Gambling Game Test

As an assignment we where assigned to create a small gambling game derived from one we studied. As a gambling game a choose to study Black Jack since it is quite simple to play and understand but has great mechanics in it. If you are interested in further reading about the study, please visit my blog by Clicking Here

Rules

Tutorial

• The goal is that at the end of the game you have a higher value card than the AI.

• On every round the remaining cards will be displayed and the average of the summed up cards value will be shown on the right hand side.

• On the first Round both you and the AI will be asked to select a card, starting from you.

• On the other rounds you and the AI will select a card:

• If the card is HIGHER in value then the average You get the choice of passing the round or shuffling. In case of a shuffle both your card and AI will be drawn back into the deck. Then the deck will be shuffled again and the player who did not call the shuffle gets to pick first, after the other player can pick their card only from the first two.

• If the card is LOWER in value then the average You get the choice of passing the round or changing. If you chose to change you can select any card from the remaining cards and replace it with the one in your hand. The card you had is then discarded.

• After comparing your card with your hand you can also select to pass. If you pass you get to keep the card in your hand while discarding the other.

You can also try and play the game. I created a simple version of it in order for me to play test and get a feel of the game play. You can download it from my Google Drive by Clicking Here.

Card Rank and Score

The game is played with only one set of suites of anyone's liking from ace to king. In the corresponding order the cards value is as follows; from ace to rank ten points are given from one to ten respectively; Jack is eleven, queen is twelve and king is thirteen.

The player with the higher score wins. Each player can only hold one card at a time. Other cards must be discarded or put back on table as instructed.

Flow Chart

AI

I designed the AI to know always what card you have and relies on that information on its decision in shuffling, passing or changing his card. If it knows that it is losing, it will decide to shuffle or change but will otherwise pass if it is winning.

Player Game Play

On the contrary the player never knows what the AI has unless they read this document or study the AI game play. So the players are constantly challenged in deciding of which card to keep and if it's worth keeping it since on the table there might be higher cards which can end up in the hand of the AI. Because of this players handicap, that the AI knows his cards he is always offered to start first to play. This way will give him a better chance to pick a high card from the start.

Mechanics

So, what happens during game play and why it happens?

During play the player will be dealing with a lot of choices that brings consequences. Inspired again from Blackjack, but this time from card counting players, I designed the shuffle, change or pass.

player counters count the cards in order to know if there are good cards (High in value) or bad cards (low in value), so they are constantly considering and basing there play on the remaining cards if there are valuable cards in play. In my case, valuable cards are High rank cards which offer more points in return. Discarding these cards will lower the number of high cards.

If the player has a card in hand its is compared to the average to see if its a high card in points or not , not from the over all cards but from the cards in play. This is done in order to keep the balance and also one can predict of what card the other player have.

Shuffle

If the player picks up a higher card then the average and suspects that the opponent has a higher card, as a reward for picking up a high card they are offered with Shuffle. When a player chooses to shuffle all cards in players hands are drawn back to the table including the one just picked, the cards are shuffled and put back on table and this will ensure to keep high valuable cards in play. Please note that the other player lost the cards from his hand unwillingly; this is so that the losing player has a chance to counter the other player even if he keeps on calling pass to keep his card, because if someone gets a king there is no longer the chance of winning. Now as a punish for the player that called shuffle, since they withdrawn the card from the other players hand and is even in the chance to pick it up them selves, they are second to draw and they only can pick from the first two cards from the left, whilst the other player can freely choose any card and gets to pick first.

Change

After picking up a new card and the card has a lower value then the average, the player can choose to Change. If a player hand is lower then the newly picked card they will probably decide to change cards. If so, the card in the payer hand is discarded and the new picked card is put in hand. This is done to remove low value cards from play to make the game more interesting.

Pass

After picking up a new card a player can decide to pass, either way the card is higher or lower then the average. By passing the player is keeping his previous card they had in hand whilst discarding the new card. In many occasions if the player picks up a new card that is lower from their own, the player would call pass, but this can be used also as strategy. If the card is higher then yours, to avoid the opponent from possessing it, since a high card you will be offered to shuffle but you do not want to offer a chance to your opponent to pick it up, you can choose to pass and destroy the card from play in the process.

Conclusion

It is impressive how such a small game can have such complex mechanics. Game testing has helped me out a lot in changing a modelling new rules for the game as while playing I could notice some rules that where not fair or overpowered to the game. The AI its self is very hard to beet since hi knows every card you have, but I think that this way it made became a better gambling game since its very hard to beet and you are not ware of. Players will think that it's a chance game while in reality the AI has always an advantage on you.