Sanmill - Essential apps for study and play
The first thing I should mention about Sanmill is that I have been fortunate to have been in contact with Calcitem studios over the last year. The second being that I can safely say this is the hardest working app developer I have ever met. In my quest to find the perfect game or app to study and play Mill, I have had the pleasure in corresponding with a few developers, but none come close to Calcitem studio.
What started as an app that had alot of potential, but also a fair few mistakes and rough edges, turned out, in a matter of months to be the strongest and most versatile Mill apps on the play store. The developer worked tirelessly to fix bugs, improve the AI, the UI, as well as listen to all the comments that people were giving him. What he ended up with was a giant of an app. And it's still in Beta!
So why all the praise? What can Sanmill do that others can't.
Well, to begin, it plays very well. If you can beat it on any level above somewhere in the middle, then you are an expert player. Especially in the second moving phase, it makes little to no errors. My level is not strong, so I have needed to check it's play against the perfect database online and it is clearly playing well.
Secondly, Sanmill offers alot of features. As a Mill player there are some you really can't live without. You should be able to analyze your games by moving back and forth easily, and you should be able to export and import your games from online sites, and be able to share games with other players. If you know the move order you can also set up a position for the AI to play and to suggest moves.
Need anything else? Well, if you enjoy 12 Mens Morris or pretty much any other variant, Sanmill has it covered. You can set up the app to play almost any game on the planet.
How about the look? It is slick and well designed and everything is at your fingertips. You can also fully customize the board and playing area to any colour or design you choose.
So what is next? Personally, for me the last thing missing is to be able to set up any position. Then the app is complete. Right now you have to input all the moves manually, and a long game takes a while. A setup feature, like most chess games will be just about perfect.
I'm sure Calcitem Studios are listening!