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Solitaire

localthunk.com

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Re: Solitaire

#11

Post by santoshalper »

par wrote: post #5

Reading this makes me sad actually, because I grew up on windows machines (starting with windows 3.1) and have so many memories of Solitaire that came shipped with windows. The deck variations, the little and big effects (like winning!) I played it so much as a grade schooler. Now that mac is so ubiquitous, most kids wont ever know the simple pleasure of playing solitaire.

Don't worry, Windows is still far, far more ubiquitous. The bigger reason people don't play solitaire as much as they used to is that it is no longer the only game installed on their PC.

So many people in the 90s learned solitaire playing it on a work from a lack of other options on their work PC. Now with the so many games on the web and your smartphone, you might not even try it.

People give Microsoft a lot of shit, but including bundled games on what was at the time primarily a business OS was bold, controversial, and brilliant.

Re: Solitaire

#12

Post by mikepurvis »

santoshalper wrote: post #10

What a thoughtful post. I think there is a narrative that localthunk is a "shitty programmer" (which he might very well be), but that by extension, it also means that he just got lucky and bumblefucked his way into massive success - almost as though he didn't know any better. A post like this dispels that narrative - he clearly put a ton of thought into the design of that game and was incredibly intentional about whe…

In what quarters is that narrative? Surely one only has to play Balatro for an hour or two to understand the incredible game design effort that underpins it all, which is brought so vibrantly to life by the music, art, animations, and all the rest of it.

I can't imagine someone appreciating all this and still managing to poo poo it over a few bugs or maybe some quibbles about it having been built in Lua.

Re: Solitaire

#13

Post by noirscape »

santoshalper wrote: post #11
par wrote: post #5

Reading this makes me sad actually, because I grew up on windows machines (starting with windows 3.1) and have so many memories of Solitaire that came shipped with windows. The deck variations, the little and big effects (like winning!) I played it so much as a grade schooler. Now that mac is so ubiquitous, most kids wont ever know the simple pleasure of playing solitaire.

Don't worry, Windows is still far, far more ubiquitous. The bigger reason people don't play solitaire as much as they used to is that it is no longer the only game installed on their PC. So many people in the 90s learned solitaire playing it on a work from a lack of other options on their work PC. Now with the so many games on the web and your smartphone, you might not even try it. People give Microsoft a lot of shit…

Windows Solitaire mostly died because Microsoft strangled it with microtransactions and ads during the Windows 8 days.

What went from a simple minigame you could fire up at any time got transformed into this monstrosity that kept forcing ads on you, urging you to buy premium versions, adding "engagement" nonsense (daily missions) and selling you back the same features that came free in the Windows 7 version.

Re: Solitaire

#14

Post by bbkane »

I love Solitaire - it's such a nice way to kill a few minutes while waiting for something else.

Unfortunately, many solitaire phone apps are filled with ads, slow, or have clunky controls.

A few years ago, however, I found https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tobiasbielefeld.solitaire... . Its free and open source, and quite fast with nice shortcuts to move the cards.

I love this app and have played multiple Klondike/Spider Solitaire games a day using it. I wholeheartedly recommend it if you want a simple game of Solitaire in the same spirit as the post.

Re: Solitaire

#15

Post by mattnewton »

santoshalper wrote: post #10

What a thoughtful post. I think there is a narrative that localthunk is a "shitty programmer" (which he might very well be), but that by extension, it also means that he just got lucky and bumblefucked his way into massive success - almost as though he didn't know any better. A post like this dispels that narrative - he clearly put a ton of thought into the design of that game and was incredibly intentional about whe…

I have never heard that assertion, I don’t know how anyone can play Balatro and not feel that it is a deeply intentional creation. I think localthunk would be the first to tell you they got lucky with how it found an audience outside of themselves, but everything in the game oozes polish and intention.

Re: Solitaire

#16

Post by datadrivenangel »

mattnewton wrote: post #15
santoshalper wrote: post #10

What a thoughtful post. I think there is a narrative that localthunk is a "shitty programmer" (which he might very well be), but that by extension, it also means that he just got lucky and bumblefucked his way into massive success - almost as though he didn't know any better. A post like this dispels that narrative - he clearly put a ton of thought into the design of that game and was incredibly intentional about whe…

I have never heard that assertion, I don’t know how anyone can play Balatro and not feel that it is a deeply intentional creation. I think localthunk would be the first to tell you they got lucky with how it found an audience outside of themselves, but everything in the game oozes polish and intention.

The assertions are more around code quality. Game design is wonderful.

Apparently there are places where the code is like a thousand lines of if card_name then effect.

Re: Solitaire

#17

Post by cwizou »

santoshalper wrote: post #11
par wrote: post #5

Reading this makes me sad actually, because I grew up on windows machines (starting with windows 3.1) and have so many memories of Solitaire that came shipped with windows. The deck variations, the little and big effects (like winning!) I played it so much as a grade schooler. Now that mac is so ubiquitous, most kids wont ever know the simple pleasure of playing solitaire.

Don't worry, Windows is still far, far more ubiquitous. The bigger reason people don't play solitaire as much as they used to is that it is no longer the only game installed on their PC. So many people in the 90s learned solitaire playing it on a work from a lack of other options on their work PC. Now with the so many games on the web and your smartphone, you might not even try it. People give Microsoft a lot of shit…

> including bundled games on what was at the time primarily a business OS was bold, controversial, and brilliant.

Brillant, sure, but not completely sure it was controversial or bold, they have stated that it was primarily included in Windows 3.0 to help people get used to the new paradigms (for Windows) of the mouse and drag and drop, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Solitaire

> People give Microsoft a lot of shit

Well they didn't help themselves by shoving ads and subscriptions in all of those games : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Solitaire_Collection...

Re: Solitaire

#18

Post by diggan »

bbkane wrote: post #14

I love Solitaire - it's such a nice way to kill a few minutes while waiting for something else. Unfortunately, many solitaire phone apps are filled with ads, slow, or have clunky controls. A few years ago, however, I found https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tobiasbielefeld.solitaire... . Its free and open source, and quite fast with nice shortcuts to move the cards. I love this app and have played multiple Klondike/S…

Was looking for this on iPhone as well some weeks ago, and came across a Solitaire that is included in Apple Arcade that works really well, doesn't have any ads or other distractions, just plain Solitaire.

And another bonus is that Balatro (which the submission author created) is included in Apple Arcade too, which was the original reason I got Arcade.

Re: Solitaire

#19

Post by jsheard »

modeless wrote: post #2

Balatro is the only game where my score has maxed out the value of a double precision floating point number. And this isn't some crazy speedrunning strategy, it's very achievable for normal players. It's strangely compelling to make numbers go up and Balatro harnesses that better than any game I've played.

If you want the numbers to go even more up, the Talisman mod reworks everything to use BigInts for practically unlimited number go up potential. It's mainly intended to be paired with other mods like Cryptid which add obscenely overpowered cards, but Talisman can be used on its own if you just want to attempt the normally unwinnable ante 39 and beyond in vanilla.

Re: Solitaire

#20

Post by Trasmatta »

> I think that’s one of the reasons why there isn’t a player character, health, or classic ‘enemies’ in the game as well.

This was the thing I found most interesting when I started playing the game, because it's so different from almost all games these days (especially roguelikes). I initially found it off-putting (part of me wanted more context for what was happening), but the more I played the more it made sense. And his comparison to Solitaire really drives that home.

But also, despite the lack of a character or enemies, the game has a huge amount of character, which I think was critical for its success.

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