Cozying up to the finish line

Annabelle is a cozy card placement game where you, the player, try to form the best poker hands in a given grid.

Inspirations for the game include Pile-Up Poker, Balatro, Ticket to Ride, Really Bad Chess & Only Connect.

Musical references aside, the name 'Annabelle' was meant to be nothing more than a placeholder. Something something the hardest things in computer science... It just ended up sticking.

I initially planned on naming my game Gaelatro. But I had already used that naming trick for a previous game, and I didn't want to repeat myself. More on that game later.

Some of the games I name dropped earlier may seem to have nothing to do with the final result at first glance. But they did shape the direction I took for the game, for better or worse.

Having previously developed a sort-of card game that heavily relied on dnd kit, I naively believed that I could make a similar but more complex game for this hackathon in no time. That, dear reader, was very optimistic on my part.

Scope creep, analysis paralysis, interviews, refactoring, graphic design, and other day-to-day responsibilities...

Below are some snapshots of how Amazon Q saved me hours on various development hurdles, including but not limited to generating animations, and coming up with a polished local setup process:

Because I'm literally writing this within the last hour of the hackathon, I'll let the videos below do the talking :)

I hope this was as interesting for you to read as it was fun for me to make that game. You may head here to play the game. And here to view its inner workings and the tools I used.

Have fun and keep on gaming!