While in college in the 70's, I invented a two-player card game called Seventeen. It bears similarities to hearts and to spades. It's totally unique in one respect: every hand has a chance to win! There is no two-handed card game that relies so much on skill and so little on luck.

The object of the game is to capture a precise number of tricks (unlike Spades, where the more tricks you capture the merrier). Each round usually comes down to the last trick, so there is a high excitement factor.

A computer version of Seventeen, with the human being against the computer, will be highly addictive. I believe it will become a standard feature of new computers in the same way that Hearts is. I need someone to design the computer version and to share in the profits. Please contact me if you can help.

Trust me. This game is a winner!

Sounds interesting, to bad im new to Cocoa, when you finish the game tell me, I want to try it.

Quote:I believe it will become a standard feature of new computers in the same way that Hearts is

never say this here
Anyway, I' d like to know more about the game too

Not a new concept, it's in most standard books of card games. I know it as "Oh hell", which is usually how you feel around the third- or fourth-to-last trick It works equally well with more than two players...

Programming it as a multiplayer networked game would probably be pretty easy, and a good introduction to networking for someone new to that.

The required AI for single-player, though, would probably be pretty hard stuff.

Hi Russ, good luck on your card game. I hope someone will pick it up. Search for a forum member called Danlab. He pops out games often and many of them are very high-quality.

Cheers

Has anyone else heard of this game "Oh Hell"? I'm wondering if it's the exact same game I have. If it is, the only explanation would be that someone else to whom I introduced my game already took it and ran with it.

Well, I looked up Oh Hell and there are similarities. Players make bids, they must win the exact number of tricks bid, there is a trump suit, etc. Oh Hell, though, does not appear to be a two player game. That's one thing that makes Seventeen valuable and unique. A skill game for two players. The bidding system is also quite different in Seventeen.

I'd be willing to believe parallel evolution...

In Oh Hell, all the cards are dealt out evenly among the players, the first undealt card determines trumps (Dunno what you do with 2 players actually, you'd have way too many cards in hand).

Then each player starting to the dealer's left makes a bid of the number of tricks they'll win. This is noted down. They have to make exactly this number of tricks, no more, no less.

Once all tricks have been played (standard rules -- follow suit if able, don't have to trump if you don't want, ace high, &c), any players who made exactly the number of tricks they bid get (10 + n) points, where n was their bid. Winner is the first to 50 (or 100 if you want a longer game).

Heh, simultaneous post. Perhaps you'd like to explain the rules to Seventeen? It'd be cool to try it out...

Here's my problem. It's important to me to be credited as the inventor of Seventeen. And although I realize making money off a card game is a long shot, this is one that could make money. And I would be quite unhappy if someone else made money off it but not I. Is there some way I might proceed? Any suggestions? Thanks!

What you have to do is the following:

1st make sure your game is really unique and not just a variation of an existing one.
2nd find a theme which fits your game, i.e. fantasy or whatever.
3rd adapt your game to special cards with special drawings (which of course you have to create).

The result will be a new game. A game with standard playing cards will not make any money since it uses normal playing cards. There are just too much games with standard playing cards. But once you create a story and theme and use special cards for your game, it can be a unique game you can make money with.

4th When you are really sure it's unique, send it to one of the game companies. I don't know the US-companies, I just know the german ones like Ravensburger, Amigo, Kosmos and a lot of others. They all look for new and unique games to produce.

Or 4th Produce the game by yourself, which will require to make about 2000 - 5000 decks of cards at maybe one or two bucks each. You can sell them for five to eight bucks. But that's more risk.

Making a computer game also requires you to put a theme on that game. With normal playing cards nobody will be willing to pay for the game.

Good luck!

KemalYun, this type of game is right up your alley.. Why not give it a shot?

I would do that, but only if the inventor supplies the graphics-art. If I'm just to program a cardgame, there are thousands of nice ones available. But a new one with a theme and nice art would be good, and maybe I'd also publish it as a real card game.

If you're interested in looking into this project further, please email me at thoughtsoc@olg.com. I could tell you more about the game to convince you of its value, and could also enlist the help of an artist

hey kemalyun, there in germany you have quite a lot of bord-card game fans, and the famous "best spiegel" (or something like it) contest... That often publishes quite boring games actually...
Are you a bord game fan? I am a bit, actually. I still like that game, "die settlers", simple, of luck, but always cool to play in many, 'cause you alwas think that you lost because you placed your cities in the wrong places...