Created by Kyle Gerner
This repo contains tools that will make it easy to win at the Game
Pigeon games specified. You'll be practically unbeatable! For a brief
overview of each game, and the features of the AI that I've built for
it, see the Overview
section.
Game Pigeon is a mobile gaming app for iOS devices. The app allows iMessage users to play each other in mini-games such as chess, mancala, anagrams, battleship and more.
My friend and I are pretty competitive, and one way we compete is in these Game Pigeon games. Each game we bet $1 on the outcome. Some of these games rely on strategy and recognition, which means you can write programs to give you the upper hand.
The first program I wrote was for the Anagrams game, back in February 2020. After that, I wrote the Java version of the solver for the avalanche mode in Mancala, shortly followed by the Python version. Next, I wrote the Word Hunt tool in February 2021. I also wrote the Word Bites tool and Connect 4 A.I. in March 2021. I wrote the Gomoku A.I. over the course of a few months from March to May 2021. This was by far the most complex project out of all of these, and it is easily the one I am most proud of. I also quickly coded a Tic-Tac-Toe A.I. one night in June since it was essentially just a watered-down version of the Connect 4 and Gomoku AIs. In August and September 2021, my friend and I started playing Sea Battle (a Battleship spin-off), so naturally, I had to quickly write a Sea Battle A.I. to gain the upper hand. Then, in July 2022, we started playing Othello. As you can probably guess, I made an Othello A.I. too. In late 2022, we started playing Mancala (Capture mode). I of course had to write a Mancala Capture A.I..
Whenever we start competing in a new game, you'll see a new A.I. pop up in this repository! ☺
To start, download this project and run
> python3 ai_runner.py
You will be prompted to choose from the list of games. If you would like
to quickstart into a specific game, add the --game=[name] flag. To find
the name of a game, check the README.md file of the corresponding
game.
You will find the list of available AIs below:
The objective of Gomoku is to get 5 of your pieces to line up in succession. You can think of it like a much more advanced version of Tic Tac Toe. The board is much bigger (13x13), and you need 5 pieces in a row instead of just 3. You may be surprised how much strategy is involved a game of Gomoku!
- Advanced Minimax algorithm using Alpha-Beta Pruning, transposition tables, Zobrist Hashing, Iterative Deepening, and smart search-space-selection
- Dueling AI functionality allows you to challenge this AI with your own Gomoku AI
- Color-coded output on the game board to easily distinguish friendly pieces from enemy pieces, including highlighting the most recently played move. Note: may not work on all CLIs
- Save state functionality for if you want to exit the program and come back later
- Ability to see all the previous moves that have been played, one by one, displayed on the game board.
- Progress bar will be displayed as the AI is evaluating moves
- Output to the terminal will be updated in place instead of printing lines and lines of output across turns. This can be disabled if you would like to have all output to the terminal preserved
- Modifiable AI parameters, including max AI search depth (# moves to look ahead), max number of moves to evaluate from each board state, and max neighbor distance (for determining valid moves)
The objective of Othello is to end the game with more pieces than your opponent. You can capture enemy pieces by trapping them between two friendly pieces.
- Minimax algorithm using Alpha-Beta Pruning
- Dueling AI functionality allows you to challenge this AI with your own Othello AI
- Color-coded output on the game board to easily distinguish friendly pieces from enemy pieces. Note: may not work on all CLIs
- Valid moves will be highlighted for you before each turn
- Optional colorblind mode will use a blue/orange color scheme instead of green/red
- Save state functionality for if you want to exit the program and come back later
- Ability to see all the previous moves that have been played, one by one, displayed on the game board.
- Output to the terminal will be updated in place instead of printing lines and lines of output across turns. This can be disabled if you would like to have all output to the terminal preserved
- Modifiable AI parameters, including max AI search depth (# moves to look ahead), max number of moves to evaluate from each board state, and board size
If you've ever played Battleship, Sea Battle is the same thing. You take turns guessing where the opponent has their ships laid out on a grid. Whoever sinks all the opposing ships first wins! This AI assists you by showing you which locations are mathematically most likely to contain ships.
- Color-coded output on the game board to easily distinguish misses, hits, and sinks. Also used to show which locations are ideal for your next guess. Note: may not work on all CLIs
- A super beautiful colorful output of scores for each coordinate on the board, making use of a color gradient to distinguish the levels of certainty that a coordinate contains a ship (seriously, it's super aesthetic looking, just look at the images in the README!)
- Save state functionality for if you want to exit the program and come back later
- Board sizes of 8x8, 9x9, or 10x10
- Output to the terminal will be updated in place instead of printing lines and lines of output across turns. This can be disabled if you would like to have all output to the terminal preserved
The objective of the game is to get 4 of your pieces to line up in succession. There are 7 columns for you to play, and the piece will be dropped to the lowest free space in the column you choose.
- Minimax algorithm using Alpha-Beta Pruning
- Dueling AI functionality allows you to challenge this AI with your own Connect 4 AI
- Save state functionality for if you want to exit the program and come back later
- Ability to see all the previous moves that have been played, one by one, displayed on the game board.
- Color-coded output on the game board to easily distinguish friendly pieces from enemy pieces. Includes a green coloring of the most recently played column, grey coloring of unavailable columns, and a blue border to match the classic look of the physical game rig. Note: may not work on all CLIs
- Output to the terminal will be updated in place instead of printing lines and lines of output across turns. This can be disabled if you would like to have all output to the terminal preserved
You are given a grid of letters. To earn points, you connect adjacent letters together. This can be in any direction (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and combinations of all three). You can't use the same tile on the grid more than once per word though!
- Near-instant identification of all valid words present on the board up to 10 letters long
- Two output modes: Diagram Mode, and List Mode, both displaying words with higher values first
- Diagram mode will display the output as a grid with numbers to show the order and locations on the board for which you should drag your finger to create the word
- Four different board layouts to choose from: 4x4, 5x5, Donut, and Cross
- Output to the terminal will be updated in place instead of printing lines and lines of output across turns. This can be disabled if you would like to have all output to the terminal preserved
Think of Scrabble, except you can play the pieces anywhere, and they can come in pairs (both vertical and horizontal). You earn points by combining letter pieces together to form words. Some pieces can only be played in certain orientations.
- Near-instant identification of all valid words that can fit on the 9x8 board
- Two output modes: Diagram Mode, and List Mode, both displaying words with higher values first
- Diagram mode will display the output as it appears on the game board, whether thats in vertical or horizontal orientation
- Output to the terminal will be updated in place instead of printing lines and lines of output across turns. This can be disabled if you would like to have all output to the terminal preserved
The classic version of Mancala. Players earn points by moving pebbles around the board and dropping them in their bank. You can capture your opponent's pebbles by landing on an empty pocket on your side of the board.
- Minimax algorithm using Alpha-Beta Pruning
- Dueling AI functionality allows you to challenge this AI with your own Mancala Capture AI
- Save state functionality for if you want to exit the program and come back later
- Ability to see all the previous moves that have been played, one by one, displayed on the game board.
- Color-coded output on the game board to easily distinguish friendly pockets from enemy pockets. Note: may not work on all CLIs
- Output to the terminal will be updated in place instead of printing lines and lines of output across turns. This can be disabled if you would like to have all output to the terminal preserved
In this version of the classic Mancala game, a player's turn doesn't end until they run out of pebbles in an empty pocket. Players earn points by moving pebbles around the board and dropping them in their bank.
- Two different versions that accomplish the same thing: One written in Python (recommended), and one written in Java
- Determines the optimal move order for the current board. (Note: It will be practically impossible for you to lose)
- Visualization of the board after each turn that replicates what the actual game board looks like
- (Python version only) Output to the terminal will be updated in place instead of printing lines and lines of output across turns. This can be disabled if you would like to have all output to the terminal preserved
You're given 6 or 7 letters that you can arrange in any order you want to form words. Longer words earn you more points.
- Option for either 6 or 7 letter games
- List mode displays 10 words at a time, displaying words with higher values first
- Output to the terminal will be updated in place instead of printing lines and lines of output across turns. This can be disabled if you would like to have all output to the terminal preserved
On a 3x3 board, the objective is to get 3 of your pieces to line up in succession.
- Minimax algorithm using Alpha-Beta Pruning
- Dueling AI functionality allows you to challenge this AI with your own Tic Tac Toe AI
- Save state functionality for if you want to exit the program and come back later
- Ability to see all the previous moves that have been played, one by one, displayed on the game board.
- Color-coded output on the game board to easily distinguish friendly pieces from enemy pieces. Note: may not work on all CLIs
- Output to the terminal will be updated in place instead of printing lines and lines of output across turns. This can be disabled if you would like to have all output to the terminal preserved