Pine Tar Poker

Pine Tar Poker combines yahtzee-style goals with traditional poker. The core game is about making hands and scoring points. Unfortunately, you’re in a bar where the owner is a little too interested in you and your abilities.

Get it on iOS and Android.

As you play, you can purchase upgrades and modifications to slowly control your luck a bit more.

You get help on your journey from unlikely places.

Progress far enough and you’ll encounter powerful magick that might be best left unused.

Near the end, you’ll have a lot more control.

A friendly face will accompany you through your games.

Pine Tar Poker was Game of the Day on iOS on March 20th, 2023

Development Notes

My friend Galen Drew helped immensely in getting the aesthetic into something much more palatable. Here are some early WIP shots while I was building the core game mechanic.

My friend Eric Spiker did an amazing portrait of the Barkeep with a few poses to swap between. I love the depth of character it adds to see the Barkeep.

Getting Some cards on the screen and drawing from the deck. It took a surprising amount of work to make the single deck work properly when it comes to shuffling for deals while existing cards are out.

Early score sheet so the game was playable on device.

Experimenting with portrait layout. I couldn’t find a way to make this work. I’m not a huge fan of landscape games. Even though it is a miniscule amount of effort to rotate your phone, it is still effort. Any additional effort required by players has to be overcome because the joy of the game makes up for that effort.