A shelf of classic games, each with its rules inside the box

Arkedia is a collection of 14 classic games you can learn and play on the same page. Some you half-remember from a school desk or the back of a newspaper; some you may never have played at all. Each one comes with the rules, a worked example, strategy that actually helps, and the idea underneath: the bit of probability, logic or search that makes the game tick.

It is built for playing on your own, in a spare few minutes, on a laptop or a phone. Nobody is marking you and nothing is timed unless you start the clock.

How each page works

1. Learn it in a minute. Beside every board is a short numbered list: the complete rules, written so that you can make a legal first move straight after reading them.
2. Play it. The board is right there. Every game works with a keyboard as well as a mouse or touch screen, and says what is happening in words as well as colour. The two-player games can be played against the computer or with a friend at the same screen.
3. Go deeper. Below the board is the guide: the rules in full with edge cases, a position walked through move by move, strategy from first steps to strong play, and the idea the game is quietly teaching.

Your record stays on this device

When you finish a round, Arkedia writes a small record into your browser's local storage, under the key arkedia:progress:v1: how many rounds you have played, won, lost and drawn, your streaks, your best scores, and options such as the difficulty you last picked. That is what prints the stamps on the box lids and fills in "Your record" on each game page.

The record never leaves your device. There are no accounts, no servers keeping score and no leaderboards. It also means the record belongs to this browser only: another browser, another device or a private window starts from an empty shelf, and clearing your browser's site data erases it.

Credits

The games themselves are classic designs that belong to everyone. The puzzles, word lists and clues on Arkedia are made for it; the word games use common dictionary words, not anyone's copied puzzle archive.

Headings and the interface are set in Archivo by Omnibus-Type, and the guides in Source Serif 4 by Frank Grießhammer for Adobe. Both are published under the SIL Open Font License.