Masame: a free, open-source Go board that looks like real kaya and slate, with KataGo playing like a human of your rank (Mac / Windows, v0.1)
Hi r/baduk,
I know, another Go app. There are already great ones: OGS and Fox for playing online, KaTrain, Lizzie and Sabaki for analysis, BadukPop and AI Sensei for practice.
I'm a kyu player, and what I always wanted was a board that feels like a real one (wood, slate and shell stones, nice light) and a bot that plays like someone at my level, not a pro-strength engine throwing in random blunders. I couldn't find both in one app, so I started making my own.
It's called Masame (柾目), after the straight grain you see on the best kaya boards. Version 0.1 just came out.
What's in it right now:
- A 3D board with kaya wood, slate and shell stones, bowls, and lighting that changes with the time of day. Two camera angles: top-down, or as if you're sitting at the table. There's a 2D mode too if you prefer.
- A bot running KataGo's Human SL network. You pick a rank from 20k to 9d, and it can adjust itself as you win or lose.
- The territory estimate is shown as light and shadow on the board instead of colored squares.
- Counting at the end: the engine suggests the dead stones, and you click to fix any it gets wrong.
- 9x9, 13x13 and 19x19, SGF load/save, English and French.
- It works offline, with no account, no ads and no tracking. Free and MIT licensed.
The KataGo networks are downloaded from katagotraining.org inside the app, and their checksums are verified.
Where I want to take it: a lot of us switch between several apps to play, review and study, and I'd like Masame to cover all of that in one place. Next up:
- a game review that shows the 3 moments that decided the game and lets you guess the right move before revealing it, instead of just a win-rate graph
- joseki study (honestly the reason I started this): modern joseki, spaced repetition, and what to do when your opponent goes off-book
- an OGS client, so you can play online on the same board
- practice problems taken from your own games
Download: https://github.com/Slymaster/masame/releases/latest
- Mac: macOS 13 or later, Apple Silicon only for now.
- Windows 10/11 (x64): this one's a preview. It builds and passes tests on CI, but I haven't run it on an actual Windows PC yet. If you try it, please tell me whether it works (or doesn't).
- The builds aren't signed (the developer certificates aren't free), so you'll get a warning the first time you open the app. Instructions are on the release page. The code is all on GitHub if you'd rather build it yourself.
Any feedback is welcome, especially if something looks off on the board, or if the bot plays a move nobody at that rank would ever play. Also tell me which feature you'd want first. I'm going to keep working on it.
If you like the idea, a star on GitHub would help a lot: https://github.com/Slymaster/masame
And thanks to lightvector and the KataGo contributors, and to the Sabaki libraries this is built on.