Game Drop 001: The Big Board

The Big Board is our first game drop. It's a small strategy game you play in your browser, and you play it by talking.

What it is

It's dawn on Kestrel Island, and you're in an operations room in front of a wall-sized map. You have three squads, Hammer, Viper and Atlas, plus Kettle on artillery. You have one objective: take the relay station before dawn.

You don't click units. You hold space and give orders out loud: "Viper, recon the ridge." "Kettle, fire on the bridge." Your squad leaders answer back. If an order is a bad idea, they'll tell you.

And the enemy is listening. The enemy commander, the Warden, hears every order you give on the open channel. Say "Hammer, push to the ford" in the open, and the Warden will be waiting at the ford.

How to play

1. Open the game and allow the microphone (or type your orders).
2. Hold space to talk. Name the squad, then say what you want: "Atlas, take the bridge."
3. Watch the top of the board. Open means the Warden hears you. Secure means it doesn't.
4. Get the relay station before the clock runs out. A director changes the mission as you go.
5. Read your after-action report at the end, and share the result card if you're proud of it.

One thing we learned building it

An enemy that listens sounds like a threat: talk carelessly and you lose. Building it, we found it's also a tool. If the Warden believes what it hears, you can say the wrong thing on purpose. Announce "Everyone, attack the ford" on the open channel, then quietly send everyone somewhere else.

So we made the bluff a first-class move. The board shows what the enemy heard and how much it believes you, so you can watch a lie land. That's the kind of play we want from AI: a new kind of strategy you can only do because the other side can hear you.

What's next

We release a new game every second Thursday at 6pm Eastern. Game Drop 002 lands Thursday 12 November. The Big Board stays live and gets better as you play it, so tell us where it breaks and where the Warden feels unfair.

Want to hear when the next one drops? Get notified below.