Larry
Nov 26, 2007, 10:54 AM
http://www.astraware.com/images/blog/86/casino_title.jpg
I've recently been involved with writing Baccarat and Roulette for our forthcoming game, Astraware Casino. Unfortunately I had very little experience of either game before this project so I've learnt a lot over the last few weeks.
As a starting point we searched the internet and found Casino Help (http://www.casinohelp.net/) with a lot of information about the rules for each game and the variations of each.
Once we had a basic idea of how to play each game we organised a games evening for the whole Astraware team (http://www.astraware.com/company/team/) so that we could all play some of the games. It was a fun time and really helpful for understanding the mechanics of the games, but to actually write one of the games you also need to understand what people will expect from them.
To get a deeper understanding of each game we researched both the game played in real casinos around the world and various computerised versions.
http://www.astraware.com/images/blog/86/roulette_highlight.jpg
A major help with information about the different versions of the games was Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org). The articles on both Baccarat and Roulette include a lot of information about the rules of the games and how they vary around the world.
For Roulette we decided to go with a standard American wheel design, including 0 and 00, but the major decision came when deciding what bets to support on the board. Initially we were thinking of simplifying our betting system since a full Roulette board has over 150 different bets and it seemed excessive to try and give the player so many options on the small screens we normally support.
As we looked through the various bets to see which ones were vital to the game it soon became obvious that we would have to include all of them. As a result we have created a system of highlights to allow us to keep the traditional placement for the bets and still make it clear which numbers are included in the bet. We hope this should help make it easy for new players to understand the different bets and more experienced players should have no problems making sure they place the bet they want.
http://www.astraware.com/images/blog/86/baccarat_highlight.jpg
When it came time to work on Baccarat the betting system was much simpler with only three bets. The complication came from the number of variations played around the world, from James Bond's favourite 'Baccarat Chemin de Fer' to 'Baccarat Banque' played by larger groups. After considering the options we decided to go with Punto Banco, also known as North American Baccarat. This is normally played in American casinos for high stakes and is an easy to understand but thrilling game of chance that is perfect for a single player casino game.
A lot of people here at Astraware have worked together on the different parts of creating this game, from designers to developers to artists and we've all tried to keep the fun of a casino and the ease of use of an Astraware game. I hope you like the end results and who knows one day maybe I'll see you around the Astraware Casino.
I've recently been involved with writing Baccarat and Roulette for our forthcoming game, Astraware Casino. Unfortunately I had very little experience of either game before this project so I've learnt a lot over the last few weeks.
As a starting point we searched the internet and found Casino Help (http://www.casinohelp.net/) with a lot of information about the rules for each game and the variations of each.
Once we had a basic idea of how to play each game we organised a games evening for the whole Astraware team (http://www.astraware.com/company/team/) so that we could all play some of the games. It was a fun time and really helpful for understanding the mechanics of the games, but to actually write one of the games you also need to understand what people will expect from them.
To get a deeper understanding of each game we researched both the game played in real casinos around the world and various computerised versions.
http://www.astraware.com/images/blog/86/roulette_highlight.jpg
A major help with information about the different versions of the games was Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org). The articles on both Baccarat and Roulette include a lot of information about the rules of the games and how they vary around the world.
For Roulette we decided to go with a standard American wheel design, including 0 and 00, but the major decision came when deciding what bets to support on the board. Initially we were thinking of simplifying our betting system since a full Roulette board has over 150 different bets and it seemed excessive to try and give the player so many options on the small screens we normally support.
As we looked through the various bets to see which ones were vital to the game it soon became obvious that we would have to include all of them. As a result we have created a system of highlights to allow us to keep the traditional placement for the bets and still make it clear which numbers are included in the bet. We hope this should help make it easy for new players to understand the different bets and more experienced players should have no problems making sure they place the bet they want.
http://www.astraware.com/images/blog/86/baccarat_highlight.jpg
When it came time to work on Baccarat the betting system was much simpler with only three bets. The complication came from the number of variations played around the world, from James Bond's favourite 'Baccarat Chemin de Fer' to 'Baccarat Banque' played by larger groups. After considering the options we decided to go with Punto Banco, also known as North American Baccarat. This is normally played in American casinos for high stakes and is an easy to understand but thrilling game of chance that is perfect for a single player casino game.
A lot of people here at Astraware have worked together on the different parts of creating this game, from designers to developers to artists and we've all tried to keep the fun of a casino and the ease of use of an Astraware game. I hope you like the end results and who knows one day maybe I'll see you around the Astraware Casino.