Related papers: Celeste is PSPACE-hard
We define a new, partizan, loopy combinatorial game, Forced-Capture Hnefatafl, similar to Hnefatafl, except that players are forced to make capturing moves when available. We show that this game is PSPACE-hard using a reduction from…
In this work, we analyze a sequential game played in a graph called the Multilevel Critical Node problem (MCN). A defender and an attacker are the players of this game. The defender starts by preventively interdicting vertices (vaccination)…
This paper represents a game which interacts with humans via hand gesture movement. Nowadays, apps like this seem rare, and there seems to be a window opening for this kind of application to be more prevalent and useful in the near future.…
We study the problem of generating a test sequence that achieves maximal coverage for a reactive system under test. We formulate the problem as a repeated game between the tester and the system, where the system state space is partitioned…
We analyze the computational complexity of the popular computer games Threes!, 1024!, 2048 and many of their variants. For most known versions expanded to an m x n board, we show that it is NP-hard to decide whether a given starting…
Challenges for physical solitaire puzzle games are typically designed in advance by humans and limited in number. Alternatively, some games incorporate rules for stochastic setup, where the human solver randomly sets up the game board…
We study the average-case complexity of the classic Minesweeper game in which players deduce the locations of mines on a two-dimensional lattice. Playing Minesweeper is known to be co-NP-complete. We show empirically that Minesweeper…
We study a two-player game played on undirected graphs called {\sc Trail Trap}, which is a variant of a game known as {\sc Partizan Edge Geography}. One player starts by choosing any edge and moving a token from one endpoint to the other;…
In this work we address a game theoretic variant of the shortest path problem, in which two decision makers (players) move together along the edges of a graph from a given starting vertex to a given destination. The two players take turns…
In many combinatorial games, one can prove that the first player wins under best play using a simple but non-constructive argument called strategy-stealing. This work is about the complexity behind these proofs: how hard is it to actually…
Snake is a classic computer game, which has been around for decades. Based on this game, we study the game of Snake on arbitrary undirected graphs. A snake forms a simple path that has to move to an apple while avoiding colliding with…
We define a new escape game in graphs that we call Nemesis. The game is played on a graph having a subset of vertices labeled as exits and the goal of one of the two players, called the fugitive, is to reach one of these exit vertices. The…
Game difficulty is a crucial aspect of game design, that can be directly influenced by tweaking game mechanics. Perceived difficulty can however also be influenced by simply altering the graphics to something more threatening. Here, we…
We prove that playing Candy Crush to achieve a given score in a fixed number of swaps is NP-hard.
Counter reachability games are played by two players on a graph with labelled edges. Each move consists in picking an edge from the current location and adding its label to a counter vector. The objective is to reach a given counter value…
This paper proves that arrangement of music is NP-hard when subject to various constraints: avoiding musical dissonance, limiting how many notes can be played simultaneously, and limiting transition speed between chords. These results imply…
We study the optimization problem faced by a perfectly informed principal in a Bayesian game, who reveals information to the players about the state of nature to obtain a desirable equilibrium. This signaling problem is the natural design…
In this paper, we study the average case complexity of the Unique Games problem. We propose a natural semi-random model, in which a unique game instance is generated in several steps. First an adversary selects a completely satisfiable…
We show that Mis\`ere Partizan Arc Kayles is PSPACE-complete on planar graphs via a reduction from Bounded Two-Player Constraint Logic. Furthermore, we show how to embed our gadgets onto the square and triangular grids. In order to clearly…
We study the computational complexity of the Buttons \& Scissors game and obtain sharp thresholds with respect to several parameters. Specifically we show that the game is NP-complete for $C = 2$ colors but polytime solvable for $C = 1$.…