Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Solitaire

localthunk.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 164 posts

Re: Solitaire

#91

Post by 7thaccount »

Interesting to see this here. I've commented a few times on HN about recently getting into card games (e.g. various solitaire games, gin rummy, presidents, spades, trash...etc) and domino games. It's a lot of fun, social (even solitaire as we teach each other new versions), and mentally engaging. There's no screen and it all just feels less wasteful in some weird way.

Board game night would do the same thing, but there's something beautiful about how much variety you can get out of a single deck of cards or some double-six dominos. There's no setup or 50 page rulebook required either. Most card games I just watch a YouTube video and then just remember how to play for years.

Re: Solitaire

#92

Post by enneff »

modeless wrote: post #24
jsheard wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Wow you can do that in a mod? Crazy. I wondered if localthunk would do this or if it was actually kind of nice for the game to have a "kill screen" ending like the old arcade games.

There’s a very active modding scene: https://github.com/jie65535/awesome-balatro

Re: Solitaire

#93

Post by mfro »

sdwr wrote: post #64
superultra wrote: post #3

I love this post a lot. Our entire world is perpetuated by platforms that are desperately begging us for engagement. It feels to me at least that I'm being pulled in a hundred directions, for all my time for all time. My engagement with Balatro is not quite the same as localthunks. I go in phases where I play a lot and then put it down and walk away, and then weeks later I get back into it. But that also feels like i…

I don't know how you can say that with a straight face. Balatro is building on 50 years of addiction-seeking game design. Everything from the sound effects, to the random round rewards, to the pacing of unlocks is optimized to be as attention-grabbing and dopamine-releasing as possible. It's like praising Coca-Cola for not tasting as sweet as Pepsi

I think both of these are true. Balatro is a like a finely honed blade of dopamine harvesting -- it truly does build on the most addictive facets of gaming we have discovered thus far. It is also laudable in the ethos of its designer, expressed through the game. As others have said, there is not and will never be monetization, per LocalThunk's distaste for gambling(we can be pedantic and argue that at the core of each roguelike is a gambling aspect but).

I think there is a fine line here between the cynicist 'never indulge' and the consoomer/accelerationist 'do as you will'

Re: Solitaire

#94

Post by endgame »

sdwr wrote: post #64
superultra wrote: post #3

I love this post a lot. Our entire world is perpetuated by platforms that are desperately begging us for engagement. It feels to me at least that I'm being pulled in a hundred directions, for all my time for all time. My engagement with Balatro is not quite the same as localthunks. I go in phases where I play a lot and then put it down and walk away, and then weeks later I get back into it. But that also feels like i…

I don't know how you can say that with a straight face. Balatro is building on 50 years of addiction-seeking game design. Everything from the sound effects, to the random round rewards, to the pacing of unlocks is optimized to be as attention-grabbing and dopamine-releasing as possible. It's like praising Coca-Cola for not tasting as sweet as Pepsi

What's interesting to me is that despite all that (the escalating lights and noise as your score ticks up, and the hypnotic effect of the sound slowing down and speeding up when you fail/restart the run, are two big examples), I seem to be the only person who hit a wall with Balatro. I enjoyed it for a few days, saw what grinding out all of the jokers/stickers would be like, and put it down. Not in an insulted way, but in a "I've had a good meal, I'm full, and I'm happy to leave the rest of my plate" way. I find this particularly interesting because other games do have an ability to grab me by the throat.

Perhaps it was too overt?

Re: Solitaire

#95

Post by bombcar »

ronyeh wrote: post #70
superultra wrote: post #3

I love this post a lot. Our entire world is perpetuated by platforms that are desperately begging us for engagement. It feels to me at least that I'm being pulled in a hundred directions, for all my time for all time. My engagement with Balatro is not quite the same as localthunks. I go in phases where I play a lot and then put it down and walk away, and then weeks later I get back into it. But that also feels like i…

Maybe it’s a comfort game for you. But it’s an addiction for me. I need to stop, so I can find something else to get addicted to.

Hello, it's me, Factorio.

Re: Solitaire

#96

Post by bombcar »

7thaccount wrote: post #91

Interesting to see this here. I've commented a few times on HN about recently getting into card games (e.g. various solitaire games, gin rummy, presidents, spades, trash...etc) and domino games. It's a lot of fun, social (even solitaire as we teach each other new versions), and mentally engaging. There's no screen and it all just feels less wasteful in some weird way. Board game night would do the same thing, but the…

What you're looking for is Bridge. THAT is a card game you can teach someone the basics of in an evening, and still be learning more 3 decades later.

Re: Solitaire

#97

Post by cglong »

joemi wrote: post #86
sl3dge78 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly recommend the Zachtronics Solitaire Collection. Greatly designed solitaire games. I play them every day on my commute to work.

I absolutely love the Zachtronics solitaires. I play at least one a day on my phone. That said, I wish they were slightly better designed for phones, since the text/images and touch targets can be a little small. It's too bad Zachtronics is no more -- it'd be nice if they were able to do some UI updates.

I heard from an obscure source (a former Zachtronics intern in a stream chat) that they're currently building a new game

Re: Solitaire

#98

Post by rpigab »

palsecam wrote: post #75
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…

Using a lightweight PWA (progressive web app) is also an option: https://FreeSolitaire.win (self-plug). Doesn’t generate unwinnable games[1] & detects dead-ends. Works offline after the first visit. No ads until game over, and they aren’t obtrusive. Often lauded on HN, e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41972075 or https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42031052 . 1: The probability that a random deal is unwinna…

Nice! I should add only-winnable generation to my own Solitaire, it's adfree, although it has extremely clunky controls.

Well, it was designed for the terminal, try the webconsole version here: https://rpigab.gitlab.io/solitaire-cli/

Source: https://gitlab.com/rpigab/solitaire-cli

Re: Solitaire

#99

Post by Waterluvian »

In terms of the low stakes feel, I think calling it a “boss blind” is really the only thing that I could possibly point to critically.

It’s amazing how that one word can change the entire vibe. It evokes a much more serious feel to it for me. Not sure what I’d call it, but I wonder if a different word would suddenly alter the whole vibe just a bit more towards that stated goal in the first paragraph.

Re: Solitaire

#100

Post by enneff »

IsTom wrote: post #56
exitb wrote: post #9

It really does work that way. It’s a perfect game if you have ~25 minutes to kill. It’s fairly complex, but doesn’t really require player to keep much information between runs. I hate going back to a game after a few weeks only to discover that I no longer remember how to play it.

> 25 minutes Personally I've had ~1 hour runs often. Am I just a slow player or am I missing something? For context I've been playing for less than two weeks and haven't yet beat ante 11 (7M feels like a big step in difficulty).

Different people play at different speeds. And some builds require more thought than others. I find that it takes about half an hour on average for me to win a run (reach ante 9).
Post reply on HN