You can use two additional small canvases just to display the text- one on each side of the game board.
If play is left<->right then left canvas uses DrawTextAtAngle (text,x,y,270), right canvas uses DrawTextAtAngle (text,x,y,90)
If play is up<->down then top canvas uses DrawTextAtAngle (text,x,y,180), bottom canvas uses DrawText (text,x,y) or DrawTextAtAngle(text,x,y,0)
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