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if (#x<1) x=s(g) g={}   --If either player's hand is empty, shuffle their discard and put it in their hand, empty the discard
if (#y<1) y=s(h) h={}

if (#x<1) print('lose') --If either player runs out of cards, the game ends
if (#y<1) print('win')

if (btnp(🅾️) and #x*#y!=0) then --if the player tries to draw a card and the game isn't over (if either #x or #y are zero, their product is also zero)

o=x[#x]%13 --o and p are the top cards of each player's hand
p=y[#y]%13 --we use 13 because we are only concerned with the value, not the suit
c(v,{o,p}) --add the top cards of each player's hand to cards in play
x[#x]=z    --z is an unused uninitialized variable so it is equal to nil
y[#y]=z    --this removes the top cards from the players' hands

if (w<1) then --are we currently in a "war"?

If we aren't in a war then

if (#v<3) cls() --if there are only two cards in play, then a new round has begun and we clear the screen
?'1:'..o..' 2:'..p --reveal the cards
if(o==p)then --if doubles, start a war
    w=3 --set the number of cards left to draw for a war to 3
else --not doubles
    if (o>p) c(g,v) else c(h,v) --If the player wins, they get the cards on the table put in their discard pile
    v={} --empty the table
    ?'s:'..(#x+#g-#y-#h)/2+26 --the round is over, display how many cards the player currently has
end

If we are in a war

?sub('raw',w,w) --prints the letters of war one at a time
w-=1            --reduce the number of cards left in the war
                --we have already drawn the card at the beginning of the game loop

I've commented every line, I'll go back through and point out some tweetcart tricks.

u=unpack --shortening the name of the unpack function

function s(a) --A function to shuffle a stack of cards
    --for each card in a pile, swap it with any card to its right
    for i=1,#a do 
        q=a[i]
        r=i+rnd(#a-i)\1 --i is the index of the card we are swapping, rnd(#a-i)\1 is the number of cards to the right of it
                        --\1, backslash does integer division, which takes the floor of the quotient, is less characters than using flr()
        a[i]=a[r] --the swap
        a[r]=q
    end
    return a --this function doesn't need a return value since it modifies a directly, but I found it useful for shuffling the discard before putting it in your hand
end

function c(a,b) --this function puts a stack of cards, b, on top of the stack of cards, a
    for i=1,#b do
        add(a,b[i]) --adds each card of b in order
    end
end

d={}g={}h={}v={}w=0 --initializing some variables. In order:
                                                            original deck of cards,
                                                            the player's discard pile, 
                                                            the opponent's discard pile, 
                                                            the current cards at stake, 
                                                            how many cards are left to the current war

for i=1,52do d[i]=i end --filling the deck with cards
s(d) --shuffle the deck
x={u(d,1,26)} --the player gets half
y={u(d,27)} --the cpu gets half

Here I use the unpack function to cut the deck by taking a subtable by enclosing the returned tuple with { and }.

::_::        --Usually '_' is used for a label because it would be an awful variable name and so is free
...          --The game loop
flip()goto _ --flip() is necessary to avoid accidentally turning over too many cards

Here is my first draft of a two tweet card game simulation of the card game war.

In the card game war, the deck is shuffled and each player gets half the cards. The players then simultaneously draw one card at a time, the player who draws a higher card wins the round and takes all the cards drawn that round. If both players draw the same card, then they do a 'war', which means the round continues with each player drawing four cards and comparing the last one. The game ends when one player is out of cards.

u=unpack
function s(a)for i=1,#a do
q=a[i]r=i+rnd(#a-i)\1a[i]=a[r]a[r]=q
end
return a
end
function c(a,b)for i=1,#b do
add(a,b[i])end
end
d={}g={}h={}v={}w=0
for i=1,52do d[i]=i end
s(d)x={u(d,1,26)}y={u(d,27)}::_::
if(#x<1)x=s(g)g={}
if(#y<1)y=s(h)h={}
if(#x<1)print('lose')
if(#y<1)print('win')
if(btnp(🅾️)and#x*#y!=0)then
o=x[#x]%13p=y[#y]%13c(v,{o,p})x[#x]=z y[#y]=z 
if(w<1)then
if(#v<3)cls()
?'1:'..o..' 2:'..p
if(o==p)then
w=3
else
if(o>p)c(g,v)else c(h,v)
v={}
?'s:'..(#x+#g-#y-#h)/2+26
end
else
?sub('raw',w,w)
w-=1end
end
flip()goto _

There is still plenty of work to be done, but I will explain this code as it is in another post.

You are right. I'm working on War now and probably Go Fish next, neither of which need suits. I figure I'll think of something when I need it. My intuition is filling 'd' with 1 through 52 then in the game logic you would mod 13 for the value and integer divide (\) by four for the suit.

I was thinking of trying to make a couple classic card games in Pico-8 (starting with war) so here is my best attempt at making a shuffled deck: 72 characters

Feel free to use it if you think it's interesting.

'd' is the shuffled deck, I usually use the label 's' for start/setup loop.

d={}for i=1,52do::s::x=rnd(52)\1+1
if(d[x]==nil)d[x]=i%13else goto s
end

Yeah. To fit it into a tweet cart, I had to listen to a lot of random sfx and pick a couple that had any sense of rhythm to them. Theoretically, you could make whole songs this way, but the time investment is really not worth it.

Thank you for playing!

Haha. Thanks for playing!

Nice fix!

Thanks for playing!

Good luck!

Oh wow, I got up to 109.

Good luck with your deluxe version!

Thanks!

Yeah... I kind of lied about dodging them in the description... But I also say that you can't outrun them forever... I think the uncertainty of it gives it its tension. Also, there would be no reason to move side to side when the player knows they can't dodge.

There are so many that I didn't notice that it was randomized. Lucky I didn't try to clear the screen for that long then. I noticed the diagonal, but it was hard to get them to run in a direction where that was useful.

Thanks for playing it!

For sure. Though the importance of visuals can be a double edged sword when making tweet games.

They do say love can sweep you off your feet... and, I guess in this instance, into a bottomless pit.

Nice animation!

The mode7 style effect is cool. The smear effect outside the map looks awesome, but makes it hard to navigate, especially towards the end. The progress bar said I had one pixel of blue left, but I couldn't find it.

Cool star system generation! I've got a lot of percents left to go...

Pico-8 multiplayer is cool! I assume that the other players are player ghosts and not live players?

Nice brickwork! Very impressive level design for a tweet game.

Looks great! Probably not a very good lock combination to just keep turning it 180 degrees back and forth.

I didn't realize there was a finite number of fish until I had already eaten most of them. It took me a while to realize that the goal was to clear the screen, I kept eating fish and wondering why my score wasn't going up.

Sound effects are cool! I like how the enemy fish can eat each other.

Looks great! Having the foreground paralax is an interesting choice. Changing color by flying into them is nice, it means you can't draw over other colors.

That the different terrain effect movement is pretty cool. I like the little dot in the player character, it's a good touch. I tried pretty hard, but I couldn't figure out how to trip over.

This is quite a unique idea for a tweetcart. It's an interesting use of Pico-8's ability to be pasted into.

Cool radar effect. Always neat when a tweetgame has sound effects!

Cool paint program. Plenty of features for fitting into two tweets. Interesting color select method.

This is so neat, I love the neon particle trail effect. Can make some cool looking patterns.

Once of my attractors got stuck at maximum repulsion, just vibrates when I press the button.

The islands look great. At first I thought it was more like Star Fox, but you can actually follow coastlines around the islands! Very cool.

The spotlight effect is neat, I like how the red person just looks like all the others in the dark. Wish I was good enough to clear the screen of all the people.

The red person running the same speed as the player makes catching them very difficult.  I don't think they have ai, but they sure do love to turn and run from me.

I like the look of the planes. Having to dodge enemy fire adds just enough challenge to trying to time the bomb releases.

A nice little game.

There are some impossible jumps.

The terrain destruction is cool. I like how it leaves trails while it traces the shots.

Very cool to see a real game in a tweet cart. You even keep track of the captured pieces so you can accurately score at the end.

The way the colors bubble is an interesting texture!

Very cute fish! It's pretty challenging to get to the bottom and I appreciate the increase in speed for returning to the surface.