Arcane Stacks

No client asked for Arcane Stacks. I wanted a piece of game work people could play, not just look at. From Wordle I borrowed one idea: everyone gets the same deck each day, so scores can be compared. The cards, scoring and interface are my own.

You are dealt ten cards and pick four to score. Your hand refills to ten, and the game ends when the deck runs out.

Five suits, one system

Air, earth, fire, void and water each have a pixel art symbol. I drew a wider set of icons in the same style for the actions the game needs. Every suit uses one card template where only the number changes, with a shared card back: sixty cards from one set of parts.

Ten ways to score

Every selection of four cards is scored by its combination, which sets your multiplier. They run from Strangers (×1.2), four different suits, to Four of a Kind (×5.0). Cross Pairs (×4.5) is the one players rarely see coming: two number pairs that also form two matching suit pairs.

Counting cards

Used cards leave the game, so the interface shows everything played so far, and a shuffle rearranges your hand to expose patterns you might have missed.

Twelve cards are left out of each daily deck, so you can track what has gone but never know for certain what is coming. That leaves 48, exactly twelve four-card selections, so the whole deck can be played with nothing left over.