certain situations call for a mini game that may of sounded good to just be scrapped. ive done this so many times that its rather discouraging. this time ive decided to shut down my poker game in favor of a slightly different setup.

this new set up is the game seen at the casino in xenosaga. you get a 5 card hand, choose which to keep and are dealt new cards to replace the ones you gave up. winnings are multipliers based on poker hands. after the initial game if you win you have a chance to play high low for double or nothing all the way up to 16 multiplier.

since the game was rather fun to play and its relatively doable in rpg maker, i decided that this will be the game for me. the problem is just how many parts are needed and a hard choice as to what i should sacrifice in favor of cheaper memory or even realistic execution.


breaking up a game into bits is how any sane developer should create their mini game in rpg maker. doing so allows for each step to be neat (no zigarat coding), easy to detect bugs, and allows for additional addons.

for this mini game i will need these steps:

1 initial 5 card selection
2 choice meter for removing cards i dont want/proceed when finished
3 replacing surrendered cards with new cards
4 tracking scored cards and executing reward multiplier
5 changing to hi low game which is relatively easy to create

the first is an easy process of generating 5 random cards from a possible combination of 52. the trick will be preventing duplicate cards from surfacing. i will not settle for a semi random system for a game like this so i wont do pre rendered sets. this is tough but doable i believe.

having the cards display is simple with switches and graphic set. how i will do this i will need to decide, but i most likely will cheat since i dont want to make 52 card graphics.

the hardest part is making the system that chooses which cards to keep and regenerates a final set of cards. i will use the highlight system of showing which card set i am on and x being the selector. the removing card process would both need to remove the card from the current stack, keep it from returning, and trigger that the card needs to be replaced. this is quite difficult and im still brainstorming a solution that is sane to produce.

replacing the cards could work on a switch basis. if switches 1-5 are used to denote card placement, and if i use either 52 switches to denote cards or 260 switches to denote each unique card space, then i can trigger a card replacement that way through move location and just do that till the slots are filled. it can get costly so i will need to make it as sane as possible.

the tracking process is "easy" compared to everything else. i just set the final part to check which switches are activated together to decide which multiplier youd receive. id only have one bet range anyway as its already going to be evil.

the high low game would come after as a separate game and is easy to make once the first part is finished.


talking out the system helps me to find a solution but ill put the question to you. how do you suppose i tackle these obstacles?