MERLIN STUDIO
VENTURE DOSSIER

Ludoo

A game worth building on

A premium 3D board game for phones, tablets and the living-room TV. It began the other way a venture can begin: Merlin was introduced to the game, found it unusually compelling, and wanted to build the digital product.

DOSSIER

  1. 01Why Merlin wanted to build it
  2. 02The partnership
  3. 03The product
  4. 04Product decisions
  5. 05How it is built
  6. 06Evidence and progress
01 · WHY MERLIN WANTED TO BUILD IT

Not every venture starts with commercial proof. This one started with product conviction: a game with real rules, real rivalry and a Ghanaian heart. Enthusiasm is not validation, so the commercial questions, first audience and launch territories among them, are being worked through in the open.

02 · THE PARTNERSHIP

The owner brings the game: the characters, the rulings and the final say on product calls. The rules come from the player who knows them best, and his rulings live in the code as tests. Merlin designs, builds and runs everything else: the apps, the game server, the sales site and the shop.

  • 01191 commits in five weeks, from spec to playable build
  • 02The owner rules on the product. Merlin builds and runs it
  • 03Web, iOS, Android and TV from a single client
03 · THE PRODUCT

Play solo against seven AI characters, pass one phone around, play privately online, or put the board on a TV with Table Mode. Every phone becomes a private controller you flick the die from.

Visit Ludoo
A Ludoo match on a phone: the wooden board, a 3D die and the chat bar
Flick the die. The server decides the face.

Table Mode

Put the board on a TV or laptop. Everyone scans a code and their phone becomes their hand. Remote players sit in equal seats.

See Table Mode

A die you flick

A real physical die rolls under your finger. The face still comes from the server, so nobody can tilt a six.

How to play

Seven characters

The Firestarter, the Guru, the Diplomat and four more. Each plays in a style you can read, and only ever makes legal moves.

Meet the cast

Table talk

Chat at the table, and the characters talk back. Short messages, safety checks, reports and blocks built in.

Who you will hear

Five ways to play

Solo, pass and play, private online, Table Mode, and a mix of in the room and remote. Teams rules too.

The rules

Earned, not bought

Points unlock modes and dice. Badges can only be earned by playing. No gambling, and no ads mid-match.

Get the game
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CAPTURED FROM THE CURRENT BUILD

Table setup with four seats filled by AI characters and a teams toggle
Set the table: seats, teams and who you are up against.
The character card for Kofi Boateng, The Guru, with play-style stat bars
Seven characters, each with a play style you can read.
A match with the board turned to the current player and a message that the 1 had nowhere to go
The table turns to whoever is throwing.
The home screen on the pass and play card, noting it is not ranked
Pass and play. Not ranked, deliberately.
In-match settings: sound, move hints, high-contrast board and reduced motion
High contrast and reduced motion, a tap away mid-match.
04 · PRODUCT DECISIONS
01

The phone holds no rules

The server sends every result and every legal move. The phone, the tablet and the TV board can never disagree about what just happened.

02

Everyone throws the same die

Some characters once had weighted dice. They were taken out, so that any win against the table, human or AI, is a win on skill.

The cast
03

Remote is a seat, not a mode

Three cousins on a sofa and one abroad is the typical table. Being remote is a property of a player, so there is one game to maintain, not three.

Equal seats
04

One game, every screen

The web game became the product, so the phone apps wrap it rather than port it. One client runs in the browser, on iOS, on Android and on the TV.

05

Ghanaian at heart, Ludoo by name

Always Ludoo, never a regional label. The origin shows in the board, the characters and the rules, not in the name on the box.

The site
05 · HOW IT IS BUILT
  • .NET 10
  • C#
  • WebSockets
  • Cloud Run
  • Firestore
  • Firebase Auth
  • Capacitor 7
  • RevenueCat
  • Gemini
  • GA4

A deploy never ends a game

Every accepted move is appended to a journal, and a live match rebuilds from it after a restart. Friday games night survives a Friday deploy.

House rules as tests

The rules authority's rulings are quoted in his own words inside the test suite. Contested rules stay as presets, not hard-coded defaults. More than 470 tests hold the line.

Runs for about $14 a month

One game server on Cloud Run, Firestore behind it, and one payments setup covering the App Store, Google Play and the web.

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06 · EVIDENCE AND PROGRESS

Playable today at app.ludoo.online, with Table Mode working in any browser. Android and iOS builds are in testing, and the store listings are ready. Not in the stores yet. Player numbers will be published when there are players to count.

Bring something worth building

No huge audience required. Enough product or market potential to merit serious evaluation is the bar.

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