Evaluating Individual Player Strategies in a Collaborative Incomplete-Information Agent-Based Game Playing Environment

In Spanish-speaking countries, the game of dominoes is usually played by four people divided into two teams, with teammates sitting opposite each other. The players cannot communicate with each other or receive information from onlookers while a game is being played. Each player only knows for sure which tiles he/she has available in order to make a play, but must make inferences about the plays that the other participants can make in order to try to ensure that his/her team wins the game. The game is governed by a set of standardized rules, and successful play involves the use of highly-developed mathematical, reasoning and decision-making skills. In this paper we describe a computer system designed to simulate the game of dominoes by using four independent game-playing agents split into teams of two. The agents have been endowed with different strategies, including the traditional strategy followed by experienced human players. An experiment is described in which the success of each implemented strategy is evaluated compared to the traditional one. The results of the experiment are given and discussed, and possible future extensions mentioned