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.
How a bot plays
In whack a mole, a bot is one hand on one field. When a mole shows, it reacts after a seeded 400 to 700 milliseconds, and when several moles show at once it goes for the one about to hide first. Its taps are judged exactly like a finger's: a bop is a bop, and a tap beside the mole is an ordinary miss that stuns the spot and, head to head, gives ground away.
It isn't perfect, on purpose. About 15 % of its taps land beside the mole, and now and then, about one mole in eight, it looks away and lets one slip. It never bops a bomb. A quick player beats it; a slow one has a real match on their hands. Like the air hockey bot, it is beatable by design.
A bot on your own screen
Alone, start a table on one device and add a bot. The screen splits into a zone for you and one for the bot, as in 2 player whack a mole, so you watch it play right there, and head to head the two of you share a tug-of-war bar along the cut. Pick Cooperative instead and the bot helps you defend the field.
Its misses are drawn and counted like yours, but the bot never makes the device buzz. One device seats up to four players, a zone at each edge, so on a tablet one person can take on three bots at once.
Bots at a table of friends
Bots also fill seats when friends play on several devices. A bot sits at an edge of the table, by default the longest free stretch of it, and plays a zone of the screen there, so everyone sees its moles rise and its taps land. In Arrange you can slide its face to any edge, a corner too.
The device under a bot's seat runs its field; if that device leaves, the bot's field goes with it. A table can hold up to twelve players, people and bots together.
With bots: questions and answers
Can bots play alongside people?
Yes, bots fill seats at any table, head to head or in Cooperative.
Can I play one bot alone on one device?
Yes, the screen splits into your zone and the bot's.
Do bots make the phone buzz?
No, a bot's taps never vibrate the device.