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Top trumps[1] is a real flashback to the school playground for me. It’s a card game, where each card contains a list of statistics and the game is played by comparing cards. There were a huge number of sets when I was a child and there are still many being released today. The object of this particular project was to learn how to make an online game, teach myself a few technologies and recreate something fun from when I was a child.
THE GAME
The game comprises a set of cards on a chosen topic. For example this could be sports cars, tv shows, wild animals, and so on. Each card lists a series of statistics for a particular item within the chosen field (In the example of sports cars, this would be something like the engine size, top speed and age of a Ferrari). The game is played by shuffling the deck and dealing it amongst the players. Each round a player selects a stat from their top facing card, and the player with the best value on their card wins the other players cards. The next round then begins with them picking the next statistic, and so on, until one player has all the cards. The winner.
THE ONLINE VERSION
The application I produced in this project will adapt to show any set of Top Trumps card, but I had to choose something specific to get off the ground. When I started this project it was about the time of the Rugby World Cup 2007. There was a lot of data on the RWC website about each of the players, so it seemed like a good topic to use for a set of cards.
The application is started by selecting a nationality. The game then begins between the player and the computer. The player must select a statistic on the card by clicking it, if it is better than the computers score, they win the card and it is their go again. When it is the computers turn, it uses a weighted random decision process to select which statistic is best to play. The result of all this is that the game has become quite difficult to player, and sometimes defeating the computer is harder than playing a human opponent.
PLAY NOW
To play the game now, follow the link below:
Acknowledgements, references and notes:
[1] Wikipedia - Top Trumps