🛠️ hedron

Hedron is digital version of a 2 player game my dad invented - it's basically Reversi/Othello, but played on a sphere. He calls it Fidelio.

In Reversi/Othello, the walls are important defensive positions; but in Hedron/Fidelio there are no walls, so nowhere is safe.

Playing on a sphere also messes with your mind as the perspective constantly changes as you roll it around on the screen (or in your hand). Plus, you only get to see half the "board" at any given time.

My dad would talk about it frequently. I liked the concept (for the above reasons), and it seemed simple enough, so one year, as a Christmas gift, I made the digital version.

There are two versions currently deployed:

• Version 1 - the base game
• Version 2 - a variant, where marking the final spot in a ring does not capture the entire ring

As is, I believe the second player (and thus the last player to play) has a strong advantage. A common variant is to play misère - ie. the player with the lowest score wins.

My dad also suggest the following challenges for playing as a single player:

• make the second player lose
• make the scores tied

This was my first time using three.js, from Clojurescript of course.

Internally, there's a half-assed attempt at making a Reagent/React reactive wrapper around three.js.

Future

My dad is kicking around a few ideas: creating 5 or 6 rule variations (for example, the ability to place a "dummy" piece that does not score, but stops lines), and 5 or 6 different shapes, resulting in ~30 challenges.

At some point, I should get around to making a basic AI player - it should be possible to fully solve the game tree.

Also (shhhhh, don't tell my dad)... I have been slowly gathering the parts to making a physical version (3d printed shell, with magnets, ball bearings and LED lights).