Selfo

Selfo

Connect all your pieces into a single group before your rival does.

An abstract strategy game where a handful of simple rules give rise to deep, self-organizing play. Easy to learn, hard to master, and it runs right in your browser.

How it works

• The board is a compact hexagon of 19 cells, and you and the computer have the same number of pieces.
• On your turn, slide one piece one step to a neighboring empty cell.
• Finish a move with all your pieces joined in one group and you win.
• Watch out for enclosures: pieces can be walled in, and if both sides end up trapped the game is a draw.
• The pie rule keeps it fair. Black moves first, and when the computer opens, you get a choice before your first move: play on, or swap sides. Swapping means you take over the position exactly as it stands and the computer plays white. Is the opening a gift or a trap? That’s the first puzzle of every game.

That’s the whole rulebook. The depth comes from the fact that every move changes your own shape and your rival’s options.

Choose your challenge

• Three difficulty settings: easy, medium and hard. Every starting position comes from a library of positions solved exhaustively by computer, graded by how many moves it takes to force a win. “Hard” really means hard.
• A five-level challenge ladder, from three pieces per side up to seven. Your results move you up the ladder, and the computer gets more time to think as you climb.
• Games are quick to play, so there’s always time for one more.

If you enjoy abstract strategy games like Hex, Go or Hive, you’ll feel at home in minutes.

Free to play, no limits

All the levels of the ladder are completely free, unlimited games, no account, no login, no strings attached.

• Five levels, up to seven pieces per side, where games get long, tactical and surprising.
• A computer that thinks harder (up to five seconds per move) in the higher levels.
• The levels where the self-organizing patterns really show up.

Locked levels are shown at the bottom of the screen, on the challenge-ladder bar; a padlock marks where the free part ends.

About the game

Selfo is designed by Francisco Vico, an AI professor with a research background in emergent systems, applied here to an elegant board game.

Join the community

Play, learn, think… and share your experience with us!

To know more

If you enjoyed Selfo and want to learn more about it, join our Discord server.