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A game-playing program will be required, above all, to generate a valid and good move given any game state. The game itself can be viewed as a form of a tree - one which specifies all possible plays3 in the game. In practice, it will attempt to find the best path within the game tree. Our application will evaluate a current game state by inspecting various different aspects such as current positioning, prospective positioning, structure formed by stones, etc.
Structure and formation are some very subtle issues that differ significantly from one game to another. In a game like Chess, we might want to take into consideration the structure that a group of pieces form, or the structure of the board slots that are reachable by any of the pieces. In a game like Othello, the shape of an occupied cluster of stones might be an aspect that is worth paying great attention to. Analysis of the formation of stones which were placed on the sides and corners of the board may even be a more fruitful process.
At the design stage, many of these issues must be taken into consideration. The most important aspect of this project will be the strength of the game-playing engine, given that the creation of a strong playing-engine is my personal main ambition.