🎮 Smart Dots Reloaded – A Modern Take on the Classic Dots & Boxes

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Hello everyone!
I’d like to share my latest Phaser project: Smart Dots Reloaded, a modern version of the timeless Dots & Boxes game, built entirely with PhaserJS.

:sparkles: Features

  • Progressive boards: from 2x2 up to 8x8

  • Modular HUD system (score, level, etc.)

  • Smooth line drawing animations

  • Square capture animations, one by one, to avoid “starvation” issues

  • Local 2-player mode (planned, not yet released)

:brain: Insane Mode (Minimax AI)

I also implemented a minimax algorithm to power the CPU opponent in Insane Mode.
The AI simulates up to 3 moves ahead, ranks possible outcomes, and always picks the optimal path.
This makes the computer extremely challenging to beat — it almost feels like you’re playing against a human who can foresee your traps.

:gear: Development Notes

One of the most fun challenges was dealing with turn starvation when multiple squares were closed at once. I solved this by animating them one at a time, controlled by a simple state machine:

  • WAITING_FOR_PLAYER_MOVE

  • ANIMATING_MOVE

This made the flow much more readable and responsive.

The HUD was also built in a modular way, with separate classes for score and level, making it easy to extend in the future.

Libs used

Font Awesome for Phaser
Phaser-hooks

:camera_with_flash: Screenshots & Gameplay

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:bullseye: Play it now

:backhand_index_pointing_right: Play Smart Dots Reloaded (Smart Dots Reloaded - Play Online for Free - Cassino.dev)

Feedback is more than welcome! I’d love to hear your thoughts on gameplay, animations, or code structure.

2 Likes
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Overall, it’s pretty good. I like the way it looks. For my taste, I think the music is a bit much. It’s a relaxing game so I’d rather hear a more laid back sound track. The spinning notebook on the home screen is a little disorienting to me as well. I’m not sure if it really adds much.

I found a couple bugs. On the screen that says Choose Game Mode, the buttons use two different fonts. The top button has a serif, monospace type font and the bottom button has a sans-serif font.

When there is a tie with the computer, the game seems to crash. Attached is a screenshot with my browser console.

I also found that when you click on the notebook, it can sometimes be unclear what segment you’re on. A highlight would be nice. I clicked on the wrong segment a couple times.

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Thanks for this. I changed these icons recently and does not exist the handshake-simple. I moved to handshake and works now :slight_smile:

I’ll change the fonts too.

Thanks for your feedbacks :slight_smile:

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I published at Gamedistribution.com

https://gamedistribution.com/games/smart-dots-reloaded/