When I first set out on this, I had planned to create some new game. Originally I wanted to do some sort of chess variant, but that stopped seeming like a good idea when I ran into all the crazy existing variants. From there I decided making a card game would be more my speed. Honestly, I would say I succeeded in my original goal. I made a card game that is playable and everything. That being said, I wouldn't say every part of this project was a success. I frequently hit a roadblock when it came to what I was going to do next. After I determined the chess idea to be a bust, I didn't have a very clear goal for what I wanted to do next. I just sort of stumbled around until I ran across some card games that had some interesting ideas. Even after that, I had trouble arranging those ideas into any thing that made sense. At one point my game involved playing what was basically two different games just to finish a single hand. That time I spent just coming up with ideas feels almost wasted because I did so in such a disorganized manner. I had much grander ambition for this project when I decided on what I was going to do, I expected to finish more than one game, in fact to be constantly coming up with new games, but it didn't work out that way. I still consider this a definite success; I met my goal of making a game and that is something to be proud of.
Perhaps it was just a smart idea to set my goal at that point, I had expected there to be problems from the beginning. I mean, I am known to procrastinate; I was just blindsided by the lack of direction I had. If I could do this over again there would be one thing I would change. I would plan out more explicitly. It would have really solved my lack of direction if I worked out what I was going to do ahead of time. Like if I had a plan about what games I wanted to make and what games I wanted to research for ideas. That way I could have just run through my plan and be able to discard bad ideas and have something to move on to. In fact, even though things are done for now, I will likely continue this project in the future. Now that I have learned from my mistakes, I expect it will go much smoother in the future.
Finally that game I mentioned, it is played with your standard 52 card French suit deck and the rules are here:
Rules of Play:
1. Each player is dealt seven cards, if either player receives only face cards (J, Q, K, or A) a misdeal is called and cards are shuffled and dealt again
2. The rest of the cards are set aside and now makeup the stock pile
3. Whichever player did not deal goes first
4. During each players turn they may choose to create a new seed, add to their own branches, capture the other player’s cards, remove their own branches, or pass
5. To create a new seed a player can either play a non-face card or condense an existing seed. A seed’s value is equal to the value of the card or cards that make it up. A player can have any number of seeds
6. The player condenses the seed by removing cards attached to the current seed and adding them to the seed, players can only condense their own seed
7. Players may add any number of cards from their hand to branches, as long as doing so is a legal move
8. Every seed can have three branches and the value of all the cards on that branch must be less than or equal to the value of the seed
9. A branch is formed when a card is attached to the seed; from there each additional card is attached to the previous card
10. Whenever the card attached to the seed is used to condense, the card attached to it becomes attached to the seed
11. To capture another player’s cards the capturer must first select cards from their branches, the cards they select must be attached to only one card or attached to a card that is being selected
12. The capturer must then select cards from the defending player’s branches, the defending cards must be attached to only one card or attached to a card that is being selected, all on the same branch, and their combined value must be less than the combined value of the capturer’s selected cards
13. Once all the cards have been selected, the capturer removes them and may use them to make any of the legal melds, which are then set aside
14. If a seed contains no branches, then the other player may capture it by selecting cards with the same method as in rule 11, but only if those selected cards have a combined value greater than the seeds value.
15. Captured seeds are set aside and not used in melds, but the capturer’s cards may be used the same as in rule 13
16. A player may remove their own cards but they must be attached to only one card or attached to a card that is being selected and all on the same branch
17. At the end of a player’s turn, they take as many cards from the stock pile as they need to bring their hand to seven, or, if not enough remain, all the cards in the stock pile
18. Once all the cards have been removed from the stock pile player’s play one more turn each.
19. After that final turn, both players use the cards they have remaining in their hands and in seeds and branches to create any legal melds, when they are finished there points are tallied
Scoring:
Every meld is worth the combined value of the cards included in it or twice the value if all the cards are the same suit
Every seed that a player captured is worth 30 points
Every card that is not in a seed or meld is worth -1 points
A card’s value is equal to either the number printed on it or, if it is a face card, the value of the rank plus the value of the suit
Rank Value Suit Value
J = 1 Spade = 0
Q = 2 Clubs = 1
K = 3 Diamonds = 2
A = 4 Hearts = 3
So the K of Clubs is worth 4
Possible Melds
A Run of 3 to 5 cards
3 of a kind
4 of a kind
A Marriage
