ScottVee Gaming

I was exploring more games on itch.io and came across the most amazing bundle ... their Games for Scholarships bundle offers 324 games for $10 or pay what you want.  I paid $40.  I was going to do a wacky number like $43.21 but it only takes $5 increments.   These are mostly small games, and entries into one-page or one-day design contests, but still, I will gladly give them $2-$3 individually, so this is unbeatable.  I look for the ones with strange topics and quirky humor.  Things I have not seen so many times before.  And boy are there some unique things in here. I will quote their main pitch here: "Funds raised will provide scholarships for underserved youth participating in the Games for Change Student Challenge, a global game design competition that invites students ages 10-25 to create original digital and tabletop games about issues impacting their communities." I have already read PDFs for 4NC13ENTS, The Uninvited Guest, Finals (an arcane co...

We figured it would be good to look at all those apps for Card Golf games to see what the "core rules" really are.  A developer isn't going to spend so much of their time just to code some weird, unpopular, unknown variation.  There is definitely a pattern. There are 4, 6, 8, 9 and 10 cards layouts.  We could just as easily deal out 12 like in Skyjo. Every app asks each player to flip two cards face up to start the game.  A few start with a peek at the bottom row of cards.  The ones with the peek are more likely to be memory games where you don't expose cards until you finally go out at the end.  That is not a play style we enjoy, so we moved along. The default scoring is: Ace = 1, 2-10 = face value, J & Q = 10, K = 0.  Jokers are -2 if included.  If not, score the twos as -2 instead.  Vertical pairs or triples (in the 9-card version) cancel out and score 0. The game flows better when you can discard without revealing one of your face-dow...

Continuing from last time, here are more Card Golf android apps... 5. The next Android app we found was " Card Golf & 31: Scat Cards " by Gameyantra.  Last updated Aug 11, 2026.   This developer has over a dozen other games, including one that runs 14 popular card games from India. This one will play 4, 6, or 8 card games.  It had good basic game play but the screens rendered a little larger than the actual screen, so when I went to any Settings page there was no way to get back to the home page -- I had to restart each time.  You can go ad free forever for $0.99, or watch one ad for 60 minutes ad-free, but it can't keep getting stuck. 6. Next was " Golf Card Game " by JoshsGames.com Last updated June 14, 2026.  This app will play 4, 6 or 9 card games with 6, 9 or 18 holes.  Unlike most of the others, you can set the card speed, and choose whether or not to peek at the bottom row of cards.  There are 12 computer "players" to choose f...

After reviving many variations of Six-Card Golf (and Four and Nine card games) in my previous post, we went looking for Android apps to play them together. 1. We tried " The Golf Card Game " by Glowing Eye Games This ran a Four Card Game against two computer players and you could kill ads permanently for $2.99.  It was fairly solid but limited.  There were no real settings or options to play with.   2. Next came " Play Nine: Golf Card Game " by Bonfit This was also a solid play, and it had the best range of options, from single player to a Play With Friends mode where you create a room with 2-4 players over 3-9 holes, also Tournament and Multiplayer and an endless Journey from course to course.  It only did Eight Card Golf. But the ads were relentless after almost every hand, at could only be removed by a $12.99/year "club membership".  No.  $3-5 is fair for these.  I'm not going to be charged 11 months from now for something I forgot I ever downl...

When we reviewed Skyjo a few weeks ago, it reminded everyone of "Nine Cards Down", which we reviewed 5 years ago . This weekend, we tried out the rules for Nine Cards Down that I gathered for that old post.  Back then, we played it and it felt fine.  Today we played it and it was lifeless and dull.  What happened? I followed the links from my previous post and found that this family of "golf" card games is enormous, and you can skip from one page to another saying "some people score this way" and "other people do this instead."  I'm not sure there is anything even close to a standard game here. The basic rules (from last time) are: You start by dealing 9 cards to each player, and the players make a 3x3 grid of cards without ever looking at them.  Each player flips over two of their cards face up. The most basic scoring is: A = 1, 2-10= face value, J & Q = 10 and K = 0.  Skip jokers for now. The turns are simple: pick a card from the deck...

I first heard about Joker Jailbreak when I saw Mark playing it on his Riffle, Shuffle & Roll youtube channel.  The game was created by Ramon Huiskamp (roofkat) about 6-7 years ago.  The home page on itch.io is here. This is a fun little solitaire game with a standard deck of cards.  To setup, remove one joker and put the other joker in the middle of the table.  Now build the jail around the joker by putting stacks of six face down cards above, below, to the left and right around the center.  These are the "walls" of the jail.  Add corner stacks of two face down cards, then add a face-up card to all 8 of those stacks surrounding the joker.  The remaining cards are set aside face down as the remainder pile.  This setup uses 4x7 + 4x3 = 40 cards, so there should be 12 cards left in the remainder pile. The goal is to break through one of the walls so the joker can escape.  Clearing the cards from a corner is not an escape. On each turn...

Collapsi is a neat little quick card game from 2025 created and presented by Mark Ball on the Riffle, Shuffle and Roll channel. It only takes a few minutes to figure out, as there are only a few rules.  It's played on a 4x4 grid of regular playing cards (four aces, four 2s, four 3s, two 4s and two jacks).  You move pieces on top of the cards, with each of the players starting on one of the jacks.  On each turn, you move a number of moves equal to the value of the card you start on, with those starting jacks counting as one.  You can wrap around the rows or columns. After you move, you flip ("collapse") the card you started on.  You cannot move through a collapsed card or land on it.  The only other rules are: you can move through a card with an opponent piece on it but cannot land on an occupied card; you can change direction during your move; but you can't land on any card more than once during your move.  The last player who makes a valid move is th...

Chickapig looked cute when I bought it, but it sat on the shelf for a while because it also looked a bit dopey.  So, when we finally sat down to play we figured what the heck, it could be fun.  And fun it was. It's an abstract game where you try to get your little animals across the board.  There are chickapigs, hay bales, and a cow that poops when it moves.  Haybales can only move one space orthagonally, but your chickapigs can move in a straight line until they hit an obstacle.  They cannot stop halfway.  You roll a die to see how many moved you get, and you can choose any combination of pieces to move ... so you can smack into another piece then change direction, shoot all the way across the board and bonk into something else. If you roll a one, you have to move the cow instead.  In this case, you can move it to any other space, but it leaves a poop behind.  If you roll a two, you can either make two moves or take a card you can use now or late...

We took a crack at Looting Atlantis today, and really could not get into it.  On the box it sounded like  you place lava tokens and grab cards before the city burns down.  In actual practice, putting those 4 cards on every board space took up a lot more room than expected, and then the rules missed a lot of situations. Even how to place a lava token was not described well.  It was either "on the next space in a lane" or "moving out across city spaces" or you could start a new lava lane.  This could have been described as simply "on a space with a red triangle or next to any space that already has lava on it." We didn't see the note that for two players, you should place two lava tokens at the start of each turn, then take your two moves.  Or the note that after the lava hits a city space, you take three moves per turn for the rest of the game. We saw that the cards had special scoring rules and effects written on them, but they were a bit hard to read....