TIC.EXE: Tic-Tac-Toe Roguelite

Three in a row isn't a win. It's a shot. TIC.EXE is a tactical roguelite deckbuilder played on a tic-tac-toe grid. You are a process inside someone else's machine. You write X into its memory; the system answers with O. A bunker terminal has waited twenty-six years for an operator, and the launch request is still open. Clear eight sectors before the machine answers it on its own. HOW TO PLAY Line up three of your marks and the line detonates: the marks burn away, the cells clear, and the hostile process takes damage. Damage is the line length squared: three hits for 9, four for 16, five for 25. The board never ends in a draw — it reloads. Every turn the process writes its own O marks. If they line up, the discharge hits you. Cards place and move marks, burn rows and flip enemy O. Tap a cell and the board previews exactly what changes and how much damage you deal. Confirm the move when you are sure. No "tap and hope". WHAT'S IN A RUN - 8 sectors, and the grid grows: 4×4, 5×5, 6×6. - Before each sector, pick your approach: a normal process or an elite one with a richer reward. - Clear a sector and take a module, a card or a repair. - The terminal shop: fragments are data, and data decays. A quarter of what you carry out rots on the way, and every purchase raises the price of the next. - Events between sectors: the machine offers a deal, and the cost is shown up front. - At the end, a boss with a face made of characters that changes expression as the fight goes on. CHAINS AND MODULES One detonation can complete the next line. ECHO leaves a mark standing after a blast, INFECTION flips nearby O into X, CHAIN REACTION doubles the bonus at every step of a cascade. Two or three modules together stop being upgrades and become a machine. Thirty modules in six schools, and the rack has limited slots — something will have to go. WHAT'S INSIDE • 20 cards, each with an upgraded form • 30 modules in 6 schools, 7 cores with different starting builds • 20 hostile processes and 6 bosses • 12 anomalies and 20 events that rewrite a sector's rules • The machine reads your style: keep firing along one axis and those shots get weaker • Firmware between runs: even a failed run earns telemetry for upgrades • 6 difficulty protocols and an honest assist option if runs keep falling short • Daily challenge: the same deal for everyone, one attempt per day • Endless mode after the eighth sector • 25 achievements, a codex and a tutorial on the real board • Generative music and CRT terminal sound • Runs last 30–50 minutes and save automatically — quit on any turn IT NOTICES The machine talks to you. Lines scattered across the game add up to one story — about the fact that you keep coming back. OFFLINE, NOTHING EXTRA • Plays without an internet connection • No ads, no purchases, no sign-up • Collects no data: progress is stored only on your phone • Portrait screen, comfortable one-handed • Languages: English, Russian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese You have played tic-tac-toe since you were six. Never like this.