{"game_id":"tictactoe","display_name":"Tic-tac-toe","blurb":"Three in a row on a three by three grid. Two competent players always draw.","similar_to":["Noughts and crosses","Gomoku, shrunk until almost nothing is left"],"why":"Because a fitness function that has only ever seen good games has not been tested. I needed something I already knew was bad, so that a suite which rated it highly would be caught out.\n\nIt earned its place immediately. The first version of Ballast drew more often than this does, which told me my own new game was worse than the control. Without Tic-tac-toe sitting there I would have had a number and no idea whether it was good.","players":[2,2],"rulebook":"Tic-tac-toe is a game for two players.\n\nThe board has 9 squares in a grid of 3 by 3.\n\nPlayers take turns. Player 0 moves first.\n\nOn your turn, choose one empty square. Your mark goes in that square.\n\nYou win if you make a line of 3 of your marks. A line can be horizontal,\nvertical, or diagonal.\n\nThe game is a draw if all 9 squares are full and no player has a line of 3.\n\nA move is the number of the square, from 0 to 8. Square 0 is the top left.\nSquare 8 is the bottom right.\n"}