Tyler McCauley
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# Edna's Book of Games: classic card games on BRUTAL, made with my BRUTAL editor
Edna's Book of Games is a collection of card games for family nights, built on BRUTAL. You open the book and pick a game. In most of them you sit down at a table with a cast of characters who play against you, and talk while they do. Edna herself hosts. She's a sweet old lady with a sinister streak, and she has plenty to say about how you play.
## The games
Nine games so far:
- **Crazy Eights:** be first out of cards.
- **Hearts:** take no points, or take them all.
- **War:** win the most cards.
- **Old Maid:** pair up, and don't be left with the odd queen.
- **Go Fish:** make the most books of four.
- **Greedy Seven:** our take on a push-your-luck game: stop before you bust.
- **Blackjack:** get closer to 21 than the dealer.
- **Solitaire:** build every suit up from the ace.
- **Cribbage:** count your cards and peg first to 121, on a drawn peg board.
Everything on the table is drawn by code: the cards, the characters' faces, the lettering and every animation. Nothing is a pasted-in picture, so the drawing scales with the table.
## The cast
Your opponents each have their own face, colours and way of talking. They react to the game: they gloat when they take a trick from you, sulk when they lose and answer each other across the table. Players get a portrait too, made in a portrait builder from the same parts as the cast.
At the end of a round, the results are counted up item by item on the table, and the cards that earned the points light up as they're counted. In Cribbage, that's the familiar "fifteen two, fifteen four…".
Crazy Eights, War and Blackjack can also be played from a browser, with more games on the way. One PC runs the game and shows the table on a monitor or TV. Everyone else joins from whatever's in their pocket: open the link or scan the code, and a phone, tablet or laptop browser becomes your seat. Guests don't need to install an app.
You can play in the same room over Wi-Fi, or over the internet. Each player sees the table from their own seat, and only the cards their seat is supposed to see. Messages are encrypted between the host and each player's browser.
If someone's phone drops out, the computer plays their seat after two minutes away, and they take it back when they rejoin.
## How the data was made in my BRUTAL editor
Edna's Book of Games is the third game I'm using my BRUTAL editor for, after two other projects. The opponents' looks, the line-up, the lines they say, and the colours the portrait builder offers are data files, and the editor edits them.
The important part is that **the editor uses the game's own checks**. A value the game wouldn't accept is refused right at the field where you typed it, with the game's own reason, and related files are checked together before anything is saved. You can't give a cast member a hair style the game can't draw, or a line the table can't letter. You can't turn someone into Edna herself, either: her look is protected. And colours that have already shipped can't be moved or changed, so saved portraits keep their colours. Undo and redo work the way you'd expect.
With the game's adapter loaded, the same checks apply however the data is edited: in the window, from the command line, or by an AI assistant through the editor's tool connection.
And you can try a change straight away: Play in the editor starts a two-player game of Crazy Eights using your unsaved cast and line edits. Rename the first character in the line-up, press Play, and they're sitting at the table under their new name. It leaves your data files alone until you save.
## What's next
- More of the games playable from a phone.
- More work on the editor's checks against content that isn't yours.
- Releasing it on Steam and itch.io.
It's a work in progress, and a lot of fun to play already. Questions and ideas are welcome.
Edna's Book of Games is a collection of card games for family nights, built on BRUTAL. You open the book and pick a game. In most of them you sit down at a table with a cast of characters who play against you, and talk while they do. Edna herself hosts. She's a sweet old lady with a sinister streak, and she has plenty to say about how you play.
## The games
Nine games so far:
- **Crazy Eights:** be first out of cards.
- **Hearts:** take no points, or take them all.
- **War:** win the most cards.
- **Old Maid:** pair up, and don't be left with the odd queen.
- **Go Fish:** make the most books of four.
- **Greedy Seven:** our take on a push-your-luck game: stop before you bust.
- **Blackjack:** get closer to 21 than the dealer.
- **Solitaire:** build every suit up from the ace.
- **Cribbage:** count your cards and peg first to 121, on a drawn peg board.
Everything on the table is drawn by code: the cards, the characters' faces, the lettering and every animation. Nothing is a pasted-in picture, so the drawing scales with the table.
## The cast
Your opponents each have their own face, colours and way of talking. They react to the game: they gloat when they take a trick from you, sulk when they lose and answer each other across the table. Players get a portrait too, made in a portrait builder from the same parts as the cast.
At the end of a round, the results are counted up item by item on the table, and the cards that earned the points light up as they're counted. In Cribbage, that's the familiar "fifteen two, fifteen four…".
Crazy Eights, War and Blackjack can also be played from a browser, with more games on the way. One PC runs the game and shows the table on a monitor or TV. Everyone else joins from whatever's in their pocket: open the link or scan the code, and a phone, tablet or laptop browser becomes your seat. Guests don't need to install an app.
You can play in the same room over Wi-Fi, or over the internet. Each player sees the table from their own seat, and only the cards their seat is supposed to see. Messages are encrypted between the host and each player's browser.
If someone's phone drops out, the computer plays their seat after two minutes away, and they take it back when they rejoin.
## How the data was made in my BRUTAL editor
Edna's Book of Games is the third game I'm using my BRUTAL editor for, after two other projects. The opponents' looks, the line-up, the lines they say, and the colours the portrait builder offers are data files, and the editor edits them.
The important part is that **the editor uses the game's own checks**. A value the game wouldn't accept is refused right at the field where you typed it, with the game's own reason, and related files are checked together before anything is saved. You can't give a cast member a hair style the game can't draw, or a line the table can't letter. You can't turn someone into Edna herself, either: her look is protected. And colours that have already shipped can't be moved or changed, so saved portraits keep their colours. Undo and redo work the way you'd expect.
With the game's adapter loaded, the same checks apply however the data is edited: in the window, from the command line, or by an AI assistant through the editor's tool connection.
And you can try a change straight away: Play in the editor starts a two-player game of Crazy Eights using your unsaved cast and line edits. Rename the first character in the line-up, press Play, and they're sitting at the table under their new name. It leaves your data files alone until you save.
## What's next
- More of the games playable from a phone.
- More work on the editor's checks against content that isn't yours.
- Releasing it on Steam and itch.io.
It's a work in progress, and a lot of fun to play already. Questions and ideas are welcome.
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