Cribblitz is a single-player roguelike built on cribbage. Each hand, you're dealt six cards and decide which four to keep, and in what order. From there, every point on the table is scored to you, the opposing hand's contributions included. The big twist is Luck. It rides on one needle between Ruin and Boon, quietly weighting the cards you draw. It also doubles as the currency you spend between hands to bend a run your way. Hold on to your Luck and let good draws carry you, or spend it down and lean on the advantages you've stacked. A run can be won from either end. Wrapped around it all is a sun-worn frontier with quirky characters and dry humor.
Newest first. Player-facing changes only.
- Meet the trader. The faceless peddler is now a character: a dice-savant who casts a red die and a black one to decide how many wares he lays out, looms over the table while you deal, and lets you pay to re-roll a cast you don't like. A lucky cast can turn up rarer, upgraded wares.
- Charms and curses that bite. Every deal is a pact: a charm you want, bound to a curse you'll carry. The catalog grew from a handful to more than twenty fortunes that genuinely rewrite a run: lifting what your scores are worth, bending the board, stealing the crib, hiding the opposing hand, or taxing you when you misplay your order.
- Learn as you play. A new guided first run walks you through your opening hands, your first trade, and your first fork in the road, with a hand-lettered book talking you through the table while the trader talks you through his wares. Your very first run can't be lost.
- A real cribbage board. Your score now climbs an actual pegboard, pegs leapfrogging up the track the way cribbage is meant to be counted, rebuilt fresh each segment, with a brass weigh-scale that ticks down to show exactly how many points are left to clear it.
- A frozen moment. Each segment now opens on a still scene frozen mid-action; the board materializes into the stopped moment, and you play the hand inside it, with its own arrival and its own win and loss send-offs.
- A clearer table. A scoring primer in the sidebar spells out what scores what, your hands-left readout became a row of card-backs with each hand's score beneath it, and a new reduced-motion setting calms the animations if you'd rather they held still.
- Luck is now the heart of the game. A single needle swings between Ruin and Boon, and where it sits quietly tips the cards you're dealt: your hand, the crib, and the cut all lean your way when luck runs high, and against you when it runs low.
- Spend your luck to bend the run. Luck doubles as your currency. Costs are spelled out in plain terms (a Pinch, a Handful, a Heap, a Hoard, or your Lifeblood), and you can preview exactly what a trade does before you commit to it.
- Runs now have stakes. Play through a series of segments, each with a score target that climbs the deeper you go. Fall short of a target and the run is over. No second chances.
- A peddler works the roadside. Between segments a trader lays out a handful of Fortunes, charms to take and curses to weigh, dealing in the luck you're willing to spend.
- First stop: the Laundry. The run's opening setting gets its own look, its own rules card, and its own end screen.
- A turn that teaches itself. New Pause and Help buttons, a quick guide to the twists, and a single action button that walks you through each turn: deal, pick your crib, play, next hand, move on.
- A clearer table. The play preview now color-codes the scoring counts, draws links across your pairs and runs, and pops them in time as points land, so you can read how a hand will play before you lock it in.
v0.1.0
Internal build
Not distributed
First deal.
- The table is open. Cribblitz's core loop plays end to end: you're dealt six cards and make a single call each hand (which four to keep, and in what order), then send two to the crib.
- The game plays itself out. Pegging and counting are fully automated, and every point on the table is scored to you: yours, the crib's, and even the opposing hand's.
- Play with full information. The opposing hand is dealt face-up, so you're reading a known board rather than guessing.
- A live play preview. Before you commit, a roadmap shows how the pegging will unfold (the running count, who plays what, and where the points fall), and it redraws as you reorder or change your discards.
- Cards you can handle. Drag to reorder, click to set a card aside for the crib, with deal animations, little flourishes, and pop-up scores as points land.
- Every cribbage score counts. Fifteens, pairs, runs, flushes, and the Jack bonuses are all in.
- Menus and saves. A title screen, a settings menu, and pause. Step away mid-run and pick it back up later from the title.
