Welcome to Hidden Path Dojo

Hidden Path Dojo really started with a single idea that was not mine at all.

I fell in love with the rotating movement card system from Shimpei Sato’s game Onitama. The board is simple, the pieces are simple, but the way a small shared set of movement cards rotates through both players’ hands turns every game into a little tactical puzzle. You never have access to everything. You are always planning with what you have now, what you are about to hand over, and what you expect to see again later.

That rotating movement card mechanic is what I think of as the Hidden Path system.

Hidden Path Dojo exists to explore that system in as many ways as possible. New games, new variants, new modes - all built on that shared, rotating pool of movement cards.

Looking for a place to play

The next part is very practical.

Two player abstract strategy games are not the easiest thing to get to the table. They are intense, they are not always friendly to mismatched skill levels, and a lot of people would rather play something lighter at the end of the day.

I still wanted to play a lot of Onitama.

That search led me to onitama.app, a browser implementation created by Jack Adamson. It was exactly what I needed: quick games, no setup, just open a tab and play. At that point it was also a learning project for Jack, which meant it moved forward when he had time and energy for it.

I wanted more from it, so I started helping.

Learning Rust and React one card at a time

My first contributions were small. I helped add the promo movement cards to onitama.app. To do that, I had to learn just enough Rust and React to understand the code and not break everything.

It did not stay at “just enough” for long.

As I got more comfortable, I started adding features that I personally wanted to play with:

  • The Wind Spirit

  • The ninjas from the Light and Shadow expansion

  • Extra options and small quality of life improvements

Every new card or rule was an excuse to learn more. The codebase grew. The feature list grew. My curiosity about what else the Hidden Path system could do grew even faster.

At some point it stopped feeling like I was only contributing to someone else’s project. I was building my own vision of what a full training dojo for this style of game could be.

Spinning off into Hidden Path Dojo

Jack never set out to turn onitama.app into a full platform. It did what he wanted: it taught him and it let people play Onitama. That is completely fair.

I wanted to go further.

I wanted:

  • A home for many games that use the rotating movement card system

  • A space for experimental variants and new designs

  • Bots to practice against for all those stranger modes

  • Quick Play queues and ranked ladders

  • Experience and rating systems that reward long term practice

  • Tournaments and events that lean into this style of tight, thinky play

By then my fork of the project had grown so large that it made more sense to give it its own identity. That became Hidden Path Dojo.

The goal is simple. Take that one brilliant mechanic and explore every path it opens.

What is coming to the dojo

Right now the dojo is still young, but the roadmap is ambitious.

Here are some of the things I plan to build out:

  • Core games and variants
    New titles built on the Hidden Path system, plus variant rules for existing ones.

  • Quick Play and Ranked
    Fast casual games for when you just want to play, and ranked queues with ratings so you can track your progress.

  • Experience tiers
    An experience system that measures how much you have explored, not just how much you have won. Experience only goes up.

  • Tournaments and events
    Seasonal events, special rulesets, and community experiments to stress test the designs and keep things fresh.

  • Tools for learning
    Better analysis views, post game breakdowns, and content that helps you understand not just what move you played, but why it worked or failed.

Hidden Path Dojo is meant to be a long term project. A place to study, to experiment, and to keep this family of games alive and evolving.

Thanks for being here

If you are reading this, you are already part of that story.

Maybe you love Onitama. Maybe you just like sharp abstract strategy games. Maybe you are curious about a new way to train your tactical thinking.

Whatever brought you here, I am glad you found the dojo.

Open a game. Try a variant. Break something. Send feedback. This whole project grew out of wanting “just a bit more” from a game I loved. Hidden Path Dojo is where I plan to keep chasing that “bit more.”

Welcome to the path.

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