21 on Easy Blue AI on my first attempt.

Better than my wife's first attempt :)

38-12. Edit: 41-9. Nice game.

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