My House of Cards
This application is used to keep score for the card game "O'Hell". Almost all my effort went into making the game as "light weight" as possible, so that keeping track of scoring was the least amount of work possible, and hopefully less work than keeping track of the score using a piece of paper.
Somewhere along the line, I got a bit more adventurous, and started keeping statistics on player scores etc. More on that later.
Somewhere along the line, I got a bit more adventurous, and started keeping statistics on player scores etc. More on that later.
Home Screen
![Picture](/uploads/1/0/9/8/10983441/4791519.png)
This is the start up screen. Boring I know. I need to liven that up some time :-)
From here you can:
- Start a new game
- Resume an Existing Game
- Load a Previous Game (so that you can browse scorecards etc.)
- Show player statistics
Hitting the "Back" arrow on the bottom of any of the screens will eventually get you back here.
Game Preferences:
These can be set here by hitting the Menu button at the bottom of the screen > Preferences. Here you can choose between:
- 1 or 2 rounds of 1 cards
- The number of cards in the first round
- How to calculate the score if the player makes what what was bid, goes over what was bid or goes under what was bid
From here you can:
- Start a new game
- Resume an Existing Game
- Load a Previous Game (so that you can browse scorecards etc.)
- Show player statistics
Hitting the "Back" arrow on the bottom of any of the screens will eventually get you back here.
Game Preferences:
These can be set here by hitting the Menu button at the bottom of the screen > Preferences. Here you can choose between:
- 1 or 2 rounds of 1 cards
- The number of cards in the first round
- How to calculate the score if the player makes what what was bid, goes over what was bid or goes under what was bid
Player Management and Selecting Players
![Picture](/uploads/1/0/9/8/10983441/1569024.png)
On this screen you add players, remove players and select players for the next round.
Adding Players
Enter the name of a new player.
Hit "Add Player" and a new player will be created.
Starting a New Round
Make sure that only the players that will be involved in the current round are checked (have check marks next to their names).
Hit "Next"
Removing Players
De-select all players except the player you want to delete. Do not use "Remove Player" to deselect players from the current game... just de-select the players you don't want in the next round by "Un Checking their names".
Hit "Remove Player" and the player will be removed.
Note: This player and all their data will be deleted!!!
Adding Players
Enter the name of a new player.
Hit "Add Player" and a new player will be created.
Starting a New Round
Make sure that only the players that will be involved in the current round are checked (have check marks next to their names).
Hit "Next"
Removing Players
De-select all players except the player you want to delete. Do not use "Remove Player" to deselect players from the current game... just de-select the players you don't want in the next round by "Un Checking their names".
Hit "Remove Player" and the player will be removed.
Note: This player and all their data will be deleted!!!
Ordering Players
![Picture](/uploads/1/0/9/8/10983441/1314655.png)
On this screen the players are ordered. This is a key step in making the score entry as seamless as possible. Players are ordered by clicking on the player names in order. In the example, Jack will bid first in the first round, followed by Wentworth, Jill and finally Hillock who will deal the first round.
The first player to be selected should be the first player to bid.
The first player to be selected should be the first player to bid.
Score Entry
![Picture](/uploads/1/0/9/8/10983441/3724442.png)
This is were most of my time was spent. Essentially as people bid or call in their tricks, the score keeper just touches one of the buttons at the bottom of the screen (0-8). The cursor should automatically jump to the next person to call either their bid or the number of tricks they made.
In the example to the left, the "Bid"column has a "Green" 9 at the bottom, and the "Make" column has a "Green" 8 at the bottom. This indicates that a valid bid / make have been entered. If the number of cards bid was 8 (which is illegal) the 9 would be "Red". Likewise for the "Make". If the number of tricks that have been reported do not add up to the number of cards dealt (8 in this case), the 8 at the bottom of the "Make" column would be "Red".
Hit "Next" when the score entry for the current round is complete.
Hit "Show Scorecard" to see the full scorecard.
Hit "Previous" to page back through previous rounds.
In the example to the left, the "Bid"column has a "Green" 9 at the bottom, and the "Make" column has a "Green" 8 at the bottom. This indicates that a valid bid / make have been entered. If the number of cards bid was 8 (which is illegal) the 9 would be "Red". Likewise for the "Make". If the number of tricks that have been reported do not add up to the number of cards dealt (8 in this case), the 8 at the bottom of the "Make" column would be "Red".
Hit "Next" when the score entry for the current round is complete.
Hit "Show Scorecard" to see the full scorecard.
Hit "Previous" to page back through previous rounds.
Game Scorecard
![Picture](/uploads/1/0/9/8/10983441/403128.png)
This example shows the scorecard of the current game. Jack has 98 points, and Jill has 113 points, Wentworth has 78 points and Hillock is having a terrible game, and is cruising along at 48 points.
To return to the game, simply hit the "Back" arrow at the bottom of the screen.
Preferences
This screen also has a preferences option. Hit Menu at the bottom of the screen > Preferences
This allows you to select whether the what players bid / made is displayed
To return to the game, simply hit the "Back" arrow at the bottom of the screen.
Preferences
This screen also has a preferences option. Hit Menu at the bottom of the screen > Preferences
This allows you to select whether the what players bid / made is displayed
Statistics
![Picture](/uploads/1/0/9/8/10983441/2802135.png)
At some point I decided that it would be cool to start collecting player statistics. In this case we have "Wentworth" who has played a single game, on Feb 14, 2012. His high & low scores to date is 115, and you can see the number of cards he bids on average for the different hands.
"Back" returns you to the previous screen.
To reset a player's statistics, simply go to the "Select Players" screen, and remove the player.
"Back" returns you to the previous screen.
To reset a player's statistics, simply go to the "Select Players" screen, and remove the player.
How to Play
The game itself is pretty simple. In it's simplest form you have between 4 & 6 players. The game is divided into 16 rounds. In each round players are dealt cards, and bid on the number of tricks that the players believe they can make.
After bidding is complete, the cards are played, tricks are added up and people awarded points based on whether they made the number of tricks bid, or not.
Dealing Cards
The first round everyone gets dealt 8 cards (can be set in the preferences on the main screen), the second round 7 cards. Each successive round has the number of cards dealt reduced by 1 till the 8th round, where each player gets dealt 1 card. The 9th round each player gets dealt 1 card (a second time in a row - adjustable in the main screen preferences), the 10th round each player gets 2 cards, progressing back to 8 cards in the 16th and final round.
After the dealer has finished dealing, the remainder of the cards are placed between him and the player to his or her left (who will be dealing next), and the top card flipped over. The suite of this card determines trumps.
Bidding
Each player bids the number of tricks that he or she thinks they will make. The first person to bid is the person to the left of the dealer, cycling round the table till the dealer, who gets to bid last.
The sum total of all the bids CANNOT add up to the number of cards dealt. This means that every round at least 1 person will not make the number of cards that they bid. For example, the number of cards dealt in the first round is 8, the number of tricks bid cannot equal 8.
Playing
Once the bidding has been completed and all bids captured, the cards are played. The first person to play (lead) is the person to the left of the dealer. From that point on, the person who won the previous hand gets to lead the next hand.
When all cards have been played, the tricks are counted up and entered into the app which does the score calculation.
After bidding is complete, the cards are played, tricks are added up and people awarded points based on whether they made the number of tricks bid, or not.
Dealing Cards
The first round everyone gets dealt 8 cards (can be set in the preferences on the main screen), the second round 7 cards. Each successive round has the number of cards dealt reduced by 1 till the 8th round, where each player gets dealt 1 card. The 9th round each player gets dealt 1 card (a second time in a row - adjustable in the main screen preferences), the 10th round each player gets 2 cards, progressing back to 8 cards in the 16th and final round.
After the dealer has finished dealing, the remainder of the cards are placed between him and the player to his or her left (who will be dealing next), and the top card flipped over. The suite of this card determines trumps.
Bidding
Each player bids the number of tricks that he or she thinks they will make. The first person to bid is the person to the left of the dealer, cycling round the table till the dealer, who gets to bid last.
The sum total of all the bids CANNOT add up to the number of cards dealt. This means that every round at least 1 person will not make the number of cards that they bid. For example, the number of cards dealt in the first round is 8, the number of tricks bid cannot equal 8.
Playing
Once the bidding has been completed and all bids captured, the cards are played. The first person to play (lead) is the person to the left of the dealer. From that point on, the person who won the previous hand gets to lead the next hand.
- Players must follow suite if they have the cards available to them.
- Players may not lead trump unless someone else has previously played a trump (at any stage) or if the player is "Trump Tight" (only has trumps in his / her hand).
When all cards have been played, the tricks are counted up and entered into the app which does the score calculation.