Tic-a-Tac Poker launches for MSN Messenger
After taking many months each to program Sudoku Too and several versions of Jigsaw Too, it was refreshing to build a purely turn-based game. The entire production for Tic-a-Tac Poker was less than 4 months–which is pretty quick really. I think it came out great for several basic reasons:
- it was based on an existing game brand (Poker and David L. Hoyt’s Tic-a-Tac) so there weren’t a ton of questions that we had to answer (though, naturally, making any multi-player game takes some work).
- the spec was solid (thanks to Steve Bullock at Adveractive)
- the graphic artist (Rich Stewart at Adveractive) did a really first class job.
- the management (including Derek Nolan at uclick, LLC) knew how to make decisions that kept the project on track.
- UPDATE 20 Feb 08 Many others worked to make this game great… see the credit screens below.
It’s not just a big pat on the back here–it’s very interesting to see what made this project work. I’ll try to break this post into two parts: this post provides a tour of the game and and a future post will cover the technical challenges we encountered.
Game overview
In the two-player mode, players take turns drawing from a common draw pile of 5 random cards:
The goal is to create poker hands (like flush or a straight of 3 cards) in each horizontal, vertical, and diagonal–just like tic-tac-toe. For example, in the next image you can see I have just created Royal Straight Flush while my opponent already has a pair of Queens and is working on his own Royal Straight Flush as well:
To add some drama to the game (as well as add an element of chance) there are steal cards (where you can take a card an opponent has already placed) and wild cards (that create hands not possible with a single deck, like a “3-of-a-kind flush”):
In addition to the 2-player game, there are two versions of 4-player games. It’s really two humans plus two AI players. One game where everyone is on their own and one where the two humans team up against the two AI players as shown here:
I’m probably most proud of the well implemented award animations as well as the AI. It’s really hard to beat! Perhaps the most interesting side effect of testing the AI was that I learned strategies that were only revealed once I began playing the AI players. I’d be playing thinking the AI made a dumb move, but then it was consistently winning. Oh, and no, the AI doesn’t simply stack the deck in order to do well.
UPDATE: 20 Feb 08: As Stephen Flaherty pointed out my initial listing of people involved was not exhaustive–sorry about that! Here’s a capture of the credits screen:
February 20th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Phil,
I found this on an internet search. Nice job on the game. I am hoping it surpasses our prior versions of the game, ie phone, bartop, etc.
“it was based on an existing game brand (Poker and David L. Hoyt’s Tic-a-Tac)”
However, as per usual…….I was left off “the mention” as the inventor of the game.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Thanks for pointing that out. There were many other people involved–I just highlighted a few and (without malice) necessarily left out some. I’ve updated this post to be more exhaustive.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:34 am
ok very very ok
March 27th, 2008 at 7:34 am
a mi me encanta selenia the atrhur y los minimoys!!!!!!!is fanastic a perfect
May 25th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
este es la mejor de todos que he jugado
June 12th, 2008 at 2:43 am
Congratulations! It’s by far the best of all Messenger-Games. It’s even one of the greatest games I’ve ever played! Hope you were well rewarded for the game!
June 13th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Thanks Christian! I’m glad you like the game. I’ll have to admit that early in the project I had my doubts whether it would be fun (the primary qualification of a good game after all). But I do think it worked out well.
Without speaking for everyone, I do believe that it was one of the more efficiently produced projects I’ve ever worked on.
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Hey Phillip,
The game is great and I love it but I would like to play the Four Player games with 3 more humans (no AI players).
Is it possible an update of Tic-a-Tac Poker with this kind of request?
Thanks
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:11 pm
It’s possible–someone just has to pay for the development. In fact, I did pitch a one player (against one AI)… but 4 players is possible too. The current MSN Messenger framework, however, doesn’t support 4 players–but I think they must be considering it.
Thanks!
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:33 am
This Game Sucks , The computer is so lame…when u play expert they will get the steal and joker, and when they need a card it always apper for them …bad game…
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:56 am
Sorry @Cloud but you’re wrong. I’m glad to explain the general AI (artificial intelligence) applied to the computer players—but be assured the computer doesn’t cheat. He looks at every possible move and applies the same logic every time. What was interesting to me was once I built it and began to test it, I learned strategy from the AI. That is, I saw the computer (on expert mode) make moves that I thought were not the best option… but then the computer went on to consistently beat me.
The randomization is such that there are something like 80,000 decks (though maybe it’s 8,000). Anyway, where you start in the deck is also randomized–so you figure if there are 8,000 decks each one has 60 ways to begin (52 plus the 4 wild cards and 4 steal cards). By taking a steal card you upset the effective order of cards. Having said all this, it’s quite possible you could play a game where just the computers get the wild cards. I can also say my sister has one in the 4 player version on expert more than just a few times–but, really, I’ve only played the game a few dozen times.
October 31st, 2008 at 8:08 am
I play this a lot of time with my friends, very interesting game, WELL DONE!
October 31st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Great game, play it loads on msn, but I’d really love it if you were able to play a 4 player game with other people online on MSN instead of against the computer. For me, thats the only thing that could improve the game.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Thanks–yeah, I believe MSN Messenger only supports 2 player games currently. It wouldn’t be a ton of work to revise though.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Yeah I had my doubts that anything more than 2 player would work smoothly over msn, but in insinuating that it can be done, you’ve raised my hopes.
October 31st, 2008 at 2:23 pm
There’s no reason why you couldn’t do more than 2 players on MSN except for the fact they don’t have it built to accept that. I don’t know what their plans are.
December 5th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Is this game available for the ipod touch/iphone??
January 11th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Yes Patrick, a variation is available for iphone, see: http://www.ticatacgames.net/static/iphone_teaser/ I didn’t program it and, naturally, it’s not built in Flash.
April 25th, 2009 at 9:52 am
great game! was trying to beat the AIs in team with a friend and did it yesterday several times in a row XD … quiet happy on our side, but took us many hours and lots of patience.
thanks for the game, it ‘s so far the best msn has!
June 19th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Would be cool if it were possible to play a 4-player game with 4 humans (no computer opponents)… Great game!
September 18th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
This game is awesome!!!
Could you guys please make an exact version of this game for the iPhone. The copycat tic-a-tac poker already in the appstore is nowhere as competitive and intriguing as this one.
It would be a big hit in the App Store I’m sure given many people likely are already familiar with the game.
September 19th, 2009 at 7:43 am
Thanks Will–it’s tempting to make apps for iPhone, though personally, I haven’t. And I’m not totally convinced it’s such a gold mine for developers. But, still, I appreciate your comment and take both as a compliment and a good idea to consider.
March 9th, 2010 at 11:09 am
This game sucks! Poor coding!