Related papers: PSPACE-Complete Two-Color Placement Games

There have been extensive studies on learning in zero-sum games, focusing on the analysis of the existence and algorithmic convergence of Nash equilibrium (NE). Existing studies mainly focus on symmetric games where the strategy spaces of…

We study algorithmic complexity of solving subtraction games in a~fixed dimension with a finite difference set. We prove that there exists a game in this class such that any algorithm solving the game runs in exponential time. Also we prove…

The Parks Puzzle is a paper-and-pencil puzzle game that is classically played on a square grid with different colored regions (the parks). The player needs to place a certain number of "trees" in each row, column, and park such that none…

We consider the computational complexity of pure Nash equilibria in graphical games. It is known that the problem is NP-complete in general, but tractable (i.e., in P) for special classes of graphs such as those with bounded treewidth. It…

We present a nondeterministic model of computation based on reversing edge directions in weighted directed graphs with minimum in-flow constraints on vertices. Deciding whether this simple graph model can be manipulated in order to reverse…

Fortification-interdiction games are tri-level adversarial games where two opponents act in succession to protect, disrupt and simply use an infrastructure for a specific purpose. Many such games have been formulated and tackled in the…

We introduce the competitive assignment problem, a two-player version of the well-known assignment problem. Given a set of tasks and a set of agents with different efficiencies for different tasks, Alice and Bob take turns picking agents…

Tumbleweed is a popular two-player perfect-information new territorial game played at the prestigious Mind Sport Olympiad. We define a generalized version of the game, where the board size is arbitrary and so is the possible number of…

Distance games are games played on graphs in which the players alternately colour vertices, and which vertices can be coloured only depends on the distance to previously coloured vertices. The polynomial profile encodes the number of…

We study two-player multi-weighted reachability games played on a finite directed graph, where an agent, called P1, has several quantitative reachability objectives that he wants to optimize against an antagonistic environment, called P2.…

We present a new game, Dots & Polygons, played on a planar point set. Players take turns connecting two points, and when a player closes a (simple) polygon, the player scores its area. We show that deciding whether the game can be won from…

In this paper, we give simple NP-hardness reductions for three popular video games. The first is Baba Is You, an award winning 2D block puzzle game with the key premise being the ability to rewrite the rules of the game. The second is Fez,…

In this paper, we study three connection games among the most widely played: Havannah, Twixt, and Slither. We show that determining the outcome of an arbitrary input position is PSPACE-complete in all three cases. Our reductions are based…

In this paper, we show that the friends-and-strangers problem is PSPACE-complete by reduction from the Ncl (non-deterministic constraint logic) problem.

We prove that Balanced Biclique Reconfiguration on bipartite graphs is PSPACE-complete. This implies the PSPACE-completeness of the spanning variant of Subgraph Reconfiguration under the token jumping rule for the property "a graph is an…

Let $(X, \mathcal{F})$ be a hypergraph. The Maker-Breaker game on $(X, \mathcal{F})$ is a combinatorial game between two players, Maker and Breaker. Beginning with Maker, the players take turns claiming vertices from $X$ that have not yet…

The guarding game is a game in which several cops try to guard a region in a (directed or undirected) graph against Robber. Robber and the cops are placed on the vertices of the graph; they take turns in moving to adjacent vertices (or…

Exactly 20 years ago at MFCS, Demaine posed the open problem whether the game of Dots & Boxes is PSPACE-complete. Dots & Boxes has been studied extensively, with for instance a chapter in Berlekamp et al. "Winning Ways for Your Mathematical…

Kill-all Go is a variant of Go in which Black tries to capture all white stones, while White tries to survive. We consider computational complexity of Kill-all Go with two rulesets, Chinese rules and Japanese rules. We prove that: (i)…

We consider the complexity properties of modern puzzle games, Hexiom, Cut the Rope and Back to Bed. The complexity of games plays an important role in the type of experience they provide to players. Back to Bed is shown to be PSPACE-Hard…