What a territory capture game is

A territory capture game gives you a patch of ground and one move: leave it, draw a line through open space, and come back. The area you enclosed is yours. The line you drew while you were out is the risk, because anyone who crosses it puts you out. The whole genre, from the browser io games of the last decade to the phone games of today, is built on that trade.

The rules every one of them shares

• Ground, trail, loop. You are safe on your ground, exposed on your trail, and you claim by closing the loop back home.
• Cutting. Crossing a rival's trail while they are out sends them back. It is the only way to attack, which is why the games feel like fencing rather than shooting.
• Share of the arena. The score is how much of the field you hold when time runs out, so a big loop late can turn a match.

What separates a good one

Three things: whether the other players are real, how long a match lasts, and whether there is anything to come back for. Many territory games run against bots pretending to be people, last until you die, and reset to zero every time. The genre is at its best when a match is short and live, when the standings are honest, and when a season gives the results somewhere to go.

How Starlasso plays it

Starlasso is a live multiplayer territory capture game for iPhone and iPad. Every arena is online with up to six pilots; bots fill empty seats, and the standings say who is who. A match is two minutes and starts within seconds. Two rules of its own: on your own ground you cannot be rammed off it, and a party of three friends is dealt into the same arena together. Each ranked match moves you on a monthly season ladder from Dust to Nova, every match pays Stardust that earns portraits and rings, and there are no ads and no tracking.

It is free, in beta on TestFlight now, with the App Store release following. The rules take a page; the guided first match takes a minute.