Bloxster

Bloxster was Headbone Creative's first game. It was originally released December 2012 for iOS, with PC and Mac versions following in January 2013 and Android in February 2013.

An article about the game appeared in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle on January 19, 2013.

About the Game

This game is a strategy board game, played by 2 players (or 1 player against a computer AI). The board comes in 3 possible sizes: 4x4, 5x5 and 6x6. Each player chooses a color (different from the opponent's color). The board is populated by "blox" alternating in the players colors, similar to a chess board. The goal of the game is to fill the entire board with your color.

Each block can either be in an up state or a down state. All blox start in the up state. The players take turns pressing the blox. Pressing a block changes the state of the block, and possibly the blox around it, accord to three rules:

1. Any block that is in an up state goes to a down state, taking all neighboring similar blox with it, regardless of who touched it.
2. Pressing an opponents block in the down state will turn it and all neighboring similar blocks into your color, in the up state.
3. Pressing your own block in the down state will turn just that block into your opponents color in the up state.

Strategy

The strategy for this game is interesting: the final goal of the game is to make one contiguous region of blox in your color, but as you play you realize that having large regions of blox makes you vulnerable to losing, because it only takes 2 turns for the opponent to come in and capture your large region for yourself. So, the best strategy seems to be to attempt to keep a greater number of smaller regions than your opponent, until your opponent only has one region left. At that point you can take that one large region they have and win the game!

Computer Opponents

The game comes with 4 computer opponents, each with varying degrees of difficulty. The order of difficulty is as follows:

• Hamster - Easy
• Buster - Easy/Medium
• Lobster - Medium/Hard
• Monster - Hard

Version History

• 1.1 - First update, released late January 2013. Added a new AI opponent, updated menu layout, and forced the player to view the game's help screens the first time it is played.
• 1.0 - Initial release. Contained 3 AI opponents, 3 board sizes, and local (same device) 1v1 multiplayer.