A pickleball strategy card game built three times, each version a different answer to the same question: where do the interesting decisions live? The first two answers were wrong in instructive ways. The third one is playable at the bottom of this page.
Genre
Strategy card game
Versions
Three, each a rewrite
Opponent
Scripted AI
Play it
v3, below
The iteration
Same question, three answers.
v1 · The prototype — Castle Wars, on a pickleball court. The first version borrowed a proven shape: build resources each turn, spend them on shots, race a score to 100 while castles rise on the court. It proved the theme could hold a card game — and that borrowed mechanics carry borrowed problems. Resource growth dominated decisions; the court itself was scenery. What it taught: the court has to matter, or the theme is a coat of paint.v2 · Pickleball Edition — The rally becomes the game. The second rewrite threw out castles and modeled the sport: shot cards, rally exchanges, a visualized court, win conditions in points. Twelve components, an enhanced card system, game menus and over-screens — the most machinery of any version, in service of simulation. What it taught: simulating the sport is not the same as making its decisions interesting.v3 · Zone Control — Three zones, one contested court. The third version kept the cards and found the game: three court zones worth different points, simultaneous play from a shared deck, and control that shifts card by card. The rules fit on a screen; the decisions do not. This is the version that survived, playable below. What it taught: the game was always about position — the zones made that the whole board.
The interface exploration
Four skins for one game.
Alongside v3, four complete interface treatments of the identical rules — an exercise in how far presentation alone can move a game's feel. Three of the four were never wired to a route; these captures are the first time they rendered outside a dev environment.
Enhanced — the richest read of the default layoutMinimal — the same game with everything quietNeon Cyber — full arcade — glow, gradients, uppercaseCard-Focused — the hand as the whole interface
The survivor
Play v3 — Zone Control.
Select a card, pick a zone, and contest the court against the AI. First to 21.
