Help and Instructions for: TRIGAME

Quick Start ⬤  Board  ⬤  Controls ⬤  Procedure ⬤  Sounds ⬤  Vocabulary ⬤  Game Notation

While playing can begin immediatly for anyone anytime...
folks can also first stop into our Green Room to chat with others or enter games with others.

Members can also create tournaments there; selecting to allow any to participae, or just members, or particular players to join. Rankings between menbers are also posted there for top ranked members. If not logged in as a member (optional of course) folks are assigned a guest number. And there's more too, so feel free to stop in at our Green Room anytime.

The Board.

The board, or playing field, is dark, with light guide lines showing the triangular position of the tile to be placed there.

Center gray tile. At the center of the board is a ghosted gray tile. This marks the starting position of the game, and the first tile must be placed on it.

Shown below on the left is a typical tile.

Controls

Contestants ⬤  Colors ⬤  Scoreboard ⬤  Tunrn ⬤  Chat ⬤  Game Record

The top control panel allows selection of the players, mode, action, and sizing or moving the field of play, and is above the playing field and information panel to the right.

The panel to the right of the playing field has collapsabe sections, expanded or colapsed by clicking on them

Top Control Bar

(Select) Players

• Selecting PRACTICE allows you to explore the game.
  It assumes there are 12 players and automatically advances you to play for the next player after each turn.
  Everything else functions as if there were multiple folks playing.
  ...You just happen to be playing for all of them.
• Selecting 2-12 determines the number of players in the game.
  Members of Rusty Rabbit's fluffle above can be included too.

GAME MODE: Play or Demo?

• Play mode is the normal mode to participate in the game as a player.
• Demo mode allows the game to run in a compley automatic way between selcet player of the fluffle.
  A great way to get the feel of how games are played and progress through games and tournaments.

GAME PIECES: Tiles or Tokens?

• Selecting Tiles allows placement of game tiles (triangles)on the board
  The starting tile of the game must be placed over the gray center tile.
  Tiles must be placed next to other tiles without any tokens on their adjacent edges.
  Align the tile where desired and click to place it.
• Tokens may be placed on any empty socket.
  One point is awarded for placing each token.
  Align the token over the desired socket and click.

ACTION: Place or Remove?

• Select Place to place tiles and tokens on the board.
• Select Remove to remove unoccupied tile or tokens not part of occupied paths.

• Remove is disabled for the second event or when board is locked.
  

Controling the View of the Board

• Click the ▶ right arrow to move the pieces on the board to the right.
• Click the ◀ left arrow to move the pieces on the board to the left.
• Click the ▲ up arrow to move the pieces on the the pieces up.
• Click the ▼ down arrow to move the pieces on the board down.
• Click the minus sign ( - ) to shrink the board.
• Click the plus sign ( + ) to enlarge the board.
• Click the Reset button to return the board to its original size.

Additional controls.

• New Game: Starts a new game in the same tournament with the same players.
• End Tourny: Ends the current series of games, providing grand totals.
• Copy Game: This copies the text of the Game Record (lower right side panel) to the player's computer clipboard.
• Home Click the Trigame logo to open the game's home page.

Right Information Section

To the right of the gameboard is a colapsable panel with four sections.
Clicking on the light blue headers will expand or colapse the sections.

• CONTESTANTS (Players)

  Here you can enter the names of players or select players from our fluffle.

• SCOREBOARD

  This section contains current scoring information on all players

• TURN

  Active information is displayed here on the current player and events

• COMMUNICATIONS PORT - CHAT

  Active information is displayed here on the current player and events

• GAME RECORD

  This section records a log of the game moves and final scoring results.

CONTESTANTS & Players

At the start of the game, the number of players should be selected from the top control bar.

Up to 12 players may play at one time, and are shown in the player section.
Each is asigned a default name and color in order.
Names of human players can be changed at any time.
Players too can be changed at any time.

Trigame is designed with the flexability to allow both human and AI players.

Rusty Rabbit is our AI co-developer and has provided his fluffle of relatives as AI players.

Meet Rusty's fluffle of relatives:

Kit
Our baby bunny who makes almost random moves, and just loves those colorful dots!
Newb-Bble
Who is older and notices immediate sub-tile gains... sometimes.
Lop-Sided
Who prefers local clusters, but has a weak shape sense.
Burrow Scout
Who seems to notice expansion lanes better.
Hare-Brained
Who is opportunistic, tactical, but a bit inconsistent.
Warren Warden
Who starts defending and denying well compared to the previous rabbits here.
Jackrabbit
Who is a fast tactical hunter and senses strong immediate sequences.
Moon Rabbit
Who is more positional and values shape and branching.
Macuiltochtli
Who is dangerous, weird, disruptive, with a strong denial play style.
Tuer Ye
Who is cold, maximizing, deep-searching, and plays a ruthless endgame.
Jester-Flop
Who cheats, capers, and laughs it off when caught. (Currently banned from playing.)
Old Cogspin
Who modifies the machinery, reinterprets the rules, and wins by technicality. (Also currently banned from playing.)

---

Changing names and players:

Players may enter their name to replace the default of just a player number.

• Click the colored dot or field to change.
• Click the player name button at the bottm of the list.
• Type in the new name.
• Click the set button .

To add a member of the fluffle: Click the desired player field for the new player. Click the Fluffle Member button. Select member from the dropdown list. Click the set button . Warning: Rusty Rabbit has banned both Jester-Flop and Old Cogspin from their regular family tournaments for cheating. You would be wise to do the same. Jester-Flop is a magician and a joker, while Old Cogspin is a ruthless and highly intellegent hacker.

Player colors for 12 players.

Players are assigned colors in the order of entering the game to play. Tiles are initially two colors based on the players set of colors below. Colors changet to indicate who has place a token on the socket, or claimed a path between tokens or captured a partial tile or whole tile by having tokens all around it and in the center in the case of a full tile.

Player #	Token Owned Path	Unowned Path	Unowned Territory	Owned Territory
1. Red
2. Blue
3. Yellow
4. Orange
5. Green
6. Violet
7. Red-Orange
8. Yellow-Green
9. Blue-Green
10. Blue-Violet
11. Red-Violet
12. Yellow-Orange

SCOREBOARD.

Ponts Awarded: ½ point is awarded for each token placed on the board. The ½ point is lost again if the token is removed. One point is awarded for each segment of a captured path. A player captures a straight path when their tokens mark the run and the sockets between are that player's color. The color of an outer adjoining socket beyond the captured run does not prevent the capture. Two points are awarded for each sub-territory captured (three are found on each tile). Five points are awarded for capturing a full territory tile. Total points: A + B + C + D = E. Tournament Match Points are awarded for wins and tie shares. Ties divide the tournament point as follows: 2-way tie = ¾ 3-way tie = ⅔ 4-way tie = ½ 5-way tie = ⅓ 6 or 7-way tie = ¼ 8-way tie or more = ⅛.	½ Point	1 Point
	1½ Points	2 Points
	2 Points	3½ Points
	5½ Points	7½ Points
	8 Points	9 points
	14 Points	22½ Points

COMMUNICATIONS - CHAT.

The Communications - Chat panel provides a place for player messages and game notices.

Messages entered here appear in the black message window above the entry box.

For now, a typed message is shown in the color of the current player. This helps match the message to the player whose turn it is.

Messages from Rusty Rabbit, such as system notices or helper comments, appear in white.

The text field at the bottom is used to enter a message. Press Send, or press Enter, to post it.

At present, this panel is mainly a local feature for testing and for preparing future multi-player versions of the game.

In later online versions, this same area may be used for live player chat, turn announcements, invitations, and other game-related communication.

GAME RECORD

Not needed in the slightest to play the game, the develpment process was aided by the creation of a system of recording and tracking events. This has helped in fine tuning the personalities of the fluffle. It was interesting enough as a feature to have been left in. At games end it can be copied to your computer's clipbard and pasted to a text file for reference or sharing or just to document your games.

Trigame can be described in a compact symbolic form so a full game may be copied, saved, or shared as plain text.

• Tile location: A tile is written inside square brackets.
  Example: [C] means the center tile.
  [A1] means the tile one row above center.
  [B1] means the tile one row below center.
  [CL1] means the tile one position left of center.
  [CR1] means the tile one position right of center.
• Socket number: Add a number after the tile reference to indicate a socket on that tile.
  0 is the center socket.
  1 through 6 count clockwise around the tile.
  Example: [C]3
• Tile placement: A tile placement is written as the tile reference only.
  Example: [A1]
• Token placement: A token placement is written as the tile reference followed by the socket number.
  Example: [C]0 or [A1]5
• Erasing: A minus sign before the move means that token is erased.
  Example: -[C]0
• Multiple actions: Actions within one turn are separated by a colon.
  Example: [A1] : [A1]0
• Per-player record: Each move line begins with the player number.
  Example: 1. [C] : [C]0

A further note on tokens:

It simply does not matter which tile is used in referencing a token.
Note the picture to the right:

The red token in the center is common to six different tiles.

Any may be used as a reference for it, and all may be said to be pointing either up or down.
Starting with the point as 1, count clockwise until you get to the red token, and that is its number when referenced by that tile.

For the green tile it would be 5, but for the purple tile it would be 3 and it would be 4 again if referring to the blue tile.

Examples

1. [C] : [C]0   
2. [C]5 : [C]4
4. -[C]0 : [C]0

This notation makes it possible to copy and save a game record as text, then later replay or analyze the moves.

Also, as we have some such as Jester-Flop and Old Cogspin who don't play fair: There is an additional button called Audit to catch them red handed in the act and notate it in the Game Record. It may be turned on by clicking this audit button on the Game Record header: .

Order of Play and Procedures:

A player's turn normally allows two actions .
Bonus actions may also be awarded.

Possible actions include the following:

• Place a tile on the board.
  A tile may not be placed against an edge with a token on it.
• Place a token on the board.
  They are placed only on empty sockets.
• Remove a tile from the board.
  A tile may not be removed if it has a token on it.
• Remove a token from the board.
  Tokens must be isolated and not connected by an occupied path.
• Skip the turn to the next player.
  (Only allowed once per game or match.)

First turn of the game (first player only):

First action of the first turn of the game: A player must do one of the following:

• Place a tile on the board.
• Skip the turn to the next player.

Second action of the first turn of the game: A player may do one of the following:

• Place a tile on the board.
• Place a token on the board.
• Skip the turn to the next player.

Normal play:

First action of each player's turn: A player may do any of the following:

• Place a tile on the board.
• Place a token on the board.
• Remove a tile from the board.
• Remove a token from the board.
• Skip the turn to the next player.

Second action of each player's turn: A player may do any of the following:

• Place a tile on the board.
• Place a token on the board.
• Skip the turn to the next player.

Bonus action:
A bonus action results from capturing a tile.
...Having tokens on every socket of the tile:

• Place a token on the board.
• Skip the turn to the next player.

Locked board:

• The board is said to be locked when no more tiles can be placed.
• Tiles and tokens may not be removed when the board is locked.

Additional notes:

1. After the first tile has been placed, all new tiles must be placed edge to edge with an existing tile.
2. Trigame automatically assumes tournament play, consisting of multiple matches or games.
3. End Tourny ends a series of matches or games, ending the tournament.

TRIGAME SOUND REFERENCE LIST - click an item to hear the sound associated with the event.

NEW UI / TOURNAMENT EVENTS

• end tournament
• copy game record successfully
• copy game attempted before allowed
• run mode switched to Play
• run mode switched to Demo
• player count / mode changed
• player name applied
• Rusty Rabbit skill changed
• Include Rusty Rabbit

CORE TURN / STATE EVENTS

• game load / initialize
• board cleared
• player changed manually from dropdown
• turn reset
• action 1 begins
• action 2 begins
• action 2 ended manually
• turn completed normally
• turn ended early
• turn skipped
• next player advanced automatically
• bonus token action awarded
• multiple bonus token actions awarded at once
• bonus token action consumed
• bonus token chain continues
• board locked
• game over

TILE PLACEMENT EVENTS

• first tile placed successfully
• normal tile placed successfully
• tile placed on overlapping existing tile
• tile placement blocked because wrong turn phase
• tile placement blocked because board locked
• tile placement blocked because overlaps are off
• tile placement blocked because replacement tile has token on it
• tile placement blocked because first tile was not on gray start triangle
• tile placement blocked because new tile does not touch existing tile edge-to-edge
• tile placement blocked because touching edge is occupied by token/socket

TILE ERASE EVENTS

• tile erased successfully
• tile erase blocked because wrong turn phase
• tile erase blocked because board locked
• tile erase blocked because no tile there
• tile erase blocked because tile still has token(s)

TOKEN PLACEMENT EVENTS

• token placed successfully
• token placement blocked because wrong turn phase
• token placement blocked because target socket already occupied
• token placement creates full tile
• token placement creates multiple full tiles at once
• token placement awards one bonus action
• token placement awards multiple bonus actions
• token placement during bonus-action phase
• token placement is the final legal token
• token placement triggers game-over state after board is locked

TOKEN ERASE EVENTS

• isolated token erased successfully
• token erase blocked because wrong turn phase
• token erase blocked because board locked
• token erase blocked because no token there
• token erase blocked because token is not isolated

BOARD PROGRESSION / CAPTURE EVENTS

• straight capture line formed
• new captured edge formed
• new captured run formed
• auto-fill token created by capture
• territory polygon formed
• captured subtile count increased
• full tile count increased
• score total changed
• score total changed for active player
• score total changed for multiple players from one move

ENDGAME / LOCK-STATE EVENTS

• no legal tile placements remain
• erase becomes disabled
• locked-board reminder shown
• no legal token placements remain
• game over message shown
• winner determination event later, if you add it
• tie event later, if you add it

TOOLBAR / MODE / CONTROL EVENTS

• eraser toggled on
• eraser toggled off
• eraser press refused because board locked
• token mode toggled on
• token mode toggled off
• overlap mode toggled on
• overlap mode toggled off

VIEW NAVIGATION EVENTS

• pan left
• pan right
• pan up
• pan down
• zoom in
• zoom out
• reset view
• mouse wheel zoom
• keyboard pan
• keyboard zoom
• keyboard reset

HOVER TARGETING EVENTS

• hover tile preview shown
• hover token preview shown
• valid socket target highlighted
• hover leaves canvas
• click ignored because no hover cell
• click ignored because game over

TURN-STATUS TEXT / MESSAGE EVENTS

• Now on Pn.
• Turn reset.
• Moved to Action 2.
• Action 2 ended.
• Tile placed.
• Tile erased.
• Token placed.
• Isolated token erased.
• Turn complete.
• Turn ended.
• Board locked: erase is disabled...
• Board locked: no legal tile placements remain...
• Game over: no legal actions remain.
• Game over: the board is locked and all sockets are filled.
• This turn phase does not allow placing a tile.
• This turn phase does not allow erasing a tile.
• This turn phase does not allow placing a token.
• This turn phase does not allow erasing a token.
• No tile there to erase.
• No token there to erase.
• That socket is already occupied.
• A token may be erased only if it is isolated.
• A tile may be erased only if it has no tokens.
• Overlaps are currently turned off.
• You cannot replace a tile that has a token.
• The first tile must be placed on the gray start triangle.
• A new tile must touch an existing tile edge to edge.
• You cannot place a tile against an occupied touching edge.

Game Vocabulary.

Players primary term for the player-count control and player area.

Play primary term for normal interactive mode.

Demo primary term for automatic demonstration mode.

Tile primary term for the board piece placed on the board.

Token primary term for the marker placed on the board.

Place primary verb for adding a tile or token.

Remove current primary button label for taking a tile or token off the board.

Turn primary term for one players turn.

Action primary term for one of the actions within a turn.

Scoring primary term for the scoring panel/section.

Match primary term for one completed game in the running sequence.

Tournament Score primary term for the running score across matches.

Game Record current primary term for the running textual log/record of play.

Board locked primary term for the locked-board state.

Game over primary term for the end-of-game state.

Socket primary term for a token location or target point.

Gray start triangle primary term for the required first-tile starting location.

Edge-to-edge primary term for valid tile contact.

Overlaps primary term for tile overlap behavior.

Path currently used in project wording for path behavior and token propagation.

Subs currently used in project wording for the smaller scored sub-areas.

Full tile primary scoring/event term for a completed tile state.

New Game primary button label for starting fresh.

End Tourny current primary button label for ending the tournament.

Copy Game primary button label for copying the game record.

Reset primary button label for resetting the view.

Quick Start.     -PLAY  

In a hurry? Don't like to read instructions?
Not a problem. We get that, and this game is built to learn by exploring..

If you get stuck, simply refresh your broser and begin again.
We suggest three stages to learn quickly.

1. Run in DEMO mode and just watch for a while.
   1. Click DEMO (at the upper left): ←
   2. Click NEW GAME (at the upper right: )
   3. Click NEW GAME again to continue a tournament of games / matches.
      
      
2. Run in the PRACTICE mode without any opponents.
   1. Select PRACTICE (far upper left 'Players' dropdown menu)
   2. Click PLAY: →
   3. Move your mouse to the gray suare and click to place a tile there.
   4. Continue placing more and more, building outward.
      You are playing for all 12 players.
      Every two events, the tile changes to the next player's color.
   5. Click TOKEN to switch to placing tokens instead.←
      Click, click, click, place them to get a feel for the result.
      Click two next to each other an see the path between change color.
      If the right colr, clicking tow will also add more in a stragit line beween them.
   6. Click REMOVE to switch to removing tiles or tokens instead:      ←
      
      
3. Play a tournament against Kit.
   1. Select 1 player: (at the upper left.)
   2. Click PLAY: →
   3. Place your first tile as the first player.
   4. Or choose to SKIP the TURN:  ←
   5. Proceed with playing after that.

Enjoy!