High Stakes
Las Vegas 2024. Vampires have stolen your blood. Play the card game of your life and win it all back.
RULES
Every round you will be dealt 9 cards face-down. The goal of the game is to flip as many cards face-up as possible. There is one Vampire card and 8 value cards ranging from 2 to 9. There is always only one copy in each card on the board. If you flip the Vampire card you lose the round.
Complete rows or columns to unlock Hint Tokens.
If you think you know where the Vampire card is you can use the Stake to stab it immediately for more points.
Flipping a card will raise the stakes. If you flip over all value cards or stab the Vampire the stakes will be added to your winnings. If you flip the Vampire the stakes will be substracted from your winnings.
You can use the button in the lower left corner to pass a round. You will keep the stakes but you need to pay a penalty of the value of two card flips.
Each match lasts 5 rounds.
Use the blood you win to unlock opponents with higher payouts. You win the game if your reach 5000ml. Your progress will be saved between matches. But if you lose all your blood your savegame will be wiped and you need to start over.
CREDITS
This game was created as part of the A Game By Its Cover Jam 2020. The goal was to create a game based on of the cartridge covers from the Famicase Exhibition 2020. The cover to High Stakes was created by Tyler Q Anderson and Jamie C Lee.
The game was written and designed by Krystian Majewski, an Independent Developer and the host of the Lazy Devs Academy video channel.
The music was composed by Gruber Music.
The game is written entirely in Pico-8.
Development log
- Version 3Nov 26, 2020
- Version 2Nov 15, 2020
- Version 1Oct 31, 2020
- Beta 3 - Bonus Rounds!Oct 26, 2020
- Beta 2 - Difficulty TweaksOct 17, 2020
Comments
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i am going to cry (this is like my 10000 playthrough)
had 215 in houkin play double or nothing and ended with a 50.50. i wanna break my computer.
just found score mode :D 94ml for the first lil guy. i kept losing in the double or nothing tho uggghhh
This game really got that "gambling with all your life savings in poker" vibe to it, incredible stuff
Absolutely briliant game design - conveying this feeling with such a simple game with only a few moving parts
Does get relatively straighforward once you figure out the strategy though, as it quickly becomes a matter of time before you inevitably win (unless luck really screws you over)
(Won on my 2nd run after I realised how good pass actually was)
But before that it was actually really exciting and a real rollercoaster of emotions
Made me realize I might have a problem and should probably never go anywhere near Vegas :p
no, go to Vegas. start with .53 cents, play blackjack, hit the statistical anomaly, and be a millionaire. repeat till success.
infinite money glitch
see he gets it
This game has thoroughly convinced me to never gamble.
omg i won !! it took 14 games but it was worth every drop 🥹
I really enjoyed this game!
The automatic balancing of the rising stakes is genius. Whenever you have bad luck and immediatly pull a vampire, the stakes are really low and you don't loose immediatly.
I'LL NEVER WIN THIS GAME OMFG
I won.
LOL Congtatulations!
I am never going to be able to beat this game but I still love it nonetheless
This is like Sudoku and Mine Sweeper had a cool gothic baby! I love this so much. Each win feels like a real victory and the losses do cause you to feel like you are loosing something. The art style is fantastic and so cool! Can't wait to see more from the creators
100% loved this game. Cured my boredom and I can play it offline. 5 stars.
Awesome game
I noticed cards have different backs on each play. Is there anything hidding behind this or is it just random?
NEVER had this much fun playing a pico-8 game, been playing this for over an hour and still aint stopping
i was playing this, and game decided to rig 5 times in a row (at 5x stake)
i am never playing this again
Great game, I would play a full version of this on steam. It reminds me of Minesweeper, Dungeon Cards etc.
would be fun that the vampire would instead be the card with the lowest value adding more strategy to the game
Goated fun game but a bit short
las vegas is NOT like this
i've been playing for 2 hoursuhh... i think i got a free win
Remarkably simple but good poker game.
i don't get how to play this. i got to the third guy, and there are no hints on the cards. the first 3 random cards i chose were all vampires. now i have -120. what do i do?
just beat it now. seems i had really bad luck. really gotta pass most turns and wait for the right moment to reap in big points
Just to help newcomers: The vampire card is worth 10. So a "+9" means that the card is a 9 or a vampire
But a 9 could also be safe and a 5 or unmarked card could also be the vampire.
Source: 90% of the rounds I lost. Either first card I clicked was the vampire, or the seemingly "safe" pick was the vampire.
I beat the game, then I saw streak: 1! and I froze in fear. Good game
awesome！
Great game. Very simple yet addictive. Outstanding visuals, very pleasing for PICO-8.
Had a blast beating this game.
after a year of failure, I have finally beat this game
I’m really enjoying this game. I’d suggest that it’s perfect for porting to the Play Date. Would be a great addition there. Just the kind of “pick up and play for a bit” game that would do well there. Kudos!
this is super cool!
really cool game, and the fact that u made it in pico 8 is awesome
I got addicted to playing this in my free time lol :p
Amazing Game! Any chance of this coming to a .p8 file for handhelds? If not, I get it, it would be easier to sell it on Steam if there's not free versions floating around.
I'm loving this little game (and your other games!) Your art is so good, too! You've made a PICO-8 fan out of me. :)
Now i also what to zamorit chevyachka
"There is always only one copy in each card on the board." - I don't understand what this means. someone help?
There are 9 cards on the board, 2-9 and then the Vampire card. There's only one copy of each of those cards, for example, there won't be more than one Vampire card. Hope that helps!
I spent the most time on the penultimate level. After which, it is a smooth sailing finishing the game.
Adored this game. Captivating, fun, quick, easy to learn, and you really feel like you can master it somehow. I do wonder if the cards are truly random or if the Vamps have preferences. Wonder that about the "+X" specials too - got caught in some of them. Great design, as in "cool looking" and that the vampires are actually horryfing. Also really like the pun in the title.
hm. first level was fun, but logical thinking does it. later levels its just luck? so not so fun
Ah, my good friend--while EACH ROUND is itself luck, the GAME is very much not. You must CREATE your own luck--that is what the tokens are for.
The key to realize is that PASSING A GAME gives you YOUR CURRENT STAKES - 2. SO PASSING A GAME AFTER FLIPPING THE SECOND CARD IS NET ZERO. You do not play hands until you stake the vampire or flip it--you play until the outcome is sufficiently certain or uncertain, then act accordingly.
Once the square hint is unlocked, the most common outcome should be passing after flipping 5 or 6 cards(6 cards being if a careful use of the >< hint shows that a card is safe).
>< and square are good at telling you if cards are safe. If + shows a number and you know you have everything of that number or higher on the board? That's found your vampire.
The arrow hint token is confusing me. I had a 3, > on the left and < on the right. The left card wound up being a 7, the right was a 5. If both numbers were higher, what are the orientation of the arrows representing?
It's a mathematical symbol represeting which one is greater. The point is in the direction of the smaller number, so 7>3<5
Thank you, What’s confusing me more is when the symbols go vertical, but I get it now. I was also reading the equation backward at times, I thought it was supposed be read with the unknown number first every time for some reason.