Classic Games
Dots & Boxes Arena
The pencil-and-paper classic — with a secret. The player who grabs every free box usually LOSES, and the kids who figure out why become very hard to beat. Crack the 4-bot ladder solo (each bot falls to a different idea), open the Dojo’s endgame puzzle, then battle your class head-to-head in a live arena with best-of-2 duels and a climbing ladder.
For Educators
Built for the classroom
Strategic look-ahead and combinatorial game theory — counting to 3 (never hand over a box), reading the endgame as “corridors”, and the famous sacrifice: giving away 2 boxes on purpose to win 6. Students discover each idea by losing to a bot that uses it, then taking it for themselves — the game names a move only AFTER a student plays it. Under perfect play the 3×3 board is a second-player win (we verified it by exhaustive search); the arena’s best-of-2 with swapped first player neutralizes exactly that.
Grades 3+ · four boards, all with an odd box count so ties are impossible: Quick 3×3 (fast arena rounds), Classic 3×5, Deep 5×5 (long corridors), and Giant 5×7 (marathon chains).
Three ways to play
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Learn solo first
Four bots, all open from the start: Rookie, Grabby, The Keeper, Chainmaster. Each one keeps winning until a student spots what it knows. The 📓 Dojo holds an endgame puzzle where taking everything loses — there IS a winning move, and finding it is the lesson.
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Host an Arena
Open a room on the projector; a 4-letter code + QR + join link appear. Pick the board and timers, then watch live mini-boards fill with color while the ladder climbs.
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Join on any device
Students enter the code (or scan / click the link) on a laptop, tablet, or phone and get matched against a classmate. When a match ends they’re instantly re-paired — no waiting, no elimination.
Run a live class in 5 steps
- Open the Arena — pick a board (Quick 3×3, Classic 3×5, Deep 5×5, or Giant 5×7), the session length, and the per-line timer.
- Share the 4-letter code / QR / link; students join on any device.
- Hit “Open the Arena”: students play best-of-2 duels — they swap who draws first, so it’s fair.
- Watch the live boards fill with color on the big screen; an odd student out plays Grabby, a beatable bot, so nobody waits.
- Finish a box, go again — chain runs build big scores. When time’s up, the podium crowns the ladder. No accounts needed.
Tip: host on a laptop or projector (the big screen shows the code, QR and leaderboard); students join on their phones or laptops.
