How to start
- Open bigboard.games on every device and tap Start a table on one of them.
- The others join by themselves on the same Wi-Fi; elsewhere, scan the QR code or type the four-letter code.
- Lay the devices edge to edge, screens up, as the drawing shows, and pick the game.
Your screen, your fuse
Lay the two phones flat, top edges touching, one facing each of you. Each screen is one player's field, with a fuse counting down big in its middle. It burns only while the potato is on your side of the seam, so the game is simple: keep it off your screen. No second phone? Two players can share one screen, a zone each.
Touch the potato and flick. It leaves at the speed of your finger, bounces off the edges and slides across the seam onto your friend's phone. A potato that comes to rest on your screen is still yours, and your fuse keeps burning until you throw it. Like the puck in air hockey on two phones, it crosses at the speed you sent it.
It only gets hotter
Pick the fuse before the match: 12 seconds for a frantic game, 20 by default, or 30. Every one and a quarter fuses of play, the heat rises a stage: the fuses burn 1.5 times as fast, then twice, then three times, and the felt gets slicker, so the potato slides farther.
With two players, the first fuse to reach zero ends it: poof, cooked, and the other player wins. Rematch puts the potato back on the table straight away. With a third player it's last one standing instead: see the hot potato game for 3.
Power-ups and a friend far away
From eight seconds after Go, a power-up appears every 9 to 13 seconds, and only a rolling potato can take it; tapping it does nothing. Ice stops the fuse of the field it lies on for 3 seconds, double trouble drops a second potato on the other field for 8, and a slingshot sends the potato on at full speed.
A friend somewhere else can play too: they join with the table's link or code and take a seat at the edge of your field. Their phone shows the whole field, so they catch the potato as it comes to their zone and flick it back from there. Or pick Same on every screen, and every device shows one field.
2 players: questions and answers
Does the first one cooked lose?
Yes, with two players the match ends at the first fuse that runs out.
Can we pick the fuse?
Yes, 12, 20 or 30 seconds, chosen before the match.
Can a friend play from another place?
Yes, they join with the table's link or code, see the whole field on their phone and flick from there.
Is a match quick?
Yes, the fuses speed up to three times as fast, so on the default 20-second fuse it's over in about a minute.