How a mobile developer made tic-tac-toe harder — and more attractive — to casual gamers

Tic-tac-toe is kind of a joke, but I can’t stop playing a new version of it on my smartphone.

It’s called Tic Tactics from developer Hidden Variable Studios, and it takes the universally recognized rules of tic-tac-toe and messes it all up with deep strategic thinking and slick design. The asynchronous head-to-head puzzler is available now on Android and iOS as a free download.