Computerized Board Game: Dara

Abstract

Dara is a Nigerian Board Game, which has a generic name Mancala and in specific, Mancala II. Very little work has been done concerning Nigerian indigenous gaming culture with respect to computerization. This paper envisages that our gaming culture will soon go extinct due to lack of computerization. The main motivation for this work is to preserve our gaming culture by computerization, alongside enhancing computer literacy among Nigerians through gaming culture. An algorithm was designed that will enable two human players play against each other, and also allow a human player to play against the computer. Among other approaches to solving this problem, a greedy algorithm was used for the computer agent’s artificial intelligence.

Keywords: Board Game; Dara Algorithm; Gamming; Culture; Computerized Gamming Culture;