STATUS: Currently making connection handling more robust.

karata

Karata (cards) is a Swahili word that refers to both the Kenyan game of cards and the cards used to play it.

Real-time Kenyan street poker over ASP.NET Core SignalR/websockets.

The game is currently playable and implements all of the game logic.

There is also a custom cards library here (with a complete test suite).

Features

• Real-time in-game chat.
• Real-time gameplay.
• Game logic.
• Password-protected rooms.
• Configurable "fines" (off by default) - Trivial.
• Player disconnection/reconnection handling - being tracked in #8.
• Resumable games - blocked by connection handling.
• Configurable rules.
• Game replays - no progress.
• Friend system - no progress.
• Tournaments/Knockouts - no progress.
• Feed - on this page, maybe?

Rules

The rules are automatically applied to games and you do not need to actively think about them (unless fines are enabled!) This is mostly included for reference and troubleshooting the game's behaviour. I should probably add these to an in-game "rules" page.

None of the sources I consulted could agree on a canonical set of rules (as they should) so I implemented some sensible defaults:

Note I'm looking into a way to make the rules configurable without complicating the codebase too much.

Basics

• The game can only start and end with a non-special card (any card other than those described below).
• Players may choose to enable a one or two card "fine" for invalid moves.
• Fines are off by default and enabled on a per-game basis.
• The winner is the first player to discard all of theiir cards while on "last card" status.
• A player cannot enter "last card" status while in possesion of an Ace, "Bomb", Jack or King.
• A card sequence that would usually cause the player to play again, e.g two Kings or "jumping" everyone, is counted as its own turn.

Aces

• Ace of Spades equals two regular Aces.
• One Ace can be used to request a suit.
• Two Aces (or equivalent) can be used to request a specific card.
• Aces can be used to block "bomb" cards.
• Aces can play anywhere.
• Any number of Aces is valid, but three or four aces have have no special effects.
• Two aces can request a specific Joker but one Ace can not request a Joker.

"Bombs" - Twos, Threes and Jokers

• Two, three and joker cards cause the next player to pick two, three or five cards respectively.
• Two and three cards can be countered by jokers or "bomb" cards of the same face or suit.
• Jokers can only be countered by jokers or blocked by a single Ace.
• Two and three cards can only play on top cards of the same face or suit.
• Jokers can play anywhere.
• Anything can play on top of jokers.
• Picking is not cumulative. Only the top card's value need be picked.
• Picking cannot be "jumped" or "kicked back".

"Jumps" - Jacks

• A Jack played will "jump" the next player (two Jacks played in succession will jump two players, etc).
• A Jack must be played on top of a card of the same face(Jack) or suit.
• Jumping cannot be blocked, e.g. by another Jack placed by a "jumped player".

"Questions" - Queens and Eights

• Queen and Eight cards are "Question" cards which require an "Answer".
• A Queen or Eight must be played on top of a card of the same face or suit.
• Valid answer cards are any cards of the same face or suit (including other questions.
• Everything is a valid answer card.

"Kickbacks" - Kings

• A King will cause the direction of the game to reverse.
• A King must be played on top of a card of the same face(King) or suit.
• An even number of Kings played at once will cause the current player to play again.
• A single King played in a two-person game will have no effect.