Abalone

A web-based implementation of the classic hexagonal marble-pushing strategy board game, playable by two players over the network.

What is Abalone?

Abalone is a two-player strategy game played on a hexagonal board with 61 cells. Each player controls 14 marbles and takes turns pushing them around the board. The goal: push 6 of your opponent's marbles off the edge. Larger groups can push smaller ones (3v2, 3v1, 2v1), so positioning and coordination are everything.

Features

• Two-player network play — one player hosts, the other joins with a code
• Real-time WebSocket communication — instant move updates, no polling
• Fun game codes — memorable words like swift-volcano or angry-panda
• SVG hex board — clean, scalable rendering with click-to-select interaction
• Single binary deployment — frontend is embedded; just run the binary

🤖 AI-Built

This project is entirely AI/vibe-coded. Contributions are welcome — and will also be reviewed by AI.

Quick Start

make build
make run               # starts on :8080
./abalone -addr :3000  # custom port

Open http://localhost:8080 in your browser. One player clicks Host Game to create a room and get a game code. The other player enters the code and clicks Join Game. That's it — you're playing.

Development

make test              # run all tests
make lint              # check formatting + go vet
make help              # show all make targets

How to Play

1. Select 1–3 of your marbles by clicking them
2. Click a direction arrow to move or push
3. Moves can be in-line (along the axis of your group) or broadside (sideways)
4. Push opponent marbles off the board when you outnumber them on an axis
5. First to push off 6 opponent marbles wins

Tech Stack

• Go — game engine, server, room management
• Vanilla JS — frontend with SVG board rendering
• github.com/coder/websocket — WebSocket library
• go:embed — frontend files embedded in the binary

Project Structure

abalone-go/
├── main.go              # Entry point, embeds frontend, starts server
├── game/
│   ├── board.go         # Board types, hex coordinates, initial position
│   ├── game.go          # Game state, turns, win condition
│   ├── move.go          # Move validation and execution
│   └── game_test.go     # Tests for all game logic
├── server/
│   ├── server.go        # HTTP routes, static file serving
│   ├── room.go          # Room/lobby management, game codes
│   ├── ws.go            # WebSocket upgrade and message handling
│   ├── wordlist.go      # Word lists for game code generation
│   └── server_test.go   # End-to-end WebSocket tests
└── web/
    ├── index.html       # Single page app
    ├── style.css        # Board and UI styling
    └── app.js           # Game client, SVG rendering, WebSocket

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines.

License

MIT