Card2Throw

Teddy, muffin, ball? Can you find the correct symbol? Who is the fastest?

Comment

Card2Throw

Teddy, muffin, ball? Can you find the correct symbol? Who is the fastest?

System Status: Build Status

Navigate to card2throw.me to try it out!

Promotion Video: https://youtu.be/PMZJkqbJYyI
Demo Video: https://youtu.be/a5TexuOgvVo


Alexa Invocation

User: Alexa, launch Card2Throw!
Alexa: Welcome to Card2Throw! Do you want me to explain the rules of the game first?
User: No thanks.
Alexa: Okay! Every player needs to navigate to the Card2Throw website to enter the game key. Your key is "1-2-3-4-5-6". Ask me to start the game when you are ready!
...
User: Alexa, start the game.
Alexa: Ok. Barney, Ted, and Lily are participating - let's go!
User: * Drops card *
User: Alexa, it's an apple.
Alexa: Very good! Apple is right.

What is Card2Throw?

Card2Throw is a thrilling card reaction game and from now on available in the Alexa Skills Store!

A default game contains 58 round cards, each showing exactly eight different symbols. The symbols on the individual cards are chosen so that two arbitrary cards always have exactly one matching symbol. The game is designed for up to six players and one round lasts about 10 to 15 minutes.

To play Card2Throw, you need an Alexa-capable device and a smartphone for each player.

Game rules

All players start with the same amount of cards. Everyone can see their own deck of cards as well as the deck that is the same for all players.

For each player, there's exactly one corresponding symbol on the two visible cards. As soon as the first player finds the matching symbol, he has to put his own card on public deck and tell Alexa the matching symbol.

If the player named the wrong symbol or no symbol at all, the card automatically goes back on his own deck of cards and all players can place their cards again. Otherwise, the card remains visible on top of the pile.

The goal of Card2Throw is to get rid of all your own cards as fast as possible.

Link to the PDF version: Official rules

Alexa commands

Command Description
Launch Card2Throw! Launch the Card2Throw skill on your Alexa.
Alexa, help. Ask your Alexa for help.
Alexa, it's an apple. Tell Alexa the matching symbol during a game.
Alexa, repeat the key. Ask Alexa to repeat the game key.
Alexa, open the shop. Alexa generates a shop key for shop connection.
Alexa, what can I buy? Ask Alexa to suggest you some products you could buy.
Alexa, buy the hardcore mode. Buy a specific game mode for your Card2Throw app.

Development

The idea for Card2Throw was born in early 2018. We spent about a month working out the idea and creating the basis of our project. We also made lots of graphics for the Card2Throw game and worked our way into the Alexa Skills documentation.

One year later - in October 2019 - we started updating the Card2Throw Skill and added a great feature: In-Skill Purchasing.

In addition, we fixed a large amount of bugs that we noticed during the test phase since October 2018 and perfected our product with a bunch of small changes. For the update on November 11, 2019, we created 8 brand new game modes and launched our Card2Throw shop system.

The Card2Throw project consists of the Alexa Skill, a server system based on node.js, and our mobile web application. Our servers are responsible for the communication between the clients (web application) and Amazon (Alexa Skill).

Business Model

We have decided not to charge any money for playing Card2Throw. In our opinion, games should be free - everybody loves to play - yes of course - we really love to play! So we decided to use a freemium model: Anyone can play Card2Throw for free, without any restrictions.

But in order to get more out of Card2Throw, there are eight additional paid game modes that can be unlocked for real money through ISP. In other words: Any support is voluntary!

Available In-Skill Products:
Food Game mode 'Food'
Hardcore Game mode 'Hardcore'
Endless Game mode 'Endless'
Negative Game mode 'Negative'
Monochrome Game mode 'Monochrome'
Yellow Game mode '#Yellow'
Green Game mode '#Green'
Red Game mode '#Red'

Unavailable In-Skill Products:
Animals Game mode 'Animals'
Shapes Game mode 'Shapes'

Note: Unfortunately, we had to temporarily remove two game modes (Animals & Shapes) from our shop due to given specifications resulting from the Alexa Skill Certification. Together with the help of the Alexa Support Team we will try to publish more game modes for our Card2Throw Skill in the near future.

Our Team

Our team consists of two developers - Jonas and Benedikt.
We both come from Germany and graduated in 2019. We are passionate developers and have started the Card2Throw project in 2018. We've developed this skill without any previous experience in Alexa skills, which has certainly made the whole project quite complicated and time consuming on the one hand, but on the other hand has also led to a lot of new experience regarding Alexa skills and general development techniques.

Versions

  • v1.0.0: Release October 2018 | Launched Test version
  • v1.0.1: Release November 2018 | Bug Fixes
  • v1.1.0: Release November 2019
    • Bug Fixes
    • Added ISP
    • Added 8 new game modes
    • Released the shop system
    • New domain for the web app: https://card2throw.me

Notes

© 2019 created by Jonas Strehle & Benedikt Strehle.
Project-Site: devpost.card2throw.me
Demo-Video: video.card2throw.me

Thoughts

def post(alexa):
   return "Card2Throw"
Share this project:
×

Updates