This is my plan:
Start with a basic solitaire "good faith" version - mostly just a dice roller that holds dice and handles three rolls per turn. Something that could be used in place of actual dice and in conjunction with a pencil and paper.
Next, tracking and displaying the scorecard. Then, suggesting possible scores (e.g. if a set has 1, 1, 2, 3, 4 the logic should suggest either ones (if they have not already been chosen) or a short run). Not sure how to deal with "jokers" but I think it is worth pursuing. I am hoping that working out the logic to handle the possible cases will lead me towards ultimately designing a computer-player that makes reasonable choices.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahtzee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generala
https://cardgames.io/yahtzee/ - note: playing this, the dice roles feel weighted towards not so random values
http://www.classicwebgames.com/board/yahtzee/
I'd like to also use Rspec for Test/Behavioral Driven Development
http://rspec.info/
...and will be setting it up in a win7 environment.
per Hoyle's rules for Yacht:
5 dice
2 - 10 players
12 rounds
each player has 1 turn in each each round
a turn consists of 3 rolls of the dice; at any time the player may stand or pickup and reroll any dice (for three rolls)
at the end of each turn, the player designates a score from the dice.
the scoree goes to one of 12 categories
Yahtzee - 5 of a kind
big straight - 5 in a row
little straight - 4 in a row
four of a kind
(three of a kind?)
Full House - 2 of a kind and three of a kind
Choice (Chance) - sum of all dice
(The following all sum the particular dice)
Sixes
Fives
Fours
Threes
Deuces (Twos)
Aces (Ones)
If the player has no qualifying dice, they must enter a zero in one of the categories.
Each category can only be scored once per game.
high score wins!