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DropTale on the web is built the same way as our iOS apps: private by design.
Your work stays on this device
Your progress — best scores and XP — is stored only in this browser (on-device storage). It is never sent anywhere. Clear your browser data and it's gone; nobody else can see it.
No accounts, no ads, no tracking
There is no sign-up and no login. There are no ads and no in-app purchases. There are no third-party trackers embedded in the app. The computer opponent runs entirely on this device.
Built for ages 9–14 — English pieces, not kanji
The 400 Concepts questions come straight from the DropTale iOS design. Traditional shogi pieces are marked with kanji, which is the biggest barrier for new players — so here every piece shows a clear English letter (K, R, B, G, S, N, L, P) with a red “+” when it promotes. Losing a piece is framed as part of the plan — in shogi a captured piece comes back to fight for you — and the computer opponent scales from Gentle to Sharp. A hint appears only after a first try.
Shogi — a member of the chess family
Shogi is Japan’s form of chess, played for centuries. Its signature rule — that captured pieces switch sides and re-enter the game — makes it one of the deepest games in the world. We present it with respect, as a game to be enjoyed by everyone who plays it.
Each board's report card
How long is a game, does it usually end with a winner, and is it fair to whoever moves first? The engine played each board against itself, choosing moves at random, and counted: 1,000 games each on the two small boards, and 100 on the full shogi board, whose random games run to hundreds of moves. Captured pieces come back as drops, and in these runs every game happened to end with a winner (a draw by repetition or a long stretch without progress is possible, but random play never reached one). Random play is not how people play, so these numbers describe the rules, not players.
Random-play games, each played to its own ending (capped at 4,000 moves). A drop counts as a move. Sente (the bottom player) moves first on every board.
Game
Finished
Typical length
Ends with a winner
First player wins (of games with a winner)
Choices per turn
Dōbutsu shōgi (3×4)
100%
10 moves
100%
51%
8.4
Minishogi (5×5)
100%
87 moves
100%
49%
20.4
Shogi (9×9)
100%
429 moves
100%
50%
52.7
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