As a player, you control tokens of a given color and a marble placed atop one of them. On your turn, move one of your pieces to an adjacent cell in any direction. A cell may contain a stack of up to two pieces, regardless of color or shape, but only the topmost piece is playable. You may only move your marble to a cell already containing one and only one of your tokens. To win, move your marble to the center of the grid, always atop a token of your own. To capture a marble, move a token onto it. To capture a token, move the top token from a stack of two of your color into the cell containing the targeted token. The target cannot be beneath another player's token, but it may be beneath one of yours. It is forbidden to leave the grid in a state previously played by the next player. If you cannot make a move on your turn, you lose your marble. Players without a marble are eliminated; others continue. The game may be limited by total rounds, rounds without captures, or time per player. If no victory occurs within those limits, the game ends in a draw.
ARKES is named after the Latin word arcēs (pronounced [aɾ.kεs]), meaning ‘you surround,’ ‘you defend,’ and also ‘citadels’ or ‘refuges’ — a nod to the game’s siege-war allegory. The terminology further reflects this theme: the contents of a cell are a formation; one with a token and a marble is a general; a single token is a unit. A stack of identical tokens forms a tower, mixed-color ones a siege. The grid’s center is called the golden cell.
On iOS, piece selection requires two distinct taps and some animation will not trigger. The game otherwise seems to work well on the most popular browsers on Android, MacOS and Windows..
www.zigzagemporium.com/aɾkεs/ (the Site) allows you to play ARKES without subscription, without fees, without ads and without your usage data being monetized by the site owner.
However, if you want to use the Site for commercial or educational purposes or if you want to use its code, even for personal purposes, please communicate with Jean-Philippe Mailloux via LinkedIn to obtain his permission.
arkes, arquesses, arcēs, aɾkεs, and [aɾ.kεs] — with or without the macron — are all expressions of a single trademark.
© 2021-2025 Jean-Philippe Mailloux