Project Introduction

3D Go is a multiplayer online game that extends the ancient board game Go into three-dimensional space. Unlike the traditional planar Go game, which is played on a 19 by 19 grid, 3D Go unfolds on a three-dimensional surface, such as a sphere or a cube.

Go is a game of territory. The two players of the game will need to use either black or white stones to mark their territory, make attacks or establish defenses. In the end, whoever possesses the most territory wins the game.

By changing the fundamental geometric property of the board, we are really changing the terrain of a battlefield, making warfare more interesting and strategy more sophisticated. In doing so, we are hoping not only to provide more exciting games for Go players, but also to collect data on how users take advantage of, or being taken advantage by the three dimensional surface. We are also interested to see how users divide the surface and claim each of their own territory, and how does the data correspond to the algorithm that divides the surface.

The challenges of this project lie in two areas. The first is that the game is both a web application and a real time 3D rendering. The second is that implementing the rules of go demands the program to have sophisticated pattern recognition abilities.