Learn the game
Cue Republic does not just hand you a cue. It teaches you how each game is played, a task at a time, and tells you what the foul was when you make one.
Tutorials you play
- Spoken tutorials. A commentator talks you through each task, with subtitles. You play every one yourself on the table; miss it and you play it again, with a word on what went wrong.
- From your first shot to winning. 8-ball in ten tasks: aiming, power, the break, solids and stripes, stop, follow and draw, chalk, ball in hand after a foul, and potting the 8 to win.
- Eleven games taught. Each of the others has a tutorial that teaches what is different about that game: what you must hit, what scores, and what is a foul.
- Mouse or controller. Pick up a controller and the tutorials change their instructions to match.
- In nine languages. The voice is English; the subtitles, the tasks and the rule book are in your language.
The eleven tutorials
Choose a game to see its tasks. English 8-ball and 10-ball have none of their own: 10-ball is played the way 9-ball is, and English 8-ball is taught by the rule book.
8-Ball
10 tasks: aim and shoot, how hard, the break, solids and stripes and more.
9-Ball
4 tasks: lowest ball first, anything that drops counts, the 9 wins, whenever it goes, run out.
Straight pool
3 tasks: every ball is a point, the re-rack, first to thirty.
One-pocket
3 tasks: your pocket, not the other one, first to eight.
Chinese 8-ball
2 tasks: the middle of the pocket, then the 8.
Carom
3 tasks: both balls, score, and play again, first to ten.
One-cushion
2 tasks: a cushion on the way, first to eight.
Three-cushion
2 tasks: count the cushions, three, then the second ball.
Balkline
2 tasks: two balls in one space, drive one out.
Four-ball
2 tasks: both reds, not the yellow.
Snooker
5 tasks: the break-off, pot a red, red, then a colour, hit the right ball and more.
The rules, always to hand
- The full rules of all thirteen games. A rule book in the game sets out each one from the break to the fouls and how it is won, written to match exactly how the game plays it.
- Always to hand. Open the rules from the menu or in the middle of a match. When you foul, the game says what the foul was and what your opponent gets for it.
- A coach when you are stuck. Ask what to play and see the line, the spin and where the cue ball ends up.
- On this site too. Each game's page here carries the same rules, word for word.
Try it, free
The demo is 8-ball in the Classic Room, with its whole spoken tutorial, a practice table and a computer player, for Windows, Linux and macOS. The full game will be sold only on Steam, at $12.99.