Idiot

Information

This is a classic card game that I learned from my mother. The game is popular in Norway and scandinavia, but the rules may vary. My source of truth here is my mom!

The game works well for ages 3+, but mastering it requires time, patience and skills. If you can beat most of the achievements, you are ready to challenge your friends IRL! This is much more fun than playing the CPU :)

Technology and tools

For this project I wanted to experiment with a no front-end frameworks approach, meaning no React etc. The general idea is that the browsers have evolved over the years and they are now the framework. This framework is well documented and understood by AI.

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Web Audio API, Firebase, esbuild, Node.js tests, and Playwright.

VSCode, Codex 5.3

Learnings

• A Hard mode tuning skill helped improve the CPU by testing small changes across 100k games to see what actually worked. The core idea of this skill is that it automatically documents both success and failure, so the context is built over time and we can avoid retring old ideas. With this memory the AI can autonomously invent new ideas as well, but the most effective ideas came from experienced players.
• Comprehensive testing made it possible to confidently apply new changes with AI, to the point where I no longer had to inspect the code. The project features hundreds of automated tests.
• Browser animations were the hardest to test automatically. With Playwright, I could check card movement, timing, and placement before, during, and after animations.
• Even with heavy AI assistance, the AI does not really understands what feels good. This is very much up to human judgement.
• Font based cards gave the best results due to sub-pixel optimisation. SVG's was not that crisp.

Kudos and credits

Friends and family testing the game. My mom!