Brand new iPad title: IsoCards
27 Mar
I have just submitted an iPad application (barely within the March 27th deadline), and its called IsoCards. It will be free for the launch of the iPad!
IsoCards is a card game without any pre-programmed rules. Its just a mulitouch-gesture and physics driven deck of cards that allows you to play whatever card game you want. You can throw cards around, double tap or pinch a card to flip it over, and the app works in any orientation you hold the device.
Now, having the app be just a deck of cards and expecting it to be usable is a lofty goal. In fact, it’s probably impossible. So, I’ve introduced a few elements to add a little bit of structure so that you can actually play card games. For example, you can add a “player”, which is just a glass shape that can be used to collect and organize cards. It will automatically fan out your cards and you can drag and rotate this holder to anywhere on the table. There is also a menu button you can press that allows you to show your cards to everyone, sort your cards, or remove the player.
The biggest problem with allowing multiple people play cards on the same device is preventing your opponents from seeing your cards. How do we solve this? Well, the iPad has a large enough screen that I thought maybe we could allow the players to “cup” their hand and place it at the top of their cards (like they do in poker), at which point the cards will flip over and be revealed. When you lift your hand your cards will quickly flip back over.
See your cards without showing everyone else
I wasn’t sure if this would be feasible, and having not actually tried it on an iPad I still can’t be 100% sure, but I was able to test on my iPhone, and I have to say it is magical. It is easy to use and very responsive.
Finally, there is a notepad that you can bring up at any time you can draw or type on, making it easy to keep scores.
IsoCards 1.1
There are 2 killer features that I worked on for IsoCards, but I was wary of releasing them without having tested them on an actual device.
Enforced Game Rules
Most of the difficulty in programming IsoCards was coming up with a intuitive, flexible engine to handle a deck of cards. An engine that could be used to program practically any card game very easily, while inheriting the fluid animations and multitouch gestures.
Now that I have this engine, I will be programming nearly every card game that I can think of with IsoCards and releasing them in updates. I will probably start with a pack of solitaire games, and then move to multiplayer games.
Bluetooth/WiFi connectivity with iPhones and iPods
Image you want to play a card game with a couple of people that requires a large pool of communal cards (think Gin Rummy, Go Fish, or my favorite, Tien Len). The device can get crowded pretty quickly. So, if you have an iPhone or iPod you will be back to “dock” you cards on the edge of the app and transfer them to their iPhone. You can then just flick your cards off your device and they will land on the iPad.
IsoCards: iPad + iPhone via Bluetooth
So… that’s IsoCards! I hope it is in the App Store for launch day…
Wow! This app sounds amazing. I was thinking of doing something like this before, but I didn’t have the time or resources. I will definitely be installing this on my iPad!
Hey, thanks! Hopefully it will be available on launch day, but Apple is being very secretive. I should also have the Bluetooth/WiFi functionality available soon in an update (I want to test on an actual device first).
Dear Brandon,
I hae an iPad and I have installed this cool application, it seems to work, but it’s impossible to see the cards. ass soon as I put my hand or i select “Show cards”, te game try to show the cards but it just dissapear and when you ask to “hide crads” it comes hiden (I mean showing the back side)….
May be sonethings is missing…I hopeyou can find the problem because is awesome.
thaks!
Hi jaime, I responded to you via email. Please get back to me when you have a chance.
Thanks
Very nice work. Just curious though, do you plan on making this into a single person game?
Hi Allan, an update is coming out soon that will have some actual card games implemented (Solitaire, Speed, etc…).