|
 Features
What I Did During My Summer Vacation: Developing a Game in 13 Weeks
The
Start
In the
short span of time from June 13 to September 22, 2001, Reel Deal Poker
Challenge went from a concept to a gold master. Some preliminary artwork,
concept art and minimal documentation were available at the start. The
game was desinged for Phantom EFX, a small publisher and developer whose
strength is in their superb graphics and audio (they have an in-house
sound studio).
The Concept
Phantom EFX's first title was Reel Deal Slots and Video Poker,
and they desired to continue in the gambling genre with a poker game.
Reel Deal Poker Challenge presents a variety of poker games inside
an elegant Poker Palace. There are three floors of play where the opponents
play better on each level and the stakes get higher. Each floor has a
poker room for regular play against four animated, talking players or
eight basic players (a standard poker view) and a tournament room where
four players play one variation for 20 hands and the player with the most
money is the winner. A cashier area to register players, get more cash
when your wallet is looking empty and see your statistics. There is a
slot room with a few slot machines to promote the previous title, and
an elevator allowing players access to the other floors when they have
earned enough " reputation points" by playing in tournaments. One of the
popular concepts used in the first title was a prize room where players
win valuable prizes when they do well. In Poker Challenge, when
a player wins certain tournaments, they win a valuable prize. The prizes
are unknown to the player and collecting all of them is a secondary goal
in the game.
The goal
of the game is to earn enough "reputation points" and money to challenge
to World's Best Poker player in a winner take all $2.5 Million game.
The Plan
A good poker engine takes time to develop. From 1993 to 1995, I had been
director of development at Villa Crespo Software, then the premier gambling
entertainment software company with titles like Stanford Wong's Video
Poker, Amarillo Slim's Dealer's Choice, The Gold Sheet Football Analyzer
and Dr. Thorp's Blackjack. For Poker Challenge, we licensed
a poker engine from one of the developers I had worked with at VCS. The
next issue was using DirectX 8.0, which had recently been released. For
artwork, the easiest format to work with was BMP. I tried using the PNG
format, but the time needed to write and properly implement the routines
was not available. Sound was to initially be outputted via the "play"
function, with Direct Sound to be implemented later.
The Eye
Openers
The DirectX sample code for Direct Draw and Direct Input uses MFC and
Dialog Boxes which, when they compiled cleanly, didn't relate to what
I needed. MFC and window/dialog boxes were not used in this project. One
issue that came up was that in Direct Draw full screen, exclusive mode,
debugging became impossible except by using Message Boxes. To debug properly,
the following code was used frequently by commenting and uncommenting
the code below.
Note: include
Ddutil.h and Ddutil.cpp
(provided in DirectX8.0)
void
InitializeGraphics(HWND hWnd)
{
RECT
qrect={0,0,800,600};
if(!hWnd)
{
MessageBox(0,"Your
hWndNULL",TEXT("Poker2000"),MB_ICONERROR| MB_OK);
exit(0);
}
//************** USE THIS IN FINAL NON-WINDOW VERSION
if(FAILED(DXscreen->CreateFullScreenDisplay(hWnd,800,600,32)))
{
if(FAILED(DXscreen->CreateFullScreenDisplay(hWnd,800,600,24)))
{
if(FAILED(DXscreen->CreateFullScreenDisplay(hWnd,800,600,16)))
{
MessageBox(hWnd,"Unable
to find a compatible display mode.
The program will now exit.",
TEXT("Poker2000"),
MB_ICONERROR | MB_OK);
exit(0);
}
}
}
//************** USE THIS TO DEBUG (WINDOW VERSION)
// if
(FAILED(DXscreen->CreateWindowedDisplay(hWnd, 800, 600)))
// exit(0);
}-
The poker
engine was written in MS Visual BASIC and played several poker variations
(Draw Poker No Openers and Jacks or Better to Open, Five Card Stud, Seven
Card Stud, Chicago Hi (Seven Card Stud with the High Spade in the Hole/
down cards the second winner), and Hold 'Em. The first issue was to convert
the BASIC code to C++ code.
The poker
AI was primarily in one VB module, but the variables were defined and
used in numerous modules. After rewriting the original code several items
had to be fixed. The engine did not account for equal poker hands, as
when four players each have a Royal Flush. The engine designer's reaction
was it would never happen. Well, what about a straight flush or a flush
with the same ranked cards? This issue was fixed by allowing a suit order
(Spades, Hearts, Diamonds then Clubs) and allowing multiple players to
be the winner. The original AI also didn't look at other tie breaking
issues. The new version resolved tiebreak by having two components of
the "handresult" which comprised of Result Type and a Long Tie Factor.
The Result Type is a number comprised of a best hand number (pair is 20,
two pair is 40, to a straight flush as 160 and a royal flush as 180) plus
the rank of the key card (2 through Ace or 14). The Long Tie Factor is
a long (4 bytes) where each card's rank in Importance order is stored.
A hand of three kings, two aces, a 3 and a 5 is stored as {13, 13, 13,
14, 14, 5, 3}. If two players have the same Result Type such as a pair
of kings each (value 33) then the Long Tie Factor number is used to break
the apparent tie. Reel Deal Poker Challenge poker added two variations,
Chicago Low (the opposite of Chicago Hi where the lowest spade in the
down cards shares as winner) and Omaha (a very popular poker variation).
In games like Texas Hold 'Em and Omaha, the best possible hand must be
determined. Texas Hold 'Em is a poker game where each player is dealt
two cards down and five cards are dealt as community cards (used by all
players). Omaha is similar to Hold 'Em except each player is dealt four
cards down and five cards are dealt as community cards. In Omaha, the
final hand is the best hand comprised of two of the four down cards and
three of the five community cards. In Texas, the player uses their two
down cards and three of the five community cards to make their best hand.
The AI was programmed to analyze and determine a player's best hand.
Know
the Rules
As a programmer, we often give tasks to the computer rather than let events
happen naturally. In Draw Poker: Jacks or Better to Open variation, the
code was originally written to allow only a player having a hand of a
pair of Jacks or Better to open betting and continue the hand. If no player
had a pair of Jacks or better, the hand was redealt. The program decided
the course of play not the players. This method was incorrect. The final
version gives each player the choice to "check" (pass), "fold" or "bet."
If all players "check," the hand is redealt. If a player "bets" and they
do not have the required hand, the "check" option is substituted. In Five
Card Stud, Seven Card Stud and Chicago, the first bet is a forced bet
for the player with the lowest up card. In Hold 'Em and Omaha, the player
to the dealer's left must make a forced bet called the "blind bet. " The
ace is always the high card except the Ace of Spades in Chicago Lo where,
according to several websites on poker, the ace can be the lowest hole
(down) card. This information changed the Chicago Lo AI where the Two
of Spades was the lowest card.
______________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
|
