OpenSkull

I love the card game Skull. This is an open source, web based version of this game.

Try it out locally!

You can run the latest release as a locally served application with the following docker command:

docker run --rm -p 3456:80 ghcr.io/leemartin77/openskull

or podman:

podman run --rm -p 3456:80 ghcr.io/leemartin77/openskull

The application will then be served to you on http://localhost:3456

This won't preserve any state so you'll lose any games when the container exits.

The Game

Setup

• Each player is dealt 4 cards
  • 3 "Flower" cards, 1 "Skull" card

Rules of play

• Starting from a player, everyone places one card face-down in front of them
  • The starting player is either:
    • random on the first round
    • The winner of the last round
    • The player whose skull was revealed causing the bidder to lose
• Once every player has placed a card in front of them, play runs sequentially in a loop.
• On a turn, a player may:
  • Place another card face-down on top of the cards they have already played
    • The turn ends, and it's now the next player's turn to choose beyween playing or bidding
  • Bidding a certain number
    • If the player has no cards in hand, they must bid
• Once bidding starts, players no longer place cards in front of them. Instead:
  • A player can bid a higher number, up to and including the number of cards on the table
  • Choose to abstain from bidding
    • Players may not re-enter bidding once they abstain
• Once either the total number of cards on the table has been bid, or all other players than the highest bid have abstained, then the player who had the highest bid must flip cards face up on the table until either the number they bid is revealed, or they reveal a skull.
  • The player must start with their own cards before flipping other player's cards
  • After their own cards, other players cards may be revealed in any order (ie. the bidder can move between players for each card)
• If the player succeeds in revealing cards, they get a point
  • If the player gets two points, they win
• If the player fails, they lose a card at random from their hand
  • If the player revealed their own skull, they instead choose the card they lose

The Tech

Web Client

The web client is a Svelte SPA app

• No signin
• Localstorage for userid, secret and nickname

API

The API is a Test-driven C# API using dotnet 6

• Stateless
• Functional code for game logic
• Sufficiently abstract data storage to allow for different ways of storing data
• Tests primarily around the game logic, with lighter tests for player wrangling