Albuquerque, New Mexico – From its invention, Tic-tac-toe has suffered under the weight of its history as a pen and paper game. Even when digital devices opened up new avenues for this beloved game, the vestiges of pen and paper held it back. To quote the chief designer, Lane Thompson, “I did not buy an iPad to play the same game I was playing when I was 5, only retina!” But that is what most Tic-tac-toe versions are; the same game thats been played for 2000 years wrapped in a pretty new skin. And those few games that tried to do something new created such monstrosities that they could barely be called Tic-tac-toe.
There’s another problem with the traditional game. As that classic scene in WarGames showed, if both players know what they’re doing they will always tie. While that feature may have helped avert nuclear war, it doesn’t lend itself to replay-ability.
Eilean Design’s new game, TicTacular, solves these problems while still creating a game that can be called Tic tac-toe. As Lane Thompson says “the central guiding tenet of Eilean Design is to make games that utilize the platform’s strengths while avoiding the weaknesses.” The game starts off with a standard round of Tic-tac-toe, with all of the ease and intuitiveness that we’ve come to expect. But on the pieces are marks, and at the end of each turn a mark disappears. After the marks have finished counting down, the piece disappears allowing a new piece to be placed on that space. This turns Tic-tac-toe into a dynamic, exciting, and winnable game every time. And would be impossible in any other format but digital.
“When we were setting the ground work,” Lane says, “we played the game with paper and a pencil to erase the marks. It quickly became impossible to keep track and just frustrating.” But putting that same idea in an app led to possibly the most innovative yet familiar strategy game of the year. Hopefully computers guarding our nuclear weapons don’t get access to it.
Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
* Requires iOS 4.3 or later
* 21.2 MB
Pricing and Availability:
Tic Tacular 1.0 is Free and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category.
Eilean Design
Tic Tacular 1.0
Google Play URL
Screenshot
App Icon
A design house based in the high desert of the Southwest United States, Eilean Design specializes in quirky, innovative gaming goodness. The company was named for the beautiful castle in the Scottish Highlands, Eilean Donan. Building apps that are built to last. All Material and Software (C) Copyright 2014 Eilean Design. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks may be the property of their respective owners.