Abstract Board Games

These examples are meant to demonstrate the type of output you are able to create with protograf. They are not meant to be exhaustive or comprehensive!

Bear in mind that the images shown in these examples are lower-resolution screenshots; the original PDFs that can be generated from the source scripts will demonstrate full scalability.

Chess

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Title

Chess Board

Script

chessboard.py

Discussion

This example shows how to construct a regular Chess board.

Screenshot

 ../_images/chessboard.png

Title

Chess Board - Brown

Script

chessboard_brown.py

Discussion

This example shows how to construct a regular Chess board with brown styling and grid references.

This example uses a Square grid with alphanumeric locations. These locations are then referenced and drawn with a Location() command.

The grid notation along the board edges is created via Sequence() commands.

Screenshot

 ../_images/chessboard_brown.png

Backgammon

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Title

Backgammon Board

Script

backgammon.py

Discussion

This example shows how to construct a regular Backgammon board.

This uses Trapezoid shape with a very narrow top to represent a point; this can be copied across in a line using a Sequence() command.

There is one Sequence command for each section of the board — top and bottom sections of each panel — and each Sequence draws a pair of Trapezoid shapes multiple times.

Screenshot

 ../_images/backgammon.png

Dejarik

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Dejarik is a holographic, Chess-like game depicted in the “Star Wars” movies.

Title

Dejarik Board

Script

dejarik.py

Discussion

The code uses a basic Circle(), with the slices property being used to construct the internal sectors that creates the “dartboard-like” effect of radiating spaces. The centre_shapes property adds more overlapping circles.

Screenshot

 ../_images/dejarik.png

Go

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Title

Go Board

Script

go.py

Discussion

This example shows how to construct a regular Go board.

The script is fairly simple; the board itself is contructed from a Grid, and relies on the default interval being 1 cm.

The handicap points are constructed using a DotGrid, with larger than default dot sizes. The DotGrid offset is from the page edge, not the margin!

Screenshot

 ../_images/go.png

Hex

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Hex is the title of a game invented by Piet Hein.

Title

Hex Board

Script

hex_game.py

Discussion

This example shows how to construct a Hex game board.

The primary board is drawn using the Hexagons command, which specifies rows, columns and the hex layout pattern — in this case a diamond. The background edges are drawn as slices within a Rhombus shape.

Screenshot

 ../_images/hex_game.png

HexHex Games

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There are many games that are played on “hexagonal” board i.e. a board that is hexagonal in outline and is composed of many hexagons.

The number of hexagons on the side of such a board is used to identify the board size, for example; hexhex4 is a board with 4 smaller hexagons along each side.

Title

Plain HexHex Board

Script

hexhex.py

Discussion

This example shows how to construct a regular HexHex board.

Screenshot

 ../_images/hexhex.png

Title

HexHex Board - Circular Spaces

Script

hexhex_circles.py

Discussion

This example shows how to construct a HexHex board, but with circles replacing the usual hexagons in the layout; these are placed at the centre of where that hexagon would normally be drawn.

Screenshot

 ../_images/hexhex_circles.png

Title

HexHex Board - Hexagonal Spaces

Script

hexhex_hexagons.py

Discussion

This example shows how to construct a HexHex board, but with smaller hexagons replacing the usual hexagons in the layout; these are placed at the centre of where that hexagon would normally be drawn.

In addition, the centre space is masked.

Screenshot

 ../_images/hexhex_hexagons.png

Morabaraba

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Title

Morabaraba Board

Script

morabaraba.py

Discussion

This example shows how to construct a Morabaraba board.

There is just a simple set of Squares, with the corner vertices and line centres (“perbis” points), connected by Lines using each line’s link property.

Screenshot

 ../_images/morabaraba.png

Octagons

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In Octagons, players alternate taking turns. On their turn, a player can either fill in one half of an octagon or two squares. The player who first forms an unbroken connecting line between the edges of their colour wins.

Title

Octagons Board

Script

octagons.py

Discussion

The code uses a basic 8-sided Polygon(), with the perbii property being set to construct either a horizontal or vertical line inside it.

The Repeat() command is used to lay out either of these shapes into part of an 8x8 “grid”; choosing which rows or columns are used by means of the down or across properties; with some rows “indented” by means of the offset_x property.

Screenshot

 ../_images/octagons.png

Snex

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Title

Snex Board and Game

Script

snex.py

Discussion

This example shows how to construct a board and then show a series of moves played out on that board.

This example uses a number of different commands:

  • RectangularLocations() creates a virtual grid representing possible locations on a square board;

  • The Grid() command constructs the lines of the board;

  • The Layout() command places a set of Image s, representing all pieces placed on the board up to that turn, using their grid-locations as a reference;

  • The Star() command places a yellow-colored star at the grid-location corresponding to that of the most recently placed piece.

The example requires the use of a Python list to store the moves, showing for each side on which grid row/column intersection their piece was placed. Here blk corresponds to the black-colored pieces of the Black player, and wht corresponds to the white-colored pieces of the White player.

turns = [
    (blk,7,6), (wht,4,2), (blk,3,4), (wht,7,3), (blk,2,2),
    (wht,3,6), (blk,5,5), (wht,6,6), (blk,6,5), (wht,4,4),
]

The use of a for loop allows the program to process the moves and create a page for the board state as it would be after all moves up to that point have been carried out:

for number, turn in enumerate(turns):
   # create board for all turns up to this one

Finally, the Save() command specifies output to a GIF image, along with the framerate (interval in seconds between showing each new image) and the image DPI resolution (a higher value creates larger images).

Save(output='gif', dpi=150, framerate=1)

The GIF will always “loop” — starting the animation again once all frames have been shown.

Screenshot

 ../_images/snex.gif

TicTacToe

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Title

TicTacToe Board and Game

Script

tictactoe.py

Discussion

This example shows how to construct a board and then show a series of moves played out on that board.

This example uses RectangularLocations() to create a virtual grid representing the centres of each space on the board. One Layout() command then places green Squares representing board spaces on that grid ; another Layout() command then places a set of colored Circles, representing all pieces placed on the board up to that turn, using their grid-location as a reference.

The example requires the use of Python lists to record the moves, showing for each player in which grid row and column their piece was placed:

turns = [(me,1,1), (you,2,2), (me,1,3), (you,1,2)]

The use of a loop allows the program to process the moves and create one page for the board state as it would be after all moves up to that point have been carried out:

for number, turn in enumerate(turns):
   # create board for all turns up to this one

Finally, the Save() command specifies output to a GIF image, along with the framerate (interval in seconds between showing each new image).

Save(output='gif', framerate=0.5)

The GIF will always “loop” — starting the animation again once all images have been shown.

Screenshot

 ../_images/tictactoe.gif

Meridians

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In Meridians, players alternate taking turns to place stones and capture the opponent’s pieces.

Title

Meridians Board

Script

meridians.py

Discussion

The code uses a basic Hexagon(), with the hatches_count property being set to construct the internal lines to create the effect of triangular spaces.

Screenshot

 ../_images/meridians.png

New Classic Games

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In February 2026, Brian E. Svoboda released a small booklet, in PDF format, containing boards and rules for a number of abstract games, titled “A NEW BOOK OF CLASSIC BOARD GAMES”. This booklet was discussed at Board Game Geek in this forum: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3357842

The script linked here is an attempt to reproduce the boards from that booklet.

Note

The script does not currently reproduce the “King’s Valley” board; this is still a work-in-progress!

Title

New Classic Games

Script

new_classics.py

Discussion

The script uses different techniques and commands for each board; some are simple, but some are quite long and/or complex.

Only the screenshots for a few of the boards are shown here:

  • Cairo Corridor

  • Chinese Checkers

  • Strands

  • Volo

Another related script, linked here for interest is an example of drawing a diagram that could be used in a rules document - see new_classics_diagrams.py

Screenshot

 ../_images/cairo_corridor.png

Screenshot

 ../_images/chinese_checkers.png

Screenshot

 ../_images/strands.png

Screenshot

 ../_images/volo.png