The ideaA game of skill, not of luck
The idea for Master Move came in 2019, while looking at the games that were popular at the time. Many depended on luck: the cards you happen to be dealt, the roll of the dice. I wanted the opposite: a game where the best player wins, not the luckiest.
I also wanted a relaxed game. In many games you race against the clock, with only a few seconds to make your move: that is not relaxation, it is stress on top of the day's stress. In Master Move you have all the time you need to think.
I was looking for a board game with precise rules but something different about it. That is how Master Move was born: a bit football and a bit chess. But here it is not the ball that goes into the goal, it is a piece! First, of course, you have to get past the keeper.
The milestonesSix years, one pitch at a time
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May 2019
A sheet of A4 and a pair of scissors
I printed the first Master Move in colour on an ordinary sheet of A4. I cut out the pieces one by one with scissors: yellow on one side, white on the other, each with the symbol of its move.
The first paper pieces, cut out by hand. -
3 June 2019
The magnetic board
A few weeks later I had a colour magnetic board printed, with magnetic pieces: they could be moved on the pitch without sliding off. The pitch back then measured 9 × 18 squares.
The magnetic board with the original 9 × 18 pitch. 
The magnetic pieces, red and blue. 
The date printed on the corner of the board. -
On the road
The first test… on a train
I remember a train journey. There were some young people around me and we were chatting about this and that. At some point I took my prototype out of my backpack and invited one of them to try a new game, to be my "guinea pig".
We played for more than an hour. When I looked up, a small group of onlookers had gathered around us, all caught up in the game, and each of them wanted to challenge me in the next one.
It was fun and it moved me: I had given strangers an hour of fun with a game that until then had existed only in my head and on my table. That is when I realised Master Move could really be enjoyed by others.
A game on the magnetic prototype. -
Over the years
Test, play, adjust
Game after game the rules were refined. The most important change was shrinking the pitch from 9 × 18 to 9 × 16 squares: a more compact pitch, more intense games.
A test print of the 9 × 16 pitch. -
Today
Master Move goes digital
After six long years, here we are: Master Move goes digital, with a 3D stadium, a crowd in the stands and all the changes worked out over time. The pieces have become shields, and there is a new opponent to beat: The Master.
The master's moveWhy “Master Move”
Whoever gets a piece into goal three times before the opponent has made a Master Move: a master's move.
Do you want to become the Master of the Master? Beat our team, The Master, at the hardest level. You can start from level Kid, so you don't take too many beatings, and then move up to Base, Over and Top.
I hope everyone enjoys Master Move!
— Bruni Raffaele