This is a list of boardgame related research papers, code, blog posts, and other media. The list primarily includes research on "solving/playing/learning" games (by various different approaches), or occasionaly about designing or meta-aspects of the game. This doesn't cover all aspects of each game (notably missing social-science stuff), but should be of interest to anyone interested in boardgames and their optimal play. While there is a ton of easily accessible research on games like Chess and Go, finding prior work on more contemporary games can be a bit hard. This list focuses on the latter. If you are interested in well-researched games like Chess, Go, Hex, take a look at the Chess programming wiki instead. The list also covers some computer-games that fall under similar themes.

You can browse the collection at https://www.zotero.org/captn3m0/collections/8S9AI4TI as well.

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• 2048
• Accessibility
• Azul
• Blokus
• Carcassonne
• Crew, The
• Diplomacy
• Dixit
• Dominion
• Flood-It / Mad Virus / Honey Bee
• Frameworks
• Game Design
• General Gameplay
• Hanabi
• Hearthstone
• Hive
• Jenga
• Kingdomino
• Lost Cities
• Mafia
• Magic: The Gathering
• Mobile Games
• Modern Art: The card game
• Monopoly
• Monopoly Deal
• Netrunner
• Nmbr9
• Pandemic
• Patchwork
• Pentago
• Puerto Rico
• Quixo
• Race for the Galaxy
• Resistance: Avalon
• RISK
• Santorini
• Scotland Yard
• Secret Hitler
• Set
• Settlers of Catan
• Shobu
• Terra Mystica
• Terraforming Mars
• Tetris Link
• Ticket to Ride
• Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe
• UNO
• Yahtzee
• Similar Projects
• License

• Systematic Selection of N-Tuple Networks for 2048 (bookSection 2016)
• Systematic selection of N-tuple networks with consideration of interinfluence for game 2048 (conferencePaper 2016)
• An investigation into 2048 AI strategies (conferencePaper 2014)
• Threes!, Fives, 1024!, and 2048 are Hard (journalArticle 2015)
• Making Change in 2048 (journalArticle 2018)
• Analysis of the Game "2048" and its Generalization in Higher Dimensions (journalArticle 2018)
• Multi-Stage Temporal Difference Learning for 2048-like Games (journalArticle 2016)
• 2048 is (PSPACE) Hard, but Sometimes Easy (journalArticle 2014)
• Temporal difference learning of N-tuple networks for the game 2048 (conferencePaper 2014)
• On the Complexity of Slide-and-Merge Games (journalArticle 2015)
• 2048 Without New Tiles Is Still Hard (journalArticle 2016)

• Meeple Centred Design: A Heuristic Toolkit for Evaluating the Accessibility of Tabletop Games (journalArticle 2018)
• Eighteen Months of Meeple Like Us: An Exploration into the State of Board Game Accessibility (journalArticle 2018)

• A summary of a dissertation on Azul (report )
• Ceramic: A research environment based on the multi-player strategic board game Azul (conferencePaper )
• Ceramic: A research environment based on the multi-player strategic board game Azul (computerProgram )

• FPGA Blokus Duo Solver using a massively parallel architecture (conferencePaper 2013)
• Blokus Duo game on FPGA (conferencePaper 2013)
• Algorithm Modeling for Hardware Implementation of a Blokus Duo Player (thesis )
• Artificial Intelligence for Blokus Classic using Heuristics, FloodFill, and Greedy Algorithm (journalArticle 2021)
• FPGA implementation of Blokus Duo player using hardware/software co-design (conferencePaper 2014)
• Exploring Combinatorics and Graph Theory with Simple Blokus (journalArticle 2022)
• An FPGA-based specific processor for Blokus Duo (conferencePaper 2013)
• Blokus Game Solver (report 2018)
• Highly scalable, shared-memory, Monte-Carlo tree search based Blokus Duo Solver on FPGA (conferencePaper 2014)
• Implementation of a highly scalable blokus duo solver on FPGA (conferencePaper 2013)
• An implementation of Blokus Duo player on FPGA (conferencePaper 2013)
• The Liquid Metal Blokus Duo Design (conferencePaper 2013)
• Artificial intelligence of Blokus Duo on FPGA using Cyber Work Bench (conferencePaper 2013)
• Hardware/software co-design architecture for Blokus Duo solver (conferencePaper 2014)
• From C to Blokus Duo with LegUp high-level synthesis (conferencePaper 2013)
• Blokus Duo engine on a Zynq (conferencePaper 2014)
• Optimize MinMax algorithm to solve Blokus Duo game by HDL (conferencePaper 2014)
• A Case Study of FPGA Blokus Duo Solver by System-Level Design (journalArticle 2014)

• Playing Carcassonne with Monte Carlo Tree Search (journalArticle 2020)
• On the Evolution of the MCTS Upper Confidence Bounds for Trees by Means of Evolutionary Algorithms in the Game of Carcassonne (journalArticle 2021)
• Evolving the MCTS Upper Confidence Bounds for Trees Using a Semantic-inspired Evolutionary Algorithm in the Game of Carcassonne (preprint 2022)

• The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine is NP-Complete (preprint 2021)
• Generating Solutions to The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine (blogPost )

• Learning to Play No-Press Diplomacy with Best Response Policy Iteration (journalArticle 2020)
• No Press Diplomacy: Modeling Multi-Agent Gameplay (journalArticle 2019)
• Agent Madoff: A Heuristic-Based Negotiation Agent For The Diplomacy Strategy Game (journalArticle 2019)
• Monte Carlo Tree Search for the Game of Diplomacy (conferencePaper 2020)
• Human-Level Performance in No-Press Diplomacy via Equilibrium Search (journalArticle 2021)

• Creative Captioning: An AI Grand Challenge Based on the Dixit Board Game (journalArticle 2020)
• Dixit: Interactive Visual Storytelling via Term Manipulation (journalArticle 2019)

• Dominion Simulator (computerProgram )
• Dominion Simulator Source Code (computerProgram )
• Best and worst openings in Dominion (blogPost )
• Optimal Card Ratios in Dominion (blogPost )
• Card Winning Stats on Dominion Server (blogPost )
• Dominion Strategy Forum (forumPost )
• Clustering Player Strategies from Variable-Length Game Logs in Dominion (journalArticle 2018)
• Game Balancing in Dominion: An Approach to Identifying Problematic Game Elements (journalArticle )
• Playing Various Strategies in Dominion with Deep Reinforcement Learning (journalArticle 2023)

• The Flood-It game parameterized by the vertex cover number (journalArticle 2015)
• The complexity of flood-filling games on graphs (journalArticle 2012)
• The complexity of Free-Flood-It on 2 × n boards (journalArticle 2013)
• A Survey on the Complexity of Flood-Filling Games (bookSection 2018)
• Flood-it on AT-Free Graphs (preprint 2015)
• On Complexity of Flooding Games on Graphs with Interval Representations (bookSection 2013)
• Efficient approaches for the Flooding Problem on graphs (journalArticle 2020)
• The Complexity of Flood Filling Games (preprint 2011)
• Flood it! An exact approach (blogPost 2012)
• Exact Approaches for Flood-it: A*, IDA*, a SAT- and ILP-Solver compared (thesis 2023)
• An algorithmic analysis of Flood-It and Free-Flood-It on graph powers (journalArticle 2014)
• Parameterized Complexity of Flood-Filling Games on Trees (bookSection 2013)
• An algorithmic analysis of the Honey-Bee game (journalArticle 2012)
• Extremal properties of flood-filling games (journalArticle 2019)
• Spanning Trees and the Complexity of Flood-Filling Games (journalArticle 2014)
• Inundação em Grafos / Graph Flooding (conferencePaper 2012)
• Flooding games on graphs (journalArticle 2014)
• Tractability and hardness of flood-filling games on trees (journalArticle 2015)
• The Complexity of Flood Filling Games (bookSection 2010)
• Flood-It as a SAT problem (thesis 2020)

• RLCard: A Toolkit for Reinforcement Learning in Card Games (journalArticle 2020)
• Design and Implementation of TAG: A Tabletop Games Framework (journalArticle 2020)
• Game Tree Search Algorithms - C++ library for AI bot programming. (computerProgram 2015)
• TAG: Tabletop Games Framework (computerProgram )

• MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research (conferencePaper )
• Exploring anonymity in cooperative board games (conferencePaper 2011)

• Player of Games (journalArticle 2021)
• A general reinforcement learning algorithm that masters chess, shogi, and Go through self-play (journalArticle 2018)

• How to Make the Perfect Fireworks Display: Two Strategies forHanabi (journalArticle 2015)
• Evaluating and modelling Hanabi-playing agents (conferencePaper 2017)
• The Hanabi challenge: A new frontier for AI research (journalArticle 2020)
• The 2018 Hanabi competition (conferencePaper 2019)
• Diverse Agents for Ad-Hoc Cooperation in Hanabi (conferencePaper 2019)
• Improving Policies via Search in Cooperative Partially Observable Games (journalArticle 2019)
• Hanabi is NP-hard, Even for Cheaters who Look at Their Cards (journalArticle 2016)
• Generating and Adapting to Diverse Ad-Hoc Cooperation Agents in Hanabi (journalArticle 2020)
• Evaluating the Rainbow DQN Agent in Hanabi with Unseen Partners (journalArticle 2020)
• Re-determinizing MCTS in Hanabi (conferencePaper 2019)
• Evolving Agents for the Hanabi 2018 CIG Competition (conferencePaper 2018)
• Aspects of the Cooperative Card Game Hanabi (bookSection 2017)
• Playing Hanabi Near-Optimally (bookSection 2017)
• An intentional AI for hanabi (conferencePaper 2017)
• Solving Hanabi: Estimating Hands by Opponent's Actions in Cooperative Game with Incomplete Information (conferencePaper 2015)
• A Browser-based Interface for the Exploration and Evaluation of Hanabi AIs (journalArticle 2017)
• I see what you see: Integrating eye tracking into Hanabi playing agents (journalArticle )
• State of the art Hanabi bots + simulation framework in rust (computerProgram )
• A strategy simulator for the well-known cooperative card game Hanabi (computerProgram )
• A framework for writing bots that play Hanabi (computerProgram )
• Operationalizing Intentionality to Play Hanabi with Human Players (journalArticle 2020)
• Behavioral Evaluation of Hanabi Rainbow DQN Agents and Rule-Based Agents (journalArticle 2020)
• Playing mini-Hanabi card game with Q-learning (conferencePaper 2020)
• Hanabi Open Agent Dataset (computerProgram )
• Hanabi Open Agent Dataset (conferencePaper )
• Evaluation of Human-AI Teams for Learned and Rule-Based Agents in Hanabi (journalArticle 2021)
• Emergence of Cooperative Impression With Self-Estimation, Thinking Time, and Concordance of Risk Sensitivity in Playing Hanabi (journalArticle 2021)
• K-level Reasoning for Zero-Shot Coordination in Hanabi (conferencePaper )
• Is Vanilla Policy Gradient Overlooked? Analyzing Deep Reinforcement Learning for Hanabi (journalArticle 2022)
• Generating and Adapting to Diverse Ad-Hoc Partners in Hanabi (journalArticle 2022)
• Theory of Mind for Multi-agent Coordination in Hanabi (thesis 2022)
• The Hanabi challenge: From Artificial Teams to Mixed Human-Machine Teams (thesis )
• A Graphical User Interface For The Hanabi Challenge Benchmark (thesis )
• Analysis of Symmetry and Conventions in Off-Belief Learning (OBL) in Hanabi (blogPost )
• Using intuitive behavior models to adapt to and work with human teammates in Hanabi (thesis )
• Behavioral Differences is the Key of Ad-hoc Team Cooperation in Multiplayer Games Hanabi (preprint 2023)
• The Hidden Rules of Hanabi: How Humans Outperform AI Agents (conferencePaper 2023)
• Towards Few-shot Coordination: Revisiting Ad-hoc Teamplay Challenge In the Game of Hanabi (preprint 2023)

• Mapping Hearthstone Deck Spaces through MAP-Elites with Sliding Boundaries (journalArticle 2019)
• Multiplayer Tension In the Wild: A Hearthstone Case (conferencePaper 2023)
• Improving Hearthstone AI by Combining MCTS and Supervised Learning Algorithms (preprint 2018)
• Analysis of gameplay strategies in hearthstone: a data science approach (thesis )
• Decision-Making in Hearthstone Based on Evolutionary Algorithm (journalArticle 2023)
• I am a legend: Hacking hearthstone using statistical learning methods (conferencePaper 2016)
• The Many AI Challenges of Hearthstone (journalArticle 2020)
• Evolutionary deckbuilding in hearthstone (conferencePaper 2016)
• Evolving the Hearthstone Meta (preprint 2019)
• Optimizing Hearthstone agents using an evolutionary algorithm (journalArticle 2020)
• Exploring the hearthstone deck space (conferencePaper 2018)
• Computational Intelligence Techniques for Games with Incomplete Information (thesis )
• Perfect Information Hearthstone is PSPACE-hard (preprint 2023)
• Summarizing Strategy Card Game AI Competition (preprint 2023)
• Towards sample efficient deep reinforcement learning in collectible card games (journalArticle 2023)
• General-Purpose Planning Algorithms in the Card Game Duelyst II (conferencePaper 2023)
• Cards with Class: Formalizing a Simplified Collectible Card Game (thesis 2024)
• Means-end analysis decision making model in Santorini Board Game (thesis )

• On the complexity of Hive (thesis 2020)
• The Cost of Reinforcement Learning for Game Engines: The AZ-Hive Case-study (conferencePaper 2022)

• Jidoukan Jenga: Teaching English through remixing games and game rules (journalArticle 2020)
• Maximum genus of the Jenga like configurations (journalArticle 2018)
• Deep Instance Segmentation and Visual Servoing to Play Jenga with a Cost-Effective Robotic System (journalArticle 2023)

• Monte Carlo Methods for the Game Kingdomino (conferencePaper 2018)
• Monte Carlo Methods for the Game Kingdomino (journalArticle 2018)
• NP-completeness of the game Kingdomino (journalArticle 2019)

• Applying Neural Networks and Genetic Programming to the Game Lost Cities (conferencePaper )

• A mathematical model of the Mafia game (journalArticle 2010)
• Automatic Long-Term Deception Detection in Group Interaction Videos (journalArticle 2019)
• Human-Side Strategies in the Werewolf Game Against the Stealth Werewolf Strategy (bookSection 2016)
• A Theoretical Study of Mafia Games (journalArticle 2008)

• Ensemble Determinization in Monte Carlo Tree Search for the Imperfect Information Card Game Magic: The Gathering (journalArticle 2012)
• Optimal Card-Collecting Strategies for Magic: The Gathering (journalArticle 2000)
• Monte Carlo search applied to card selection in Magic: The Gathering (conferencePaper 2009)
• Magic: the Gathering is as Hard as Arithmetic (journalArticle 2020)
• Magic: The Gathering is Turing Complete (journalArticle 2019)
• Neural Networks Models for Analyzing Magic: the Gathering Cards (journalArticle 2018)
• Neural Networks Models for Analyzing Magic: The Gathering Cards (bookSection 2018)
• The Complexity of Deciding Legality of a Single Step of Magic: The Gathering (conferencePaper )
• Magic: The Gathering in Common Lisp (conferencePaper )
• Magic: The Gathering in Common Lisp (computerProgram )
• Mathematical programming and Magic: The Gathering (thesis )
• Deck Construction Strategies for Magic: The Gathering (conferencePaper )
• Deckbuilding in Magic: The Gathering Using a Genetic Algorithm (thesis )
• Magic: The Gathering Deck Performance Prediction (report )
• AI solutions for drafting in Magic: the Gathering (journalArticle 2021)

• Trainyard is NP-Hard (journalArticle 2016)
• Threes!, Fives, 1024!, and 2048 are Hard (journalArticle 2015)
• Rikudo is NP-complete (journalArticle 2022)

• A constraint programming based solver for Modern Art (computerProgram )

• Monopoly as a Markov Process (journalArticle 1972)
• Learning Monopoly Gameplay: A Hybrid Model-Free Deep Reinforcement Learning and Imitation Learning Approach (journalArticle 2021)
• Negotiation strategy of agents in the MONOPOLY game (conferencePaper 2001)
• Generating interesting Monopoly boards from open data (conferencePaper 2012)
• Estimating the probability that the game of Monopoly never ends (conferencePaper 2009)
• Learning to Play Monopoly with Monte Carlo Tree Search (report )
• Monopoly Using Reinforcement Learning (conferencePaper 2019)
• A Markovian Exploration of Monopoly (report )
• Learning to play Monopoly: A Reinforcement Learning approach (conferencePaper )
• What’s the Best Monopoly Strategy? (presentation )

• Implementation of Artificial Intelligence with 3 Different Characters of AI Player on “Monopoly Deal” Computer Game (bookSection 2015)

• Netrunner Mate-in-1 or -2 is Weakly NP-Hard (journalArticle 2017)

• Nmbr9 as a Constraint Programming Challenge (journalArticle 2020)
• Nmbr9 as a Constraint Programming Challenge (blogPost )

• NP-Completeness of Pandemic (journalArticle 2012)

• State Representation and Polyomino Placement for the Game Patchwork (blogPost )
• State Representation and Polyomino Placement for the Game Patchwork (journalArticle 2020)
• State Representation and Polyomino Placement for the Game Patchwork (presentation )

• On Solving Pentago (thesis )
• Pentago is a First Player Win: Strongly Solving a Game Using Parallel In-Core Retrograde Analysis (journalArticle 2014)
• A massively parallel pentago solver (computerProgram )
• An interactive explorer for perfect pentago play (computerProgram )
• An Application of Machine Learning to the Board Game Pentago (report )
• Learning finite functions by neural networks : Evaluation of Pentago positions by convolutional neural networks (report )

• Artificial Intelligence Techniques for the Puerto Rico Strategy Game (bookSection 2018)

• QUIXO is EXPTIME-complete (journalArticle 2020)
• Quixo Is Solved (journalArticle 2020)

• SCOUT: A Case-Based Reasoning Agent for Playing Race for the Galaxy (bookSection 2017)
• Ludometrics: Luck, and How to Measure It (journalArticle 2018)

• Finding Friend and Foe in Multi-Agent Games (journalArticle 2019)

• Mini-Risk: Strategies for a Simplified Board Game (journalArticle 1990)
• Learning the risk board game with classifier systems (conferencePaper 2002)
• Markov Chains and the RISK Board Game (journalArticle 1997)
• Markov Chains for the RISK Board Game Revisited (journalArticle 2003)
• Planning an Endgame Move Set for the Game RISK: A Comparison of Search Algorithms (journalArticle 2005)
• An Intelligent Artificial Player for the Game of Risk (presentation 2005)
• RISKy Business: An In-Depth Look at the Game RISK (journalArticle )
• RISK Board Game ‐ Battle Outcome Analysis (journalArticle )
• A multi-agent system for playing the board game risk (thesis 2005)
• Monte Carlo Tree Search for Risk (conferencePaper 2021)
• Wargaming with Monte-Carlo Tree Search (presentation 2021)

• A Mathematical Analysis of the Game of Santorini (thesis )
• A Mathematical Analysis of the Game of Santorini (computerProgram )

• The complexity of Scotland Yard (report )

• Competing in a Complex Hidden Role Game with Information Set Monte Carlo Tree Search (journalArticle 2020)

• Game, Set, Math (journalArticle 2012)
• The Joy of SET (journalArticle 2018)

• The effectiveness of persuasion in The Settlers of Catan (conferencePaper 2014)
• Avoiding Revenge Using Optimal Opponent Ranking Strategy in the Board Game Catan (journalArticle 2018)
• Game strategies for The Settlers of Catan (conferencePaper 2014)
• Monte-Carlo Tree Search in Settlers of Catan (bookSection 2010)
• Deep Reinforcement Learning in Strategic Board Game Environments (bookSection 2019)
• Settlers of Catan bot trained using reinforcement learning (computerProgram )
• Trading in a multiplayer board game: Towards an analysis of non-cooperative dialogue (conferencePaper 2012)
• POMCP with Human Preferencesin Settlers of Catan (journalArticle )
• The impact of loaded dice in Catan (blogPost )
• Monte Carlo Tree Search in a Modern Board Game Framework (journalArticle )
• Reinforcement Learning of Strategies for Settlers of Catan (conferencePaper 2004)
• Playing Catan with Cross-dimensional Neural Network (journalArticle 2020)
• Strategic Dialogue Management via Deep Reinforcement Learning (journalArticle 2015)
• Analysis of 'The Settlers of Catan' Using Markov Chains (thesis 2021)
• Learning to Play Settlers of Catan with Deep Reinforcement Learning (blogPost )
• Using Ant Colony Optimisation for map generation and improving game balance in the Terra Mystica and Settlers of Catan board games (conferencePaper 2020)

• Shobu AI Playground (computerProgram )
• Shobu randomly played games dataset (webpage )

• Using Tabu Search Algorithm for Map Generation in the Terra Mystica Tabletop Game (conferencePaper 2020)
• Mastering Terra Mystica: Applying Self-Play to Multi-agent Cooperative Board Games (journalArticle 2021)
• TM AI: Play TM against AI players. (computerProgram )
• Using Ant Colony Optimisation for map generation and improving game balance in the Terra Mystica and Settlers of Catan board games (conferencePaper 2020)
• Map Generation and Balance in the Terra Mystica Board Game Using Particle Swarm and Local Search (bookSection 2020)
• Using Ant Colony Optimisation for map generation and improving game balance in the Terra Mystica and Settlers of Catan board games (conferencePaper 2020)

• TAG: Terraforming Mars (journalArticle 2021)

• A New Challenge: Approaching Tetris Link with AI (journalArticle 2020)

• AI-based playtesting of contemporary board games (conferencePaper 2017)
• Materials for Ticket to Ride Seattle and a framework for making more game boards (computerProgram )
• The Difficulty of Learning Ticket to Ride (report )
• Evolving maps and decks for ticket to ride (conferencePaper 2018)
• Applications of Graph Theory and Probability in the Board Game Ticket to Ride (presentation 2020)
• Ticket to Ride and Dijkstra’s algorithm (blogPost )
• Ticket to Ride and the Traveling Salesperson Problem. (blogPost )

• At Most 43 Moves, At Least 29: Optimal Strategies and Bounds for Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe (journalArticle 2020)

• UNO Is Hard, Even for a Single Player (bookSection 2010)
• The complexity of UNO (journalArticle 2010)

• Nearly Optimal Computer Play in Multi-player Yahtzee (bookSection 2011)
• Computer Strategies for Solitaire Yahtzee (conferencePaper 2007)
• Modeling expert problem solving in a game of chance: a Yahtzeec case study (journalArticle 2001)
• Probabilites In Yahtzee (journalArticle 1982)
• Optimal Solitaire Yahtzee Strategies (presentation )
• Yahtzee: a Large Stochastic Environment for RL Benchmarks (journalArticle )
• Optimal Yahtzee performance in multi-player games (thesis 2013)
• How to Maximize Your Score in Solitaire Yahtzee (manuscript )
• Using Deep Q-Learning to Compare Strategy Ladders of Yahtzee (thesis 2019)
• Defensive Yahtzee (report )
• An Optimal Strategy for Yahtzee (report )
• Let’s Get Rolling! Exact Optimal Solitaire Yahtzee (journalArticle 2022)

• https://github.com/benedekrozemberczki/awesome-monte-carlo-tree-search-papers

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