Ludo AI

Ludo AI is an interactive implementation of the classic board game, developed from the ground up with a custom game engine and AI-based decision-making. The application supports both normal digital gameplay and the analysis of positions from real-life Ludo games.

The project began with the development of a rules engine capable of representing legal moves, captures, safe squares, doubles, bonus turns and other game mechanics. This provides the foundation for an AI system that can evaluate positions and recommend moves, while a React-based interface makes the game and analysis tools accessible through the web.

The core game engine and AI are implemented in Python, with FastAPI providing an API between the engine and the web application. The frontend is built with React and TypeScript and includes an interactive Ludo board, game controls, position editing and AI analysis tools.

The application is structured with the game logic separated from the user interface, allowing the underlying engine to be tested independently. Automated tests are used extensively to verify game rules and edge cases. The frontend and backend are deployed separately, with the React application hosted on Cloudflare Pages and the API hosted on Railway.

The AI combines heuristic evaluation with search-based decision-making to select moves from the legal actions generated by the game engine. Position evaluation considers strategically relevant features of a Ludo state, such as piece progress, captures, safety and exposure to opponents.

The project also includes position-analysis functionality, allowing a user to reconstruct a physical Ludo game and request an AI recommendation for the current position. This separates the AI from purely automated gameplay and allows the system to act as an analysis tool for real games.