Jolt: Tic Tac Toe

A tic tac toe game that can never end in a draw. Not rarely. Never. Everybody stops playing tic tac toe for the same reason: once you know it, every game is a tie. Jolt changes two rules, and the tie disappears. THE TWO RULES THAT FIX IT 1. You only ever have three pieces on the board. Place a fourth and your oldest one vanishes, so old threats expire and the board never stops moving. 2. You cannot play a move that puts the board back exactly as it already was. No shuffling in circles, no stalling for a tie. Put those together and a game has to finish with three in a row. We simulated 40,000 games to be certain: every single one ended in a win, and most were over in about a dozen moves. WHY IT STAYS INTERESTING Ordinary tic tac toe is solved in an afternoon and then it is finished forever. Jolt is not, because the board never settles. Every move you make also takes one away, so the threat you built two turns ago is already expiring, and the square you want is often one the no-repeat rule will not let you have. Thinking one move ahead stops being enough very quickly. THREE WAYS TO PLAY 1 Player: take on the computer at Easy, Normal or Hard. Hard runs a full minimax search and is genuinely hard to beat once the board starts recycling. 2 Players: pass one device back and forth. Two people, one phone, nothing to set up and no second account to make. Everyone who plays gets their own profile, so the rivalry between two people in the same house actually gets kept score of. Online: create a room, get a six-character code, send it to a friend, and play from anywhere. Creating the room needs Jolt Pro. Your friend joins with the code for free. WATCH THE FADE The piece you are about to lose is faded and marked with a red dot, so you always know what your next move costs you. Learning to time that loss is most of the game. PLAYERS AND STATS Add a profile for everyone who plays, each with their own name and color. Jolt keeps wins, losses, win rate and a head to head record for every pairing, plus a leaderboard with a podium and a running count of how many games the computer has won. WHAT IS FREE Single Player and 2 Player modes are free to play forever. No game limit, no countdown, no ads, ever. Take on the computer at Easy, Normal or Hard as often as you like, or pass one phone back and forth all evening. All three difficulties are there from the very first game, nothing is held back. Joining a friend's online room with their code is free as well. Player profiles and statistics are free and unlimited. WHAT IS PAID One thing: creating an online room. Jolt Pro is what pays for the servers behind online play and funds the next update, and it is the only thing in the app that costs anything. The friend you invite joins your room for free, so only one of you ever needs it. It is a monthly or yearly subscription with no free trial, and you can cancel whenever you want. Jolt Pro renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the period ends, and you can manage or cancel it in your Apple ID settings. NO ADS, NO ACCOUNT, NO EMAIL No banners, no interstitials, and no video you have to sit through to keep playing. Nothing to sign up for and no email to hand over. Your players and your stats stay on your device, and online games use an anonymous sign-in you never see and never have to fill in. Light and dark themes, on iPhone and iPad. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://kamal-no-bot.github.io/jolt-legal/