A 9×9 knight duel with a royal twist. Gallop a Unicorn home to win.
Hoofbeat is a two-player abstract strategy duel on a 9×9 board where every piece is a horse that leaps like a chess knight — and each side has one Unicorn that also steps a single square in any direction. Line up a Unicorn on the far row and it's crowned: you win. Any plain horse that reaches the far row gallops home reborn as a Unicorn, so your threats multiply the longer you press. Play pass-and-play at one screen, grind four CPU tiers up to the unlockable Horse Master, or duel strangers online on a live ELO ladder. Dress your stable with horse sets and boards from the shop.
STORY & LORE
The Royal Stable
Two stables, ivory and walnut, face off across a nine-by-nine paddock. Every horse gallops in the crooked leap of a knight — two-and-one, over any head in the way. But each side keeps one Unicorn, and a Unicorn is worth the whole herd: it can leap like the rest OR take a single careful step in any direction, the extra half-inch that wins duels.
Gallop Home a Unicorn
The race is to the far row. Land a Unicorn there and it is CROWNED — the match is yours. But a plain horse that reaches the far row doesn't just sit: it gallops all the way home and returns to your back row a brand-new Unicorn. Push horses forward and every crossing hands you another royal threat. The board fills with horns.
The Paddock Closes
Stalling is not allowed. When neither side makes progress, the fences draw in — the outer ring of the paddock closes and the playable board shrinks. Dance around forever and the walls will make the decision for you. Keep the hoofbeats moving.
CHARACTERS & ENEMIES
Your rank and file. Each horse moves in the knight's L-shape, jumping over anything in the path. Get one to the far row and it gallops home a Unicorn.
Your royal piece. It jumps like a knight and can also take a single step in any direction — the flexibility that closes out a win. Land it on the far row to be crowned and take the match.
The fourth and hardest computer opponent, locked until you beat HARD. Reads the board deep and punishes loose horses. Beating it is the mark of a true groom.
HOW IT PLAYS
The Knight's Gallop
Every horse — and the Unicorn — can make the knight's move: two squares one way, one square the other, leaping over any piece in between. On a 9×9 board that's a wide, tricky reach that takes a few games to see clearly.
The Unicorn's Gift
Your single Unicorn adds the king's step to the knight's leap: one square in any direction on top of the L-jump. That extra option is how you sidestep a block, escape a fork, or sneak onto the winning square.
Cross to be Crowned
Race to the enemy's back row. A Unicorn that reaches it is crowned and wins immediately. A plain horse that reaches it is promoted — it gallops home and reappears on your own back row as a fresh Unicorn, multiplying your threats.
Capture the Crown
Capturing is by landing on a piece, knight-style. Take the enemy Unicorn and you strip their crown — a huge swing, since the Unicorn is the only piece that can actually win. Guard yours accordingly.
Four CPU Tiers + Online ELO
Solo play climbs four difficulties — Easy, Medium, Hard, and the unlockable Horse Master — each with its own bot ELO. Or go MULTIPLAYER for ranked online duels on a live ladder where your rating moves with every result.
Pass & Play and The Stable Shop
Hand the screen back and forth for local two-player, or window-shop the Stable: horse sets (from White & Black to Dogs & Cats) and boards (Marble, Ruby & Sapphire, Cotton Candy), bought with Tickets and equipped to taste.
The online duel, proved
Ranked play is not a claim on the box. The lobby, the table handshake, side assignment, the move relay, resignation, forfeit and the ranked result are all exercised by a test that runs TWO live copies of the game in one page with a stand-in host relaying between them — using the same postMessage event names and payload shapes the site uses over Supabase Realtime. A duel plays through it move for move, both boards stay identical, and both riders file a matching result under one match id with opposite outcomes. What that test cannot cover is the transport underneath, which is the site's Realtime channels.
The stable shop
Six cosmetics — three horse sets and three boards — bought with real Tickets through the site's shop API, not a local pretend currency. The game asks the host what you own, the server owns affordability, and a purchase you cannot cover is refused with the shortfall named rather than quietly faked. The item slugs and prices in the game are the same six the database seeds.
GALLERY
GAME MODES
| Mode | What it is |
|---|---|
| vs Computer | Solo against one of four CPU tiers; moves your solo ELO |
| Pass & Play | Local two-player on a single screen |
| Multiplayer | Ranked online duels on a live ELO ladder |
CPU DIFFICULTY
| Tier | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Easy | Gentle — learn the knight reach |
| 2 | Medium | Plays a real game |
| 3 | Hard | Sharp; beat it to unlock the last tier |
| 4 | Horse Master | Unlockable boss AI 🔒 |
STABLE SHOP — HORSE SETS
Bought with Tickets, then equipped. Sign in on the site to buy.
| Set | Price |
|---|---|
| Royal Ivory & Walnut | Default |
| White & Black | 150 🎟 |
| Crimson & Azure | 250 🎟 |
| Dogs & Cats | 300 🎟 |
STABLE SHOP — BOARDS
| Board | Price |
|---|---|
| Classic Wood | Default |
| Marble | 150 🎟 |
| Ruby & Sapphire | 200 🎟 |
| Cotton Candy | 250 🎟 |
ACHIEVEMENTS
| Achievement | How |
|---|---|
| 🐴 First Trot | Win a match against the computer |
| 🔥 Stable Master | Reach a 5-win streak vs the computer |
| 🦄 Grandmaster Groom | Beat the Hard computer |
VERSION HISTORY
- Added a QA hook (window.__hb) of the same shape every other game on the site exposes — board snapshot, turn, side, legal-move count, play, resign, and the shop's state. It is the only way to prove an online duel works without two humans and two accounts.
- Added a two-client test rig: two live copies of HoofBeat in one page with a stand-in host relaying between them, faithful to the real GameFrame's event names and payloads. 25 assertions cover the lobby, hosting, joining, side assignment, the move relay in both directions, resignation, and the ranked report — plus the shop reading the real wallet, buying the right slug, equipping, and refusing a purchase it cannot afford.
- Fixed in the hook itself: the first board snapshot mapped st.b (an Int8Array) straight to strings, which coerces every square back to a number — the comparison silently only tested whose turn it was.
- Initial catalogued version: 9×9 knight-duel, one Unicorn per side (knight + one step), promotion on crossing the far row, coronation win, crown-capture, and the shrinking-paddock anti-stall rule.
- Four CPU tiers (Easy → unlockable Horse Master), pass-and-play, ranked online duels with live ELO ladder, and a Ticket shop of horse sets and boards.
- Awaiting a hand-tuning pass — bot strength, shop pricing and cosmetics may shift in later versions.