Building puzzles

Dots and Boxes

The classic pencil-and-paper game — no word list required, and playable against the built-in AI or against another person on the same device.

Like Checkered Force, there's no word list or grid content to author. Readers take turns drawing one line at a time between two adjacent dots; completing the fourth side of a box claims it and immediately grants another turn. Whoever owns the most boxes when every line is drawn wins.

How the game works

• Each turn is one line, horizontal or vertical, between two neighboring dots.
• Completing a box's fourth side claims it for that player and gives them another turn right away — this keeps happening for as long as a move keeps completing boxes, so a single turn can claim several boxes in a row.
• If a move doesn't complete a box, the turn passes to the other player.
• Two modes are available: Vs. AI (single player against the computer) and 2 Players (local pass-and-play, both readers sharing the same device).
• Four AI difficulty levels are available: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert. Hard and Expert play the classic “double-cross” strategy — deliberately giving away a small chain of boxes to force you to open the next one, which can look surprising the first time you see it.
• Moves are labeled with dot-grid coordinates (columns lettered, rows numbered from 1 — e.g. “A1-B1”), and the most recently drawn line is briefly highlighted, so it stays easy to follow even on a crowded board.

Creating a Dots and Boxes entry

Open EV Puzzles Settings→Generate and click Dots and Boxes to reach its own screen.

1. Give it a title, and set a default board size (boxes wide × boxes tall, from 2×2 up to 12×12) and a default AI difficulty. Readers can still change the difficulty themselves before each game.
2. Click Save.
3. Use Load existing to reopen or reuse a saved entry, with plays/completions shown inline.