Wager Tic-Tac-Toe
A game by Jacques S. Industries LLC · Salem, Oregon
Tic-tac-toe with an auction. Before every move, both players bid in secret for the right to play it.
For iOS and AndroidThe game
You do not take turns. Every round, both players secretly bid chips for the right to place a mark, and the higher bid wins the square.
The winner pays their bid. The loser pays nothing. Chips only ever leave the game, so every square you buy is a square you can no longer afford later. That single rule turns three-in-a-row into a question about how much a square is worth to you, and how much your opponent thinks it is worth to them.
Losing a round is free, which makes bidding low a real strategy rather than a mistake — and makes bluffing worth something.
Solved
Because only the winner pays, the answer depends almost entirely on the ratio of the two stacks rather than their size: 100 chips against 50 plays like 200 against 100. That collapses a problem with hundreds of millions of positions into one 154KB table holding, for every board, the chip ratio you need to force a win and the ratio you need to force a draw.
Almost entirely, because chips are whole numbers and a ratio is not. At a few specific totals the rounding goes the wrong way, which is why the game ships three tested chip counts rather than a slider.
The hardest opponent plays from that table: it looks the position up rather than guessing. In the last few moves, where the table's ratios round against whole chips, it stops looking things up and works the position out exactly instead. Nobody has beaten it yet.
What is in it
- Seven opponents, from one that will let you win to one that plays the solved line.
- Three chip totals — 70, 105 and 150 — each of which plays differently, not just longer.
- A daily puzzle: a position where a win can be forced, and three attempts to find it. Everyone gets the same board.
- Pass and play on one device.
- Your recent games and your running stats, kept on your device.
Free to play, with a single $3.99 in-app purchase that unlocks the four hardest opponents, the hard daily and the full puzzle archive. One payment, not a subscription. No advertising.
Privacy, briefly
There is no account and no sign-in. Nothing you type — including your player name — ever leaves your device. Anonymous gameplay statistics are sent only if you choose to share them, and you can withdraw that and delete what was sent from inside the app at any time.
The privacy policy is the full version, and it is specific rather than reassuring.
About
Wager Tic-Tac-Toe is made and published by Jacques S. Industries LLC, an independent software company registered in the State of Oregon, United States. It is the company's first product. Full registration details are on the company page.
The game is built in Godot and runs on iOS and Android. It is finished and preparing for release on the App Store and Google Play.
Jacques S. Industries LLC942 Windemere Dr NW, Salem, OR 97304, United States
support@wagertictactoe.com