Topoi

The brief

An original abstract strategy game needed a home online: a fast, correct rules engine, opponents worth playing against, and a way to send a friend a link and start a match.

What we built

The rules engine is written in C++ and exposed to Python through native bindings, so the web server calls straight into compiled code. Two kinds of computer opponent sit on top of it: an alpha-beta minimax search with a positional evaluation, and a Monte Carlo tree search bot. Search depth scales with the chosen difficulty.

A Flask web app handles anonymous sessions, game records and rematches, with live moves sent over WebSockets.

Under the hood

• CMake build of the engine with Python bindings, packaged into the app’s container.
• SQLite for players, games and rematch offers, with migrations.
• Deployed as a separate service behind the main web server.