DeLight Game

How to Play DeLight

DeLight is a turn-based circuit-building game for two teams: Red and Blue. Your goal is to connect bulbs into the shared circuit and finish with more total bulb power than your opponent.

The board and terminals

The game is played on a 5 by 5 board. The positive terminal is fixed in the top-left corner, and the negative terminal is fixed in the bottom-right corner. These terminal squares cannot hold cards.

Red builds outward from the positive terminal. Blue builds outward from the negative terminal. Together, the two teams may eventually form one complete circuit across the board.

Taking a turn

Red takes the first turn. Choose one of your remaining cards, then click or drag it onto a highlighted empty square. The openings on the new card must make a real edge-to-edge connection.

Your first card must connect to your team’s starting terminal. After that, each new card normally has to connect to one of your own cards. Once current is flowing through your cards, you may also build beside an opponent’s card carrying that same live circuit current.

Before ending your turn, you can click the card you just placed to rotate it. You can also move it to another valid square or choose a different card to replace it. Select End Turn when you are happy with the move. Once the turn ends, that card is locked in place.

If a player has no legal move, their turn is passed automatically.

The cards

Each team begins with the same supply: 1 single wire, 2 straight wires, 2 corner wires, 2 T-junction wires, 2 cross-junction wires, and 3 bulbs.

Wire cards guide current around the board. Junction cards split or combine paths. A bulb only produces points when it becomes part of a complete electrical path between the positive and negative terminals.

How brightness is scored

Every bulb has a resistance of 6 ohms, and the source supplies 12 volts. The game calculates the voltage and current through every connected bulb, then finds its power in watts. A brighter bulb produces more watts and therefore contributes more to its owner’s score.

Bulbs in series share the available voltage, so they are usually dimmer. Bulbs on parallel branches can each receive the full source voltage, so they can be much brighter. Your score is the combined power of all bulbs owned by your team.

Watch out for short circuits

A wire can create an easier route around a bulb. When that happens, the bulb may receive no voltage and turn off. If a wire-only path directly joins the positive and negative terminals, the entire circuit is shorted and the match ends in a draw.

How the game ends

The match ends when the board is full, neither player has a legal move, no bulb can possibly be lit, or no remaining move can change any bulb’s brightness. A global short circuit also ends the match immediately.

If the match has not ended in a draw, the team with the higher total bulb power wins. If both teams produce the same power, the result is a tie.

A simple strategy

Plan a route toward the opposite terminal, protect your bulbs from wire bypasses, and look for parallel branches that can deliver more voltage to each bulb. The strongest circuit is not always the longest one—it is the one that makes your bulbs shine brightest.