Hello World: What Is Cogg Games?
April 13, 2026
Cogg Games is my attempt to make online board gaming feel good again.
Fast. Clean. Ad-free. No clutter, no gimmicks, and no nonsense. Just games.
I built Cogg Games to scratch a very specific itch: a clean, fast, ad-free place to play classic board games online. Not buried in menus. Not stuffed with distractions. Not designed to push you toward a purchase every five seconds. Just games.
I also want to build a welcoming, low-drama environment. I have seen too many gaming communities get dragged down by toxic people, and I do not want that here. The goal is to make Cogg Games a place where people can have fun with friends and make new friends too.
I have been building things on the internet for a long time. My first real online project was Cases Ladder, which I co-founded around 1995. If you were gaming online in the mid-90s, you might remember it. It was one of the first websites to build a ranked ladder system for online games, and one of the early attempts to monetize a gaming community online. I was also involved in the early days of Chess.com, long before it became what it is today.
After that came a long career in tech, with a lot of lessons along the way. I retired a few years ago, but I never stopped building.
Cogg Games is a very hands-on project for me. I designed the platform and player experience from the ground up, and used modern tools to help bring that vision to life.
The name has a history behind it, but I'll save that story for another day.
What's Live Now
As of this post, these games are live:
- Chess — full rules, opening-book AI, Fischer clock
- Checkers — American rules, AI, achievements
- Othello — classic disc-flipping strategy
- Backgammon — full pip movement, doubling cube coming soon
- Fox and Hounds — an underrated asymmetric classic
- Xiangqi — Chinese chess, and one of my personal favorites
- Tic Tac Toe — yes, it's here, and yes, it counts
- Conquest of Resources — a Catan-style strategy game I designed myself
Every game has AI opponents at multiple difficulty levels. Most support multiplayer. All include stats tracking and achievements.
What's Coming
This blog will follow the platform as it grows. I'll write about each game, how it was built, what was interesting, and what broke along the way. I'll also write about the platform itself, the decisions behind it, and the lessons learned as Cogg evolves.
At some point, I do expect to add paid features. But those will be optional extras — things like background skins, expanded stats, and early access to certain features before they roll out more broadly. There will never be a paywall to simply play a game. If you choose to spend money on Cogg, it will be because you want to support the platform and help it grow at whatever level feels right to you.
If you love board games, I hope you'll find something here worth playing.
Jump in and try a game. Feel free to leave feedback. You can help shape where Cogg goes.
Welcome to Cogg Games.
— Greg